The NASCAR Of Tomorrow

By Bill Saporito

You are closing in on NASCAR driving champion Tony Stewart on the backstretch at Talladega Superspeedway. The speedometer, if you had one (stock cars don't--what's the point?), would be reading north of 150 m.p.h., but you're still south of Tony. And you need to pass him for the checkered flag, the Nextel Cup points and the adulation of the 150,000 or so NASCAR nuts who regularly show up every weekend. As you get closer to Stewart's rear bumper, a couple of things start to happen, not all of them good. First, Tony gets ticked off. Don't worry--Tony gets ticked off at everyone sooner or later. Second, you might not have control of your car, especially as the speed nears 200 m.p.h. "The way you pass somebody at Talladega is the same as you do on the interstate--you turn left," says veteran Kyle Petty. "But at 150 to 180, the car doesn't necessarily want to turn left." Reason: Aerodynamic forces on today's cars become disruptive at those speeds. Which means you can't make the pass, and if you try, you could end up against the wall.

Safety and competition are the top issues being addressed by NASCAR as it finishes its Car of Tomorrow, due to make its first of 16 races next March at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The car is a bit wider, a bit taller, a bit less long and actually a bit slower than the current models. Most important, the Car of Tomorrow is designed to be a whole lot safer than the car of today. The project was given tragic impetus during a nine-month period in 2000-2001 when a number of drivers were killed, including Petty's son Adam, then 19, and the legendary Dale Earnhardt, who ran into a wall at Daytona. Even so, the idea of developing the model was not exactly championed by the drivers. "I don't think drivers thought anything had to be changed," says Petty, 45, who has tested the new car. "We'll drive anything, anytime, anywhere--all you have to say is, 'Show up.'"

The basic principle of the new model is to get the driver farther away from points of impact. So engineers have made it wider and and taller, creating what the drivers call a bigger greenhouse. That could be important when the car, say, rolls onto its roof. The driver's seat has been moved 4 in. to the center, which is supposed to achieve two things: it lets NASCAR reinforce the driver's side with energy-absorbing, staggered steel plates and gives the driver more comfort. Over the years, as NASCAR began adding such safety devices as the HANS head-and-neck restraint system, the cockpit began getting cramped. Older drivers in particular were demanding their space. Says Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, about the changing environment for drivers: "They have gone through the cycle of very limited restrictions in the cars to what we have today. The world has closed in."

What's key is that the wider car addresses what Pemberton calls G-force spikes, known to the rest of us as the crash. "It's the amount of energy absorbed over time," he explains. The farther the driver is from the impact, the more time the energy has to dissipate. To help it along, NASCAR has added front and rear crumple zones. It is also studying the addition of more crash protection for the right front, the most frequent collision point.

But after fretting over safety, the NASCAR design team got to thinking about a more competitive race car. In the past decade, teams have spent big on making their cars aerodynamically efficient. One consequence, though, is that these cars create incredibly turbulent wakes at the longer and faster tracks. In other words, the aerodynamics have become more important than the cars, drivers and engines, and passing has become especially difficult.

The solution, the one that literally sticks out, is the addition of a wing to the rear deck of all cars to replace the spoiler now in use, which is what racing outfits like Formula 1 have been doing for years. The wing retains the aerodynamics of a lead car, but the difference is that trailing cars get to play in smooth air and get the opportunity to make high-speed passes.

A side benefit to all this safety and speed is that the Car of Tomorrow is cheaper to run. That's because it can be adjusted to race on different kinds of tracks, which means that a single team doesn't have to enter different cars in different races. Right now, the No. 16 car that Craig Biffle drives at the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway, for instance, isn't the vehicle he drives at the 2.66-mile Talladega. The new design, however, is more generic, allowing cars to adjust for tracks by adjusting the rear wing and the front splitter. "For the price of a wing, you can change the entire feel of the race car," says Pemberton.

Of course, crew chiefs will still be tinkering like mad with suspensions, sway bars and other mechanical issues that can give them that small edge. In fact, they may be more necessary than ever. The new car has a redesigned fuel bladder that will carry four to five fewer gallons of gasoline, which will add to the number of pit stops and complicate the chess game of refueling and tire changes that crew chiefs in every race have to play.

Despite the modifications, NASCAR race cars will remain what they are at heart: hand-built, exquisitely tuned, 850-h.p. machines--concert grands on fat tires. And the Car of Tomorrow will pay homage to the kind of deft driving that launched the sport 58 years ago and has made it the hot sports property it is today. That's because by downplaying the aerodynamics, the design will reward racers like Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who are known for their racing skills. "It will take the sport back to where we were 10 or 12 years ago when we saw more two-wide [side-by-side] racing," says Petty. "If you enjoyed watching the Dale Seniors and Darrell Waltrips do that, this is for you." WING This aerodynamic part can be adjusted so the car's handling can be tailored to different tracks EXHAUST For safety, the pipe runs through the body and out the right side, drawing heat away from the driver A BOXIER BODY The new prototype is squarer in shape than today's car and therefore less aerodynamic. As a result, the driver's skills become more important in winning a race

Prototype

Current car AIR INTAKE Since debris can sometimes get caught in the current car's grille and hinder airflow, the new car prevents overheating by drawing in air below the bumper DRIVER'S SEAT By shifting it 4 in. (10.2 cm) closer to the car's midline, the driver is more protected from impacts on his side WINDSHIELD It is built more upright to increase drag and slow the car

ROLLCAGE It is 2 in. (5 cm) taller, 4 in. (10.2 cm) wider and moved 3 in. (7.6 cm) rearward SIDE-DOOR BARS They are staggered and will collapse in succession to lessen any impact NEW OLD FRONT BUMPER The boxier bumper matches the rear bumper's height and is 3 in. (7.6 cm) higher and thicker than the current model. The shape traps air, slowing the car