3 ms·

I don't understand enough about cars to see what is special about this. Do the stock fender wells help and that's why it was better for him to keep them when no

by vasco 2y ago

I don't understand enough about cars to see what is special about this. Do the stock fender wells help and that's why it was better for him to keep them when nobody else did? And if so why did he remove them later to be like everyone else? What am I missing? If the advantage is aerodynamic he should've kept them the whole time. If the point was to lose weight for the race, I don't get why doing it in qualification. Can someone explain?

mulmen 2y ago
Not sure of the specifics. The point is he did something different that appears to have been advantageous. His competitors read the rules differently or didn’t think to try. If I had to guess taking the fender liners out could help cool the brakes. Qualifying is short so the heat buildup isn’t as important as in a full race. NASCAR racers have also been known to blatantly cheat in one area to deliberately get caught and draw the attention away from additional cheats. The inspectors find one thing, flag it, then pass the car when it is fixed, leaving the bigger cheat undiscovered.
- taneq 2y ago
  If you’re taking a car over the pits (rectifying a defect notice - not sure how universal this term is?) you leave a blown tail lamp or something so they have something easy to find. Then they don’t try too hard and find something expensive that needs rectifying. When you come back they only check the tail lamp noted earlier.
hatthew 2y ago
Was wondering the same thing, so I found https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-smokey-story.html https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-smokey-story.ht... TL;DR: Fender wells give better aerodynamics but prevent easy tire changing.
- mulmen 2y ago
  Interesting. Your link mentions the wheel arches, not the fender wells mentioned in wikipedia. Definitely sounds like the same story otherwise. Your link is from 2006, the wiki article references a book. I wonder which is right.

by vasco 2y ago

mulmen 2y ago

Not sure of the specifics. The point is he did something different that appears to have been advantageous. His competitors read the rules differently or didn’t think to try. If I had to guess taking the fender liners out could help cool the brakes. Qualifying is short so the heat buildup isn’t as important as in a full race. NASCAR racers have also been known to blatantly cheat in one area to deliberately get caught and draw the attention away from additional cheats. The inspectors find one thing, flag it, then pass the car when it is fixed, leaving the bigger cheat undiscovered.

taneq 2y ago
If you’re taking a car over the pits (rectifying a defect notice - not sure how universal this term is?) you leave a blown tail lamp or something so they have something easy to find. Then they don’t try too hard and find something expensive that needs rectifying. When you come back they only check the tail lamp noted earlier.

hatthew 2y ago

Was wondering the same thing, so I found https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-smokey-story.html https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-smokey-story.ht... TL;DR: Fender wells give better aerodynamics but prevent easy tire changing.

mulmen 2y ago
Interesting. Your link mentions the wheel arches, not the fender wells mentioned in wikipedia. Definitely sounds like the same story otherwise. Your link is from 2006, the wiki article references a book. I wonder which is right.