It was a start to the year filled with wrecks for NASCAR at Daytona 500

Although we did our best to cover our own travel costs, NASCAR took us to Orlando by plane and spent two nights in a hotel.

The Daytona 500 opens the season of NASCAR and represents the biggest race of the series. Held on the runway a few miles from Florida Beach, where the series began, there is an endurance test of 200 laps and 500 miles for the car, the driver and the driver. # 39; team. (And that depends on when they started to party, for the fans.) At this point, I have participated in many endurance races. Although there are some differences between a NASCAR race and your average long distance race car race, I thought the basics still apply. Like the preparation of the driver, for example.

"It's a tough challenge, especially because it's the first race of the year; it's easy not to be in great shape after the holidays. Being a race driver one day easy, when it's not too hot, when the tires are running When all is well, it's not an exaggeration. But there are very few easy days, "said Brad Keselowski, who runs for Team Penske in No. 2." Daytona is a long race, usually in much hotter weather than anywhere else. So it 's not acclimated and it' s a limiting plate race that gathers cars, you can not just get away from it – a lot of anxiety because it 's like the first day of the day. ;school ".

The configuration of the car for Daytona relies on the optimization of aerodynamics. "It's about the stability you build in the car and your attitude.If you have the rear of the car really adjusted, it has no inherent stability because there is no support." Now you have some stability, the car has an aerodynamic load and can stay planted a little better, "said Travis Geisler, NASCAR Team Penske Race Director, with each car limited to 400 horsepower (300 kW) It is essential to find an ideal compromise between air working for you and support against you as a brake, and where teams can find the advantage over their rivals.

"Because here, where it's wide open and the track is pretty smooth, you can be pretty aggressive," said Geisler. Back in the race, the engineers will "replay" a lap on a car mounted on a seven-post support to measure the actual variation of the tire contact plates. "It's the load the tire feels on the track. If you are too stiff, the tire loses contact and you start washing the circuit. [understeering]. This becomes your limit in many places. If it does not come out of the groove, then the pilot has to manage it, "said Geisler.

As far as there are similarities, the Daytona 500 is very different from an event like the Rolex 24 or the Petit Le Mans, or even the Indy 500, especially the weekend of race. "There is a big difference between our IMSA and IndyCar teams, and our NASCAR teams at this stage, all of which have complete telemetry data on cars during a race weekend. what's going on, simulate and analyze them. " We have basically a human for comments, "Geisler said." At this point you have to listen to them, and the simulation is near, but that's not the reality. "

"That's what sets many NASCAR drivers apart from many other racing styles, where you really have to be listening to your car and having returns that make the car faster," Geisler told us. . "It's a thing for a driver to say" hey, I'm too loose at the exit of Turn Four, you have to work on it. "But if we correct that and you go slower, you do not understand what the limit is, drivers need to learn to disassociate, because their comfort level and car speed may not be the same. Ideally they are, it's a perfect car, are happy and fast, but in a place like this, it's unlikely that's the case.That's why they receive the comma in addition on their paycheck. "

Even though the race is long, driver comfort is the second best time. "There is a territory" I need a mouthguard ", and there is a" I can not drive this "territory, and you can judge by their voice," explained Geisler. "Finally, the ride quality starts to really degrade the performance of the car 10, 15, 20 laps in a race because the tires grip is so bad [by then]. "

This is not to say that driver comfort is not important in the current NASCAR era. Keselowski thinks it's the area in which he has evolved the most as a driving force over the last decade. "One of the biggest changes as a driver has been the seat and position of your car. We now have lightweight carbon fiber seats; my body is scanned, then special molded foam pads are made from these scans. things are very light, very nice, "he said.Even seatbelts are tailor-made for each driver." Now they are sewn and crafted to perfection for my body. I even have a different set for those who weigh 4 to 5 pounds more than now, "Keselowski said.

The extent of this preparation extends even to the weather conditions. "The key is to understand what's going on this way, the car needs to be prepared two weeks in advance, the cars have to be ready two weeks in advance, and the more the teams can understand the conditions of the track and weather conditions, the better it will be – they can run, "said Pat Suhy, General Motors NASCAR Operations Manager.

GM is working with IBM's The Weather Company to provide its race teams (IndyCar, IMSA and NASCAR) with as accurate forecasts as possible. "In the run-up to the event, you begin to get an idea of ​​the weather conditions for preparing the cars, the game book. On the track, the key is to trust the tools we have provided to the teams. Until they develop confidence, it is difficult for teams to commit to using them. As our teams retrieve the data and then the data refines them. – we are in the middle of a trip – as we arrive at the race weekend, they find that the data is good and that they are attentive. "

"We share the knowledge from the main teams at Chevrolet, no one is unveiling the secrets of speed, but when a team gains confidence, it helps others to join," said Byron McMichael, a meteorologist and account manager at IBM. The data comes from more than 100,000 weather stations, before being introduced into any of IBM's artificial intelligence systems, and the new forecasts are broadcast every 15 minutes or so. "There is a lot of artificial intelligence and machine learning built into the predictions – it was a pretty fun trip because you do not realize how much weather affects the races – you always think about precipitation, but not all the other aspects of weather conditions that affect racing, they are the only ones that can produce forecasts with the same precision because of the amount of data we can provide to the AI , "said McMichael.

What counts as perfect weather for a cutting car, I asked myself? "A cool sunny day with a bit of heat in the track coming from the solar charge and cold air for the engine.At all in all, a nice sunny day is ideal.A very hot and super day Sunny generates a better race as the cars start to slide, "Suhy explained.

Unfortunately for most competitors, this level of preparation often counts for nothing. The 61st race of the Daytona 500 was a measured, even boring affair for the first 190 laps, the most dramatic being an accident with three cars as part of the peloton entered the pit lane. Then, with 95% of the distance traveled, it seems like brains and not tires that fade. As the race resumed after a warning period (caused by a puncture caused by Keselowski), a huge pile of 21 cars ensued, launched by Matt DiBenedetto's number 95. The race was marked with a red flag to clear the carnage. It was only broken car parts, because the current generation 6 car is a remarkably safe runner.

After a long delay, the race was restarted, with a few laps under the safety car to allow everyone to settle before the green flag. When the green was shaken with six laps to go, we had another wreck – this one involving six more cars. Cue the car safety, then another reboot and … yeah, another big wreck, this time enough to bring out the red flag a second time. (Maybe the Daytona 500 was jealous of the Rolex 24, which also saw two unprecedented red flags this year?) When things finally happened for the last time, Denny Hamlin's 11th managed to avoid hit anything for two rounds. to win. In fact, at the checkered flag, only five cars (out of a total of 40, the spirit) were intact.

I guess the moral of this story is that if you want to be in the forefront, you have to put all this time and effort into preparation. But that 's all for nothing if you are caught in the wreck of someone else' s with 20 miles to go.