Do you see how fast he is going compared to the other cars? They are going as fast as they can without losing grip and spinning out as they go round the corner. He has the wall supporting him around the corner and could floor the accelerator in top gear.
These cars don't seem to stick to the ground like they do in F1, so I guess they need to slow down a lot for the corner just like regular cars. Except for the guy who uses the wall to push him through the corner.
I get that he’s not going to slide off the track, but I don’t understand how he wouldn’t be slowed by the friction of the side of his car against the wall, though
During the course of the race bits of rubber come off the tires and form what is basically a rubbery gravel. The racing line is cleared of it by the passage of the cars. Get down too low or up too high and you start sliding like you would on gravel. So he went high, accepted the slippery-ness and used the wall to keep him going the right direction as he kept the pedal down.
On the racing line, even with a clean track, they still need grip to turn -- he didn't.
Also to note that as it is the end of the race, they aren't on fresh tires and probably most/all of the field didn't have the full grip they would during other portions of the race.
Speed through the turn is limited by lateral forces. The wall can provide more lateral force than the tires can. Yes, there's friction, but the cars are fiberglass, it's pretty slippery against a smooth painted wall (and they have a ton of power).
He is slowed down by the friction of the side of his car against the wall. And probably by bits of his car being torn away as it slowly disintegrates. But the engines on these cars are powerful and can easily overcome those effects.
I'm not sure small wheels would really be an improvement, and large wheels would weigh a lot. So it's entirely possible that a smooth surface is actually the best approach here.
Its insanely dangerous. Really just neigh-criminally stupid.
Any little lip in the siding on the wall could have caused him to flip or twirl about or get speared or launched his engine all over the place. The walls are designed to keep people safe, including the fans. They are fantastically well engineered and made. But, if he had caught the wall wrong and was catapulted into the stands, he may have killed a lot of people, let alone the danger to other drivers, let alone to himself. The various safety systems, of which the wall was but one, aren't made for that move and could very easily have been compromised in very bad ways.
I mean, it was awesome to watch, just incredibly cool. I'm glad it worked for him, he's in the history books for that move for sure. I can totally see NASCAR evolving to utilize that move in the future.
But he put many lives at more risk than anyone was expecting in such a kinetic sport.
I think just this year the body design on the cars became strong enough to try this. He also risked a yellow flag being thrown which would have disqualified any passing afterward. But they weren't quick enough with that lol.
The obvious one is that it ruins the car, at the end of the video you see his car is stopped on the track, presumably he broke some control arms and can't drive it back to the pits.
So it works once, then you're out, and you have to hope you pull it off safely. It was a massive risk, not all courses have a wall that wouldn't have wrecked the car. He mentions that part in the video.
That is pretty crazy. I can't imagine he kept his wheel alignment which would have been impactful if he had to keep racing, but it's impressive the suspension arms survived that. Maybe the new gen cage contacts before the wheels and they took most of the force?
I wonder if they modified the car for this at all? I've gotta imagine that he at least discussed the possibility of doing this with his crew before he went and did it.
The 2022 “NextGen” cars are significantly stiffer than prior cars; it’s possible that they are stiff enough to be better able to run the full half lap without getting stuck, but I more suspect no one seriously considered it.
Even with Nextgen cars, it’s a last half-lap move at most.
I also suspect nobody seriously considered it or thought they could get away with it. If they don't add rules to stop it, you will see people welding bumpers or even wheels to the sides of their cars to take advantage.
Getting into the wall usually means a flat tire or at least being slowed down considerably. I don’t think you could do this on a superspeedway track because the forces and friction would just destroy the car before the turn was over. On a short track it looks to be a different story.
It was the last corner of the last lap - hugging the wall damages your car but because he didn't actually need to tap the brakes he just kept on going, round the wall faster than the others.
The real answer is it only makes for good entertainment once, so it gets banned immediately.
If it had a real potential to spice the game (like allowing foot hits in volleyball) it would be integrated in the rules with some limitation (for instance you can only do it if you’re way behind)
I considered this first. But I imagine the camber change would ruin the insides of the tires so fast that it wouldn't be worth the wall rolling benefits...
Perhaps a better idea would be some kind of aerodynamic change which would result in a trapped pressure area on the right side when it is close to the wall. Maybe some kind of concave side.
I know you're joking, but Nascar actually uses some cool tech [1] to make a 3D model of each car on-site to ensure they're in spec with regulations for size, aero, etc... Here [2] it is in action at the last Daytona 500
That was my first thought, but that whole wall should be able to sustain a full on impact from multiple cars in a wreck if there are loose panels or gates it is already a serious failure.
Not to say it couldn’t happen, just that it’s reasonable to assume the wall is designed to support more force than this.
I scrolled all the way down, collapsing all the top level comments just to find your question, so thanks for posting it!!! This part of the discussion is what interests me the most.
