NASCAR research and development

With the help of a new managing director and R&D center, the popular racing series is pursuing technology to improve safety and level competition.

An examination of technology in the strictly controlled NASCAR racing series might seem like an oxymoron. After all, NASCAR persists in using carbureted pushrod V8 engines in steel tube frame chassis. But in fact, significant technology has been employed to make cars using these humble components perform at unheard-of levels and with a surprising degree of safety. Much of the improvement is due to NASCAR's employment of Gary Nelson as Managing Director of the series' R&D Center located in a new headquarters outside Charlotte, NC.

Probably the single most significant recent advance for NASCAR was the decision to install crash data recorders on its cars to produce a crash-force database that would give rules makers a basis for future safety changes. While data recorders were an obvious tool widely used in open-wheel racing since the mid- to late-'90s, NASCAR was reluctant to put them in its cars because of fears that the devices could be hacked by enterprising team engineers for onboard data acquisition, which is illegal in NASCAR competition. Teams use data acquisition in private testing, but it is prohibited during races; teams must find the right setup for a given track by seat-of-the-pants means.