The Building Speed Blog

math

100 Million vs. 78 Million is not the Numbers Question for FOX vs SPEED

2011-06-21 dr. diandra 3

The NASCAR pundits have again simplified a complex situation. Incorrectly.

The NASCAR Net is a-twitter since FOX floated a trial balloon about moving races from ESPN to SPEED. I’ve heard the argument over and over, in print and on radio that this is a bad idea because EPSN is in 100 million homes and SPEED is in “only” 78 million homes. They argue this would be a decline of 22 million potential viewers. The question not being asked how many of those 22 million ESPN watchers are actually potential viewers? […]

Joe Gibbs Racing

When Oil Pans Put On a Little Weight…

2011-06-17 dr. diandra 2

According to @tomjensen100, the oil pans confiscated from the Joe Gibbs Racing cars weighed between 20-30 lbs.  Lee Spencer posted some nice pictures of them.  A normal oil pan weighs about 4-5 lbs.  Why in […]

Busch, Kyle

Why Six Points is About Right for What Used to be a 25-Point Penalty

2011-06-15 dr. diandra 2

I was watching the movie A Clockwork Orange the other night.  There is a scene where Malcolm McDowell, having been “rehabilitated” and returned to society incapable of defending himself, is being beat up by an […]

Edwards, Carl

Pocono: Slightly Shifty

2011-06-11 dr. diandra 0

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? […]

Engines

The Math of Fuel Mileage

2011-06-10 dr. diandra 6

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

2011-02-22 dr. diandra 5

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

2011-02-16 dr. diandra 2

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?

2011-02-13 dr. diandra 13

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

2011-01-12 dr. diandra 0

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

2010-10-17 dr. diandra 15

The United States faces two problems when it comes to transportation:  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 […]