Edwards, Carl
Pocono: Slightly Shifty
The big news for Pocono is that drivers can shift…again. Which brings up the obvious dual questions of: Why would you want to? and Why didn’t you before? […]
The Building Speed Blog
Engines
The Math of Fuel Mileage
I guess when you have people feeding you all the numbers you need through your earpiece, you think they’re easy to come by. That’s the only explanation I can figure out for the snarky comments by television commentators about crews not being “smart enough” to figure out how much gas to put in the car so that it doesn’t run out before the end of the race. There have been a lot of fuel mileage races the last few weeks. Pocono is traditionally also highly likely to be a fuel mileage race, so let’s clarify how easy (or hard) it is to not run out of fuel. […]
Aerodynamics
turning left, shifting right: why drivers move to the right to get air to the engine
Jack asks: “I’m curious as to why the rear cars are offsetting to the right, when offsetting to the left would let the rear driver see what is happening ahead of them and keep the radiator in cooler air, since the exhaust on these cars is on the right. I know that all those drivers and crew chiefs are smarter than I am, so I must be missing something.” […]
Cooling
Popping Off: Breaking the Two-Car Draft by Heating up the Engines
In a NASCAR car, the pop-off valves open and route the escaping steam and/or water through a tube that passes up near the right-hand side of the car’s windshield. When you see a car “pushing water”, the maximum pressure has been exceeded and the pop-off valve opened. […]
Aerodynamic Forces
Why Two and Not Three Cars in a Draft?
Go get three oranges from the kitchen. Try to juggle two of them. Not super easy, but not impossible. Now juggle three. […]
Climate Change
Planting Trees to Offset Emissions
I have a post over on Cocktail Party Physics explaining why planting trees to offset carbon emissions requires many, many more trees than are currently being planted. Didn’t want to double post it here, so […]
Engines
NASCAR and E15: The Scientific Facts
The United States faces two problems when it comes to transportation:Â getting fuel and the by-products of burning it. The United States imports over 2/3 of the petroleum we use for transportation, primarily because most […]
Engines
How Mobil1 Goes in a ‘Quaker State’ Engine
Got a number of questions today about how a team that uses Hendrick engines – Hendrick having Quaker State as a sponsor – can have sponsorship from another oil company. The questions were along the lines of “Will Stewart-Haas have to drain the oil pans when they get them from Hendrick?” Here’s a quick answer, since I’m in the middle of a cross-country move and just about everything I own is in boxes: […]
Rules
Malarkey, indeed.
The whole RCR appeals process raised more questions than it answered. The RCR appeal is dead: Here’s the issue now. John Middlebrook, NASCAR’s chief appellate officer, will hear RCR’s (final) appeal tomorrow. He has a major advantage in that he can pretty much run the appeal however he wants. If I were in Mr. Middlebrook’s shoes, here’s what I’d do. […]
Inspection
Breaking News: A Scientific Interpretation of the Upholding of the 33-Car Penalities
Here’s the fast analysis of the statement from NASCAR upholding the penalties on the 33-car from New Hampshire. More will follow after proper digestion and reflection. This is an interpretation of the penalty upholding statement (as reported by Jeff Gluck) because that’s the first tweet I saw. The panel’s statements are in italics and my interpretation in non-italics. […]