“The show above all.” With more than 50 years, it is the star category in the USA. It has an exemplary organization in three aspects: technical, financial-administrative and marketing.
It is worthy of admiration because it has everything: good circuits, cars and drivers. To give you an idea of the magnitude of NASCAR, I can mention that in the US it competes at audience levels with sports such as hockey (NHL), football (NFL) and basketball (NBA). The public flies from city to city to witness the races, which always provide an excellent sports show, thanks to the fact that most drivers are on equal terms to win.
Throughout the season of the “Nextel Cup” series, which equates to nine months and 36 races, drivers travel north to south and east to west, visiting ovals, superovals and trivals, and even mixed circuits like Sonoma and the traditional Watkins Glen. The series features 43 cars, of which approximately 30 are on equal terms to win.
While the rules are the same for everyone, budgets are not always the same, and to this is added the experience of each team, which normally makes a difference. On the track, the difference is made by the talent of the pilots. Younger people think of stepping on the accelerator with two feet... while the experienced, more cautious, are engaged in calculations... fuel consumption, tire wear, etc.
The vehicles impress with their characteristics: with more than 1,500 kg, they are the heaviest racing cars in the world, they have 5.900 cm3 V8 engines that produce 780 HP at 8,000 RPM and exceed 320 km/h.
The task of tuning ovals is an art, we can mention some configuration details such as the choice of stiffness of torsion bars, which will influence oversteer or understeer. The 4 wheels have different pressure, the right ones are larger in diameter than the left ones, because they travel more distance than the internal ones.
Camber, caster and stagger settings vary depending on the cant of each track. In classification the air intake of the radiator is completely cancelled (only 4 turns) to prevent air entering the engine compartment, thus preventing that air acting as a brake by impacting the engine, the radiator and the walls of the mentioned space.
An inadequate tuning can be a pilot's personal hell, as recently happened to Jeff Gordon, one of the top stars in the past decade at NASCAR. There's a race called Coca Cola 600, in Charlotte, a 1.5 mile oval. The race has 600 miles of travel (965 km) and 400 laps, approximately 4 hours of action. Gordon ranked 3rd, but last-minute adjustments made his car, as the drivers say, “very loose.” He lost cornering stability and grip throughout the track. The result was disastrous, he fell to 30° in the final result, 7 laps from his teammate, who won the race.
The last major change in the category was introduced this year. The scoring system incorporates a modification never before applied to sports motorsport. It brought a lot of conflict in the environment, but what change does not lead to fatalistic consequences and comments?
Although the number of points distributed is the same, at ten races at the end of the championship only the top ten in the leaderboard are able to fight for glory, those outside the Top 10 must be at a maximum distance of 300 or 600 points from the leader (I think the number has not yet been defined).
I always highlighted NASCAR's superiority over any other motorsport competition, for its unparalleled ability to provide a captivating spectacle for its audience, to maintain equity among drivers, teams and preparers, to make the show a millionaire business and, above all, to maintain its original essence, the one that was born at the end of the day. of the 1940s...
For more information, photos and official data of NASCAR, visit www.nascar.com
© Adrián Blanco 2004 — Prohibited the total or partial reproduction of text and/or images without explicit written consent of the author. —