Drivers
Retirements, Replacements and Rookies
Retirement He didn’t use the word ‘retirement’, but the sad news last week was that Matt Kenseth won’t have a Cup ride in 2018. It’s partly his choice. He could have done a Kasey Kahne […]
The Building Speed Blog
Building Cars
Toyota’s New Cloaking Device
Did Toyota Really Just Patent a Cloaking Device? The headlines sure suggest they did. Toyota patent reveals ‘Cloaking Device’ for cars Toyota Just Patented a “Cloaking Device” Other outlets were a little more, ahem, transparent […]
Asphalt
How to Make Grippier Racetracks Using Spy Technology
If PJ1 TrackBite isn’t the Solution, What is? Dale Earnhardt, Jr. suggested tracks stop using PJ1 Trackbite because it didn’t work well in Charlotte last weekend. He called for additional research to understand how the […]
Asphalt
Thermography: A New Weapon in the NASCAR Arsenal
What’s Wrong With this Cow? Can you tell? If you said the cow is the wrong color, you’re close. But there’s more to the story. And What’s That Got to Do with NASCAR? Competition in […]
Aerodynamics
Composite Race Car Bodies
You Never Forget Your First One My first car was a greenish-brown 1969 Buick LeSabre with a 123-inch wheel base and a 230-horsepower two-barrel V-8. That puppy weighed about 4200 lbs and taught me everything […]
Safety
Fire-Resistant Materials: Nomex, CarbonX, Hocotex
Most drivers’ worst fear isn’t a wreck: it’s being unable to get out of a burning car. Let’s look at the fire-resistant materials that keep drivers from getting burned. If you’re interested in the chemistry […]
Energy
Pocono Raceway Solar Farm: Sheep Power
People often point to NASCAR as being an environmentally unredeemable sport because it involves cars burning gasoline. For some reason, people looking for an easy answer like to suggest that NASCAR turn to electric cars and that […]
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Did the All-Star Race Kill the Idea of Two Types of Tires in NASCAR for Good?
Not even the most talented publicity person could convince NASCAR fans that the idea of giving teams a choice of a ‘soft’ tire and a ‘regular’ tire was a good idea based on the sole […]
Aerodynamic Forces
Drafting: Regular and Bump
I looked through the blog and realized that IÂ haven’t really blogged about drafting. I’ve blogged about all the rules NASCAR’s enacted in the last couple of years to try to control drafting, but not drafting […]
Graphs and Charts
Are Posted Lap Speeds Really Accurate?
After every practice and qualifying session, NASCAR puts out one or more sheets of paper that look like this: This tells you who went how fast qualifying at Atlanta a couple weeks ago. I only included the […]