Bozi Tatarevic Profile picture
Jan 12, 2022 19 tweets 7 min read Read on X
Days 2 of NASCAR Next Gen testing is rolling at Daytona.

I’m following the stream here:
It is really nice of @PettyGMS to help their drivers to have a better view of the palm trees outside the track.
@PettyGMS I do appreciate their creativity here in trying to collect data at the far ends of the spectrum but that's all this is so don't get too excited about seeing skewed cars in race conditions because there is only a tolerance of -/+0.30 degrees for rear steer per the rulebook.
As I've said in the past, we shouldn't judge what we see in testing as something that we can expect in a race. Teams have a variety of checklists for a test and they are open to try whatever they like to collect data at the far ends because there is no inspection at a test.
My guess is that they're pushing certain measurements past their limits to test sensitivity of said measurements to know how much they can push things when it comes to race setup versus what benefit they might get.
This is the latest version of the inspection measurements for the NASCAR Next Gen car per the rulebook.
Here are the reference points in the rulebook for those measurements.
An excellent explanation from @TStrunk33 to expand on the description above on why you test certain things at the extremes in a race track environment.
@TStrunk33 There are so many easy ways to accomplish that with independent rear suspension. The simplest method is to make adjustments to the rear tie rods which I have circled in red here.

@TStrunk33 That rear toe link connects to the clevis (C) that we see here and can be shimmed in and out using the shims (E) that we see in the illustration. Basically what you would do is run no shims on one side and a full stack on the other.
We can see how the other side of the toe link (C) connects to the upper control arm (A) in this illustration.

The other option instead of shims to test skew would be to fabricate one long and one short toe link just for testing.
Another interesting perspective here about accomplishing this by shimming the rear clip at an angle.
The shims are shown in red here so you could possibly stack more shims on one side to tilt that entire rear clip in a specific direction.
The question here would be where the centerline is being referenced from and whether it comes from the center of the center section or from the center of the rear clip.

I marked the shim locations here in red.
Actually shimming that rear clip would probably run afoul of the Wheel Offset formula so this wouldn't pass a technical inspection either.

WHEEL OFFSET = ((RF HALF TREAD+RR HALF TREAD)/2) – ((LF HALF TREAD+LR HALF TREAD)/2)
We're back to the skew being illegal unless there is something else that pops up so I wouldn't pay too much attention to it.
There has been some discussion about the brakes on the stream and Daytona is one of the tracks that gets the Light Duty variant of the brakes because they brakes don't get used as much when compared to other tracks.
I believe that Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta are the ones currently assigned to have Light Duty brakes from the last I heard. The details on the pad types for Light Duty and Heavy Duty below.
It sounds like NASCAR is going to take one car from each OEM from back to R&D so they can re-evaluate the cars since all of the cooling changes that have been made.

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More from @BoziTatarevic

Oct 1
Listening to Actions Detrimental and feel like @dennyhamlin might need a whiteboard for a technical explainers to @jareddallen and @TravisRockhold.

Here is a good illustration to add to his explanation on why Xfinity cars can get close and pass but Cup cars can't. Image
If you look at the car when they're far apart, you can see how the air comes off the spoiler of the leading car and and also how the following car can get air under the splitter. The cars will be somewhat comparable in how they perform in these situations. Image
Once the cars get close, we can see the airflow from the leading car now joins the airflow from the following car which takes air away from the spoiler of the leading car. Which results in a loss of downforce for an overbody dependent car like the Xfinity car. Image
Read 12 tweets
Aug 21
I do not see a way that having the lifter system installed could have any impact on the right rear droop so I don't believe that it played any role in the LaJoie flip.

Calling it an air jack is incorrect as this is a lifter system that can temporarily increase damper length.
I know that the air jack terminology was used on the segment segment in the show but it is incorrect and will cause confusion if people keep repeating it. It's best to refer to it as a damper lift system or shock lift system..
Dampers with the lift system installed still retain the same length as traditional dampers and must fit on the same template that the traditional ones fit on as seen in this photo.

Only the part circled in red is replaced with the lift system components. Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 12
There have been a lot of opinions on the moves by Austin Dillon on the last lap but best way to analyze them is to look at the actual data so let's dig into his last two laps in a quick thread.

Orange = Lap 407
Blue = Lap 408
In order to get an understanding of what we're looking at we'll start with Dillon's moment of impact with Logano.

If you look on the chart on the right you'll see that Dillon was moving at 105.2 mph and had 30.9 degrees of steering to the left at the moment marked. Image
When looking at the steering trace, the chart going up is turning left while the chart going down is turning right. Image
Read 9 tweets
Mar 3
The right front wheel on the No. 17 was not fully tight which resulted in the wheel riding at an angle on the hub and eventually snapping. Let’s dig into how that happens.
During a tire change, the wheel has holes on the back of it that need to seat on drive pins that are on the center of the hub around the snout. Image
Once the wheel is properly seated, the wheel nut can be fastened and pass over the wheel nut retention system that stick up on the front of the snout. Image
Read 9 tweets
Feb 11
Ever wonder what all those buttons and knobs on a race car's steering wheel do?

The steering wheels in our Lexus RC F GT3s have a over a dozen functions and are the command center for our drivers. Let's dig into some of them and how they're used during a race. A photo looking at the steering wheel and dashboard of the Lexus RC F GT3.
The top of the steering wheel features three knobs:

TCS: Sets the level of traction control intervention.

GEAR: Sets the mapping for the gearbox and adjusts throttle blip.

ENG: Sets how the car responds to throttle input dependent on a driver’s preference and conditions Image
PASSING: This is how drivers can flash the headlights to express their intentions to pass to whatever car is in front of them.

MARK: Used for selecting/marking items in menus.

WIPER: Turns on windshield wiper. Notice the guard so that it does not accidentally get engaged. Image
Read 8 tweets
May 9, 2023
Checking out some pit lane stats for Trucks at Kansas and just like in Cup, having that first pit stall is an advantage for driver time on pit lane.

Having an open in or out also appears to be an advantage.

Here are top 15 drivers based on average pit lane time: Image
An experienced driver in the first pit stall can be a huge advantage. The gap from 1st to 2nd is 0.74 seconds but the gap from 2nd to 3rd is only 0.01 seconds.

5th place is over a second behind best.
15th place is over two seconds behind best. Image
The best driver without an open in or out from their pit stall was @brennanpoole in 9th with an average driver time of 27.85 which was 1.58 seconds behind the best on the list.
Read 5 tweets

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