Nascar Why Everyone is Watching

Q: What is it like to race a stock car at more than 200 miles per hour on a superspeedway?

A: Imagine you're piloting a jetliner, but instead of getting airborne you keep it rolling along the runway. Add about 40 other jetliners all doing the same thing. Then imagine the runway is icy. Do this for 500 miles without crashing. That's stock-car racing.

Q: What is a Winston Cup stock car?

A: Officially, it's the top class of stock cars in races sanctioned by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and sponsored by Winston tobacco. In reality, it's a beast that looks like a passenger car but has 780 horsepower under the hood.

Q: What is "stock" about a stock car?

A: When car races were first held at Daytona Beach in the late Thirties, the most popular class featured automobiles that were unmodified, i.e., strictly stock. This sort of racing was meant to prove something about cars civilians could buy. Today, "stock car" defines racing cars with a passenger car silhouette.

Q: Which parts of a Winston Cup car actually come from a stock car?

A: The hood, the roof and the trunk lid. The rest of the bodywork is formed by hand out of sheet metal.

Q: What makes a Winston Cup race car so fast?

A: Imagine a 1965 Ford Galaxie hand built by an aerospace company. The bigger teams employ as many as 300 people, just like leading Formula 1 teams. They use die same science of speed--testing bodywork in building tunnels, calibrating shocks with computers and evaluating valve trains with electric dynamometers.

Q: Is there anything stock under die hood of a Nascar car?

A: You won't find a 240-horsepower V6 under the hood of, say, Sterling Marlin's Dodge Intrepid. The engine block for Marlin's 780 hp V8 is a special racing part built by Dodge. The cylinder heads are built to a design en gineered by Dodge and approved by Nascar. It's serious stuff.

Q: What are the secrets of speed?

A: First, sleek aerodynamics, with about 1800 pounds of aerodynamic downforce to foster good handling on flat tracks and as little as 900 pounds of downforce on high-banked superspeedways for maximum speed. Second, good handling, with the performance of each Goodyear radial tire carefully optimized by aerodynamic load, weight distribution and suspension action. Third, plenty of engine power, with attention to minimizing friction and maximizing rpm.

Q: Is it the car or the driver?

A: At a high-banked racetrack, it's 90 percent car and 10 percent driver. On a flat racetrack, it's 50 percent car and 50 percent driver. When a carburetor restrictor plate is involved, it's more than 70 percent car. Rusty Wallace says, "Nowadays, the equipment is so good and everybody is having such good luck with their engines that nobody slows down. They run every lap like it's a qualifying lap--the whole 500 miles."

Q: How does the track determine the way a car is driven?

A: A high-banked superspeedway is an aerodynamic test, and the drivers have to stay in a pack or risk getting left behind. A short track is a test of tire grip, and it takes a delicate touch with the throttle to keep 780 horsepower and 3400 pounds from burning up the relatively narrow tires. A road-racing track lets the driver grab his car by the throat, but the mechanical stress and strain cooks the brakes and turns transmissions to mush. Moderately banked 1.5-mile speedways--the kind of track built most often in recent years--is the place that combines all these factors but leaves the driver the most room to show his skill.

Q: Why do stock cars have a reputation for being crude?

A: Nascar believes the driver is the star of the show, not the car. It tries to limit car technology to levels that are controllable and affordable. This is why conventional automotive technologies such as overhead-cam valve actuation and fuel injection are prohibited. The stock car is meant to be a level playing field, the functional equivalent of a baseball diamond or football field, so the accomplishments of drivers and crews can be better appreciated.

Q: Does the imposed technology limit make stock cars cheap to build?

A: Yes and no. The actual cost of a stock car chassis is about $60,000, while an engine costs $70,000. If need be, all of the components can be bought out of a catalog. In comparison, an Indy car costs about $500,000, while a Formula 1 car costs $ 1 million. The difference is, you need about 12 stock cars for Nascar's 36-race season. There are different cars for high-banked superspeed-ways, flat superspeedways, short tracks and road-racing tracks. Each has different bodywork, weight distribution, engine tuning and suspension calibration.

Q: Why don't we see any stock cars from Toyota or BMW?

A: Nascar will tell you those companies don't build the right kinds of cars. Other observers suggest only American cars need apply. That said, Toyota participates in Nascar's entry-level class for cars with four-cylinder engines and it's developing an entry for Nascar's Craftsman Truck series, with the ultimate goal of moving into Winston Cup.

Q: What's the difference between a superspeedway car and a short-track car?

A First, the bodywork is different. Each brand of car must meet dimensions established by 30 different templates that Nascar provides to the teams, but there's lots of wiggle room for creativity. For example, a superspeedway car has a smaller grill and sleeker roof pillars. A short-track body has a larger grill opening to cool the engine and brakes, plus more dramatically curved front fenders for aerodynamic down force. One key is weight distribution. Ballast is moved fore and aft on special rails beneath the floor of the car to help optimize tire performance.

Q: What about loose and tight? Camber, shocks, springs and spring rubbers? Track bars and sway bars? Rake and wedge?

A: This is all suspension speak. It just adds up to getting the tires working in harmony so the car balances efficiently through corners. Imagine you're driving with a 50-pound pig walking over the top of your car from one fender to the other. Get your pig in the right spot, and your car is fast. Get your pig in the wrong spot, and your car is still a pig.

Q: How much does it cost to field a Nascar team?

A: About $6 million to just make the show, and $16 million if you want to run up front. Nascar used to be cheap racing (compared to the $300 million Ferrari spends on its Formula 1 cars every year), but research and development, personnel costs and travel over the course of a 36-race season have (continued on page 144)Nascar(continued from page 96) dramatically increased expenses. If you are an associate sponsor, $750,000 buys you a sign on the top of a fast car's trunk; $250,000 gets you a 10-inch sticker behind the door of a slow car.

Q: Do Nascar teams cheat?

A: All the time. It's the American way. In racing, the idea is to go faster, and that makes everyone push the envelope, whether it's driving or rulebook interpretation. In the Sixties, cheater cars were built with acid-dipped bodies to reduce weight. In the Seventies, cheater engines were built with nitrous oxide injection for added bursts of passing power. In the Eighties, rear axles were bent to deliver improved grip from the rear tires, while speed-sapping rear bumpers spontaneously fell off cars when races began. But Nascar finally wised up. Gary Nelson, the most creative "rules innovator" of the Eighties, is now the sport's chief technical inspector. But even he can't think of everything. Ever notice the front spoilers of the Winston Cup cars? There's a rule that specifies a certain minimum distance of clearance, which is part of maintaining aerodynamic parity between Chevy, Ford, Dodge and Pontiac. So how come the front spoiler of one car might skim the pavement through the corners with perfect efficiency while the front spoiler of another car doesn't?

Q: Which driver would you least like to see in your rearview mirror?

A: Darrell Waltrip may seem as tame as a lap dog in his present role as a broadcaster, but in the Eighties he used to regularly hang even Dale Earnhardt on the wall. These days, Kevin Harvick is the resident hothead, although you never want to cross Robby Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jimmy Spencer (known as Mr. Excitement) has calmed down some, but he's still the meanest man to have on your back bumper.

Q: What does it take to become a Nascar driver?

A: Driving a stock car is easy, as anyone who's ever been to the Richard Petty Driving Experience can tell you. But racing one in a pack of 40 cars is hard. A driver needs: (1) anticipation, a sense of what's going to happen in traffic, (2) a feel for traction, which keeps him from burning down the rear tires by broad-sliding through the corners, (3) a firm handshake, because product promotion is an essential part of Winston Cup racing.

Q: What's the biggest personal rivalry in Nascar?

A: Bill France Jr. and Bruton Smith, leaders of the sport's two largest racetrack syndicates, should never be invited to the same party.

Q: Why are Nascars and regular stock cars repainted so often?

A: It's the money. Race car sponsorship is about product promotion, and attention-getting promotions are frequently accompanied by new paint. There are measurable benefits. For example, Joyce Julius and Associates calculates the advertising value of the amount of television airtime a car gets. During the 2002 Daytona 500, Caterpillar had its logo on-screen with winner Ward Burton's Dodge Intrepid for 27:59 and was mentioned by name some 10 times. This exposure represented a value of $9.6 million. A new paint scheme often means additional on-screen time, and that means more value for sponsors. The new color schemes also represent increased revenue at the souvenir trailers as fans scramble to add to their memorabilia collections.

Q: At the end of a stock-car race, does the winning driver get a check for the prize money?

A: The driver gets a split according to his yearly contract. A driver finishing at the back of the field might get a salary of $100,000 and 10 percent of the prize money. A driver at the sharp end of the field might get more than $750,000 in salary and 50 percent of the winnings. Now that sponsorship contracts are riddled with performance incentives, driver contracts also have incentives. In any case, drivers make their real money from souvenir sales. Dale Earnhardt frequently earned as much as $25 million a year in revenue from souvenir items.

Q: Why does Nascar permit only seven people over the wall to service the cars during pit stops?

A: Because it's too crowded in the pit lane. Also because it is part of the low-technology image Nascar embraces, as if the cars were being serviced by a bunch of guys from the local gas station. But, like everything else about Nascar, there's aerospace reality beneath the surface. The air-powered speed wrenches are modified for extra power. The floor jack is made from aluminum and modified to lift the car in three pumps or less.

Q: How do you get to be a crewman?

A: If you can push a broom, start walking toward Charlotte, North Carolina, which is the center of the stock-car universe. Expect to earn about $30,000 a year. You'll stand a lot better chance if you can run a computer-controlled mill or have a college degree in vehicle dynamics. These days, racing is for smart guys, which is why a top crew chief will be paid around $300,000. Of course, if you've got the strength and agility of a middle linebacker, there might be a spot 'on a pit crew for you, especially if you can sling a 22-gallon gas can over your shoulder as if it weighed nine pounds instead of 90.

Q: What has Nascar done to improve driver safety after the death of Dale Earnhardt at the 2001 Daytona 500?

A: All the drivers now wear closed-face helmets and head-and-neck restraints. Seat design has improved dramatically, and seat belt installation is scrupulous. Concrete walls are still the safest and most efficient way to bring an out-of-control car to a halt, but recent experiments with "soft" walls at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are promising.

Q: Why can't the cars pass one another more often?

A: Parity again. Performance differences between the cars are too slight to overcome the wall of air at nearly 200 mph. Moreover, the current Goodyear radial is so durable (for safety reasons) that tire wear isn't extreme enough to create much performance differences between the cars, either.

Q: What's the one place at every track that racers most fear?

A: The Big Red Trailer, a motor home in the garage area where Nascar officials regularly summon drivers to be admonished, disciplined or just yelled at.

Q: What's the worst movie about stock-car racing?

A: That's a dead heat between Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder and Elvis Presley's Speedway. At least Burt Reynolds' awful film Stroker Ace was supposed to be funny.

Q: Is Nascar the fastest-growing sport in the U.S.?

A: In 2000, Fox, NBC and Turner paid a total of $2.8 billion for the rights to broadcast Nascar Winston Cup for six years. TV ratings indicate that Nascar is watched by more viewers than any other sport except NFL football (the average NFL broadcast, 15.2 million viewers; the average Nascar telecast, 9.4 million viewers). The total value of televised sponsorship exposure in Nascar is $5 billion. According to Sportsbusinessnews.com, Nascar has 75 million adult fans. The average fan spends nine hours each week following the sport in various media. The fan base has grown 91 percent since 1980. More than $1.2 billion in licensed Nascar merchandise was sold in 2002. How popular is Nascar today? You do the math.

Nascar's Best Drivers

Tracks Too Tough to Tame

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Five Things Junior Johnson Would never Approve Of

Most Important Race in Nascar History

In 1979 CBS broadcast its first live flag-to-flag coverage of the daytona 500. On the last lap Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough, the drivers in the two lead cars, crashed into each other. Richard Petty won the race. An argument between Donnie and Cale ensued. Bobby Allison, Donnie's brother, drove up and Cale hit him with his helmet. Bobby then beat the crap out of Cale. In an instant, the entire country knew what Nascar was all about.