The Building Speed Blog

Asphalt

Whose Fault Is It? Tires or Track?

2013-10-11 dr. diandra 3

There were 15 cautions last week at Kansas Speedway and at least 15 drivers complaining that driving on the repaved track surface was like driving on ‘razor blades’.  “The worst racetrack I’ve ever driven on.” […]

Asphalt

In the Zone: Goodyear’s New Tire Design

2013-10-04 dr. diandra 5

Kansas marks the second appearance of Goodyear’s “Multi-Zone Tread Tire”, which was first used at Atlanta Motor Speedway over Labor Day weekend. Stop for a moment to appreciate the challenge Goodyear has to face each […]

Bristol Motor Speedway

Turning, G-Forces and Banked Tracks.

2013-09-27 dr. diandra 5

Dover is a fascinating track – twenty-four degrees of banking, but only a mile in length.  A student approached me with a question:  Higher-banked tracks generate higher centripetal forces – so why doesn’t the track […]

Consipracies

Opinion: NASCAR’s Restart Problem – What Would Einstein Do?

2013-09-08 dr. diandra 9

Sigh. So instead of talking about a couple great races this week, we’re focusing on restarts.  Again.  Everyone, from pundits to drivers, is questioning  NASCAR’s decisions to not call penalties on the critical restarts of […]

Busch, Kyle

Do Drivers Slow Down When They Get Older?

2013-08-30 dr. diandra 10

NOTE: I’ve revisited this topic in a more-recent blog that has additional data. I’d encourage you to look there, as well There are a lot of things people say in NASCAR that have been said […]

Center of Gravity

Center of Gravity as Performance Art

2013-07-31 dr. diandra 1

Before you read this blog, head over and watch this video.  Sorry, I tried to embed it, but it is a really long video.  If you’re short on patience, get the general idea, then go […]

Aerodynamic Forces

The Flap over Roof Flaps

2013-07-05 dr. diandra 5

Why Roof Flaps? Roof flaps (the invention of which I detail in my book The Physics of NASCAR) help keep cars on the ground.  This is necessary because of Bernoulli’s law, which says basically that: Faster-moving […]

Weather

Can We Race Stockcars in the Rain?

2013-06-21 dr. diandra 13

In sports car racing, the only discernible change the viewer sees when it rains is that the normal “slicks” (which have no treads) are changed out for rain tires. Thus the calls for NASCAR to develop a rain tire good enough to allow us to continue races, even when it rains. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Sprint Car Safety

2013-06-13 dr. diandra 11

NASCAR fans are used to having our drivers walk away from spectacular crashes.  Unfortunately, we are reminded all too often — like last night — that racing, regardless of all the technical improvements we’ve made, […]

DNFs

Toyota Engines: By The Numbers

2013-06-12 dr. diandra 2

There are somewhere in the vicinity of 840 parts in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Engine (at least the Chevy version and yes, I am taking someone’s word for this.  I did not have time to […]