Behind closed doors at NASCAR ...

Tuesday morning, I got the chance to watch NASCAR inspect Denny Hamln's winning car from Martinsivlle at NASCAR's R&D Center in Concord, N.C.

 

After a race, NASCAR does an inspection at the track but saves a more thorough inspection for its R&D Center on Tuesday mornings.

 

The engines from the first-place and second-place cars are automatically taken to the R&D Center along with a radnom selection. And, the first-place car and at least one random are selected to be inspected at the R&D Center.

 

So, I'm hearing you already. NASCAR selects the random based on someone they want to pick on. I was told that's not the case. Now, there are often three randoms selected after the race. Two are picked by NASCAR and go through post-race stuff but don't go to the R&D Center. The random for the R&D Center is selected a different way.

 

The crew chief of the first car out of the race is asked by a NASCAR official to pick a finishing position. That becomes the random. Sunday, the selection was 17th place. Kurt Busch finished there, so his car was in the R&D Center on Tuesday.

 

So, you had Denny Hamlin there for winning the race and Kurt Busch as the random for the cars. Also there was Jimmie Johnson for being the second-place car (thus engine inspection) and Mark Martin. Since Dover, both Johnson and Martin have had their cars taken to the R&D Center where it was discovered they were close to the tolerances -- unlike the race track where a typical tolerance is 1/8 of an inch, the tolderances at the R&D Center are measured in thousandths of an inch because there's more sophiscated equipment there. Anyway, I think you can pretty much count on the cars of Johnson and Martin being regular visitors to the R&D Center through the end of the year.

 

Anyway, I arrived at the R&D Center at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday -- just as the folks from Joe Gibbs Racing were. First-place car gets inspected first and back to the shop first. So there is a benefit to winning.

 

The first process is removing the engine to begin the engine inspection. Here's a photo of that taking place this morning.

 

The engine is then taken apart and inspected. That used to be done at the track. Now it's done at the shop so everyone can get out of the track sooner after a race and because the R&D shop offers a controlled environoment (no weather issues and such). Also, the engine hasn't just finished a 500-mile or 500-lap race and is hot and you have to wait for it to cool.

 

Once the engine is removed, the car is wheeled into another garage bay where it is inspected. Think of the at-track post-race inspection as like going to your doctor. A doctor can only check what they can see with you. Think of the R&D center as like going to get an MRI or X-Ray so where a doctor can see inside you. The R&D Center has the equipment that can't be taken on the road to check the chassis underneath the body. Another reason why this process is done at the shop then at the track is time. It took about 2-and-a-half hours for Hamlin's car to go through inspection (and that's about normal time). Imagine trying to do that for 43 or more cars. Inspection woudl take days. So, it's not practical to do all at the R&D center at the track.

 

Once in place a NASCAR technician then uses a device called a Romer Arm to measure various points in and throughout the car. Here's a photo of a NASCAR technician doing that to Hamlin's car this morning. The technician goes throughout the car. Here's a photo of her measuring various points on the splitter of Hamlin's car (the damage I was told was mainly from contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car on pit road during the first pit stop).

 

At one point in the process the claw is dropped over the car -- it's a series of templates all together to make one big template and is nicknamed the claw for what it looks like. It measure various points on the body. This is just like what goes on in pre-race inspection. Here's a photo of a NASCAR official examining Hamlin's car with the claw on it. 

 

And here's another view of the claw, a tighter shot. Notice all the points where it touches the car.

 

After that, the technician takes another device and measures the width of the tubing and the sheet metal thickness. To get under the car, it is raised about 6 feet or so above the ground so the technician could get underneath it.

 

Once that is complete and there are no problems, the inspection is complete. Hamlin's car passed inspection. I left as Kurt Busch's car was being inspected and the cars of Johnson and Martin were in line to be inspected.

 

Again, I'll have more this weekend but wanted to give you a brief overview and some pictuers of what happens at the NASCAR R&D Center during this inspection. As you can tell in at least one of the pictures, each team has crew members there. Hamlin's team had its car chief, an engineer and a couple of fab shop employees. Crew chief Pat Tryson was there for Kurt Busch's car along with some others.

 

One other tidbit is that the teams generally bring in food. Gibbs' crew brought in bagels. Tryson brought doughnuts for everyone. No, it's not going to bribe someone to turn an eye away from a violation but it is part of the easy-going athmosphere that resides there during this process (at least until there is a problem, one can imagine).

 

Anyway, hope this helps explain a bit how a car can past post-race inspection at the track but still later be found in violation of a rule after going through inspection at the R&D Center.

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