nascar

Aerodynamic Forces

From the Lab Notebook: Las Vegas and the Mysteriously Missing Oil Tank Cover

2013-03-06 dr. diandra 1

As we head for Las Vegas this weekend, I thought I’d repost on of my most popular posts from stockcarscience.com on 3/5/2008 since the redirects for the old stockcarscience.com site don’t work reliably. The post is about Carl Edwards’ 2008 win at Las Vegas when the team was subsequently fined for having their oil tank cover lid askew at the end of the race. I have edited the post extensively, adding some new information and better graphics. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Why Safety Takes Time

2013-03-01 dr. diandra 3

I suppose it’s really our own fault because of the way we teach science.

We give you labs constructed to get the right answer on the first try. We have you measure things you already know the value of. We tell you that things were invented by a single person on a specific date. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Brief Thoughts on the Nationwide Accident at Daytona

2013-02-24 dr. diandra 4

We’ve been painting the house. I was straining to hear EPSN’s commentary over the swoosh-swish of the paint roller as the race came to a close – but it was all too easy to hear the change the tone of Allen Bestwick’s voice. We heard it recently from Marty Reid in Vegas. I remember the first-hand feeling sitting about 50 yards from Michael McDowell’s wreck during qualifying at Texas. A track full of race fans – all quiet – is one of the worst sounds in all of sports. […]

Center of Gravity

Did Danica Get the Daytona 500 Pole Because of Her Weight Advantage?

2013-02-20 dr. diandra 6

Did Danica Patrick win the Daytona 500 pole because she has a weight advantage? […]

Lexan

Reader Questions: Gen-6 Windshields on Passenger Cars?

2013-02-18 dr. diandra 2

PittCaleb asks: If we used Lexan in passenger cars, would there be any benefit such as reason repelling our ice buildup? Scratching or other potential downsides? What would the price diff be? […]

Cautions

Will the Gen-6 Car Affect the Number of Cautions?

2013-01-25 dr. diandra 4

I love the Gen-6 car. Not as much as I love the Nationwide cars (but that’s got more to do with what I drive than it does the cars). The big question is whether the decrease in cautions is going to be changed because of the new car.Let’s start (as we usually do) with the new car. […]

Busch, Kyle

Is There Really a Second-Place Curse?

2012-12-07 dr. diandra 0

One of the commentators after the final race in Homestead mentioned that Jimmie Johnson should be happy he finished in third because it allows him to avoid the “dreaded second-place curse”.
Anytime someone says something like that, it makes me wonder whether there really is a curse, or whether that person had just been talking to Carl Edwards. So I analyzed a little data and guess what… there really IS a second place curse. […]

Cautions

Cautions: A New Low for NASCAR

2012-11-21 dr. diandra 3

At the start of the season, the big news was that cautions were remarkably down from last year. As I showed, this isn’t a new trend – it’s a continuing trend since 2007. Since the season’s data are now complete, I thought it was time to revisit the data. […]

Concussion

NASCAR Concussions II: A Screening Test to Avoid Relying Entirely on the Driver

2012-10-15 dr. diandra 3

I was lucky enough to speak with Dr. Mark Lovell, an innovator in neurocognitive testing inbetween talks at a conference he was attending. Dr. Lovell came to my attention as the developer of the ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment Testing) test, which was one of the tools used to evaluate Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s concussion. […]