Newman wins at PIR

...and it's probably the best thing that could've happened to Stewart-Haas Racing.

No one can really doubt that Tony Stewart's going to win races. For Ryan Newman, it's been a very. long. time in making it back to Victory Lane. Making the Chase last year was great for him, and for SHR, but in the end, racing is about *winning*. As good as SHR was last year, the possibility was there for it to become a one-sided team. For his part Tony's received kudos for what's been going on since he became co-owner of the former Haas-CNC team, but having wins for both cars, and as both a driver and an owner separately as well as driver/owner... it has the potential to really take the relatively small two-car team (which yes, gets a LOT of technical support from the megateam that is Hendrick Motorsports) to the next level.

Congrats to Ryan, Smoke, Tony Gibson, the #39 crew, and also to Gene Haas, who probably didn't really anticipate this sort of thing when the idea of giving Smoke a 50% stake in his team.

Whoops....

I've sorta let this slip a bit, but since it's a NASCAR off-week, it's as good a time as any to look at some of the other series going on (and let the smoke and debris die down from Atlanta).

Formula 1 gets off to their start in Bahrain, as does IndyCar in Brazil. Maybe.

See, IndyCar has already had to delay qualifying because sections of the Sao Paulo course are too slick and bumpy to control the cars. Seriously... I understand that they really only had a few months to get everything ready, but a part of me still wonders why they even TRY when situations like this come up. These are safety-critical conditions, so they're not really the thing you put off until the end, and yet, it's a pretty common thing for new/revamped facilities and events to have a track or course that isn't drivable.

This. Isn't. Good. Texas was so fast a few years ago that IndyCar canceled the race. Tire issues for Michelin at Indianapolis preceded the loss of the only American Grand Prix. Now, the strengthened IndyCar circuit is hitting the streets of Sao Paulo, only to find that they can't actually drive them. Seven Brazilian drivers are in the field, so this is more than mildly embarrassing. With all the engineering and technical expertise in these sports, can we really not find some way to prepare, or at least evaluate, these courses prior to everyone arriving? Sure, once some rubber's laid down, the courses will probably come in just fine... but I seem to recall some processes for doing that that DON'T involve waiting until the last moment, even when weather comes in and wreaks havoc. There are things that can be done, and again, at least knowing what to expect BEFORE putting drivers and equipment at risk, would be nice.

But such is life. Maybe they just ran out of time in rushing to get things ready. Or maybe they never really took the concept of time seriously in making promises to the sanctioning body. But let's remember: a successful event is dependent on the quality of racing; the quality of racing is dependent on the quality of the course.

Say it with me: The Tach is your friend.

You know, I really shouldn't be amused at the fact that Danica couldn't seem to manage pit road speed.

But the psychologist in me is greatly amused at the evidence of perceptual feedback gone awry. See, ride height impacts the perception of speed; Danica is familiar with Auto Club Speedway.... in an Indy car. Basically, what this is going to translate to is an underestimation of speed in the stock car, because it's going to seem slower (the same phenomenon led to some issues back in the day with taxiing Boeing 747s).

But in the end, the lesson learned: USE THE TACH!! The tachometer is your friend. Maybe someday they'll put speedometers in those cars, but really, would you want to know just how fast you're driving with 42 other crazies? Let's think about this...

As it happened, though, Carl Edwards seemed to have the same issue; the difference is, he knows stock cars... however, he does have good reason to have other things on his mind. Hooray for the Nationwide Series.

Daytona 500, Endurance version....

...well, not exactly... Drivers didn't swap out, they didn't need to; the red flags provided opportunities for rest. But one good thing about it was that the red flags weren't for 'The Big One' or any other major accidents.

Instead, they were caused by a hole on the apron. Yes, Daytona International Speedway formed a pothole, made worse over time throughout the race. A lesson can be learned by all road engineers. And NASCAR, and ISC, because this isn't the first time this has happened.

Asphalt Cracks + Precipitation + Temperature Changes = Potholes. Even in race tracks. What a concept.

But seriously, couldn't we have some better method for determining how to fill said holes, because they DO occur...

But anyway, beyond that, the new larger restrictor plates seemed to do the job, didn't cause any more chaos than usual, and maybe even helped avoid 'The Big One', since more horsepower was available to keep control of the cars when the draft got a bit unpredictable. The drivers seemed to keep their cool, and so NASCAR had no trouble keeping their word to let them police themselves. The race arguably finished under Green, thanks to the second of three possible Green-White-Checkered restarts, which means that the new rule changes might actually work out... at least they did for one race of thirty-six.

Oh, and congratulations to Jamie McMurray for coming through with a win for EGR.

Daytona Short Stuff

...yeah, it's another one of those... I should feel guilty. But I don't.

1) Mark Martin and Dale Jr make the front row for the Daytona 500, and then don't really do much in the Duels... can't blame them though, really... they didn't need to do anything at all. But really, damaging the car wasn't cool, Junior. =P Since I didn't see it, I'll have to go with the claim that it was "body" damage, and Lance and Co. will take care of it. We'll know soon enough (Sunday, if you lost track).

Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne went on to win the duels (beating out Kevin Harvick, the Bud Shootout winner, and Tony Stewart, respectively).... So, basically five of the top six starters in the 500 are Chevrolets, with a lone Petty Ford in the mix, and of the five, four are Hendrick-powered..... Hmmmm.....

2) A chick speed geek is required to be a Danica Patrick fan, right? Well, either way, I am. The ARCA race was her first real stock car test, and she came through it in one piece and won some respect. A top-10 finish may not seem that impressive, but the races at Daytona are always crazy, the ARCA one is no exception, and Danica had to pull off some major moves to keep her car intact for that run to the front.

Due to holding her own in the ARCA race, her debut in the NASCAR Nationwide Series has been stepped up to be Saturday... That race is always interesting to watch, and it'll only be more so with Danica joining a field of Sprint Cup regulars. It'll be a real test of her skills, and Tony Eury Jr's crew chief skills to make it through... but then, Tony Jr's had such cases before.

3) NASCAR's upped the number of Green-White-Checkered attempts from one to three, in an effort to finish the races under green... which is why they added the G-W-C in the first place. =P Of course, then they started wrecking under the shootout conditions it created.... Hmmmmm.... Me wonders what might happen this time... current prediction: three times the chaos. but hey, I've been wrong before.

...and that should more or less catch everyone up for a bit, or at least get you traveling over to NASCAR.com to see what I didn't mention. =P It's Daytona, there's always more side stories than laps to the race.

Ferrari leads Valencia testing....

Bleh. Just bleh.

Yes, I'm completely biased. Yay, McLaren. Btw, Hamilton ran third yesterday, and Button ran fourth.... behind de la Rosa (Sauber) and Schumacher (Mercedes), but Mercedes had their own problems.

Nevertheless, so long as Ferrari's setting the pace, one of my colleagues at the university will be smug. =P Ah, well, preseason testing is just setting the stage. We won't really know who's competitive until Bahrain in March.

Grand Am: Team wins debut race!

...as I've already rambled on a couple of times, this was opening weekend for two very different race series of interest to me... I've already covered how the Rally America opener ended, but the Rolex 24 at Daytona ended a couple of hours ago as well... with a new team, Action Express Racing, winning in their debut... how much of a coup is this? Well, it's endurance racing, they beat a Ganassi car, a team that has a number of victories in this particular race, by better than 50 seconds (which in an endurance race such at this isn't really that large a margin). It's pretty impressive... even the Brawn GP dominance at the opening of last year's F1 season was based on a previous team and a very experienced executive at the helm. I'm not sure on the background of Action Express Racing, but I suspect there's a lot of head-scratching going on in the Daytona International Speedway garage right now.

Pastrana wins SnoDrift Rally....

...which apparently was all about the ICE. Yay, Michigan. Seriously, if you've never really checked out rally racing, you're missing out on some of the craziest guys in motorsports. There's a reason most of the younger drivers (e.g., Travis Pastrana) come from extreme sports backgrounds.

Also, the Rolex 24 at Daytona is ongoing... another bunch of crazies, for completely different reasons. Twenty-four hours of road course racing; I'm not sure that even four drivers to swap out is enough.

Add in drivers that make decisions to drive injured (like a torn ACL, that will be repaired AFTER a season that hasn't started yet... Really, Denny? Really??)... it's obvious dedication is required for these series schedules and everything else required off-track at the top levels, but good grief. I sold my soul to Science and she's a less demanding mistress!!

Ah, motorsports... how I love the new definitions of 'crazy' that it provides... Almost makes me look sane. At least comparably.

Random Short Stuff

....the title probably has lots of interpretations, but oh, well.

1) NASCAR lowers purse winnings by 10% -- It's an effort at cost-cutting, and well, it's definitely a cost to someone. What does this mean for the winners? not a lot, but for the start-and-park drivers and teams, it could make things more difficult... it's a separate question on whether anyone really cares on THAT account, though.

2) RACING FINALLY STARTS THIS WEEKEND!!! -- Rolex 24 at Daytona (Grand Am series) has its green flag at 2:30PM CT tomorrow. Today meant the start of RallyAmerica's season opener SnoDrift in Michigan.... Currently, Travis Pastrana leads after Day 1... not a terrible surprise, there. But Ken Block, who recently announced a nice agreement to run both RallyAmerica and WRC races with Ford is out of the event, and that IS a surprise. But in motorsports, anything can happen, and rally is motorsports to the Nth.

3) Tony George is out of the IndyCar loop, both with Indianapolis Motor Speedway and with his now-defunct Vision Racing team.... IndyCar will move on (yay for finally having a title sponsor again), but it's still a strange deal.

A Kinder, Gentler NASCAR.... Really!

Wow... You have to wonder what's going to come of it, but NASCAR apparently really was serious about backing off a bit.

Among the new rules announced:

Bump drafting on the restrictor plate tracks is back. In theory, this will hopefully alleviate the crazy parade effect that occurred in the last 'Dega race. At the very least, it'll keep the drivers from being quite so paranoid about contact while drafting.

Realistically, bump drafting, in and of itself, hasn't really been an issue. It's been STUPID bump drafting (e.g., in the corners, off-center, etc.), that's caused problems. The drivers have made their opinions about that known in the past, so it'll be something to watch. Letting the drivers police themselves... well, that's what NASCAR is supposedly trying to do, anyway.

Additionally, they're introducing a larger restrictor plate (the language here is a little weird... a LARGER restrictor plate is actually less restrictive, as the size refers to the holes allowing air flow for the air/gas mixture in the carburetor. Yes, stock cars still have those). I suspect the hope here is that passing will be easier (i.e., engine is outputting more power), and the cars will be less aerodynamically sensitive. More power, yay.

Of course, also impacting the aerodynamics is the return of a rear spoiler in place of the wing that was a sort of trademark of the new car. The specifications of the new spoiler aren't clear yet (at least not to an outsider like me), but its return will mean a more 'familiar' looking stock car along with hopefully avoiding some of the fiascoes that have occurred when the car gets turned around, especially on restrictor plate tracks.

"A kinder, gentler NASCAR"... Really?

Apparently NASCAR (as in the Sanctioning Body, not the Sport) is continuing its trek to let the drivers have personalities again, after years of complaints that the drivers were all too politic, vanilla, etc.

What amuses me most about this approach is that the anticipated result of the sanctioning body pulling back and letting the drivers speak their minds (or speak with their fists?) is a 'kinder, gentler' NASCAR. Hmmm. I understand the logic, the sanctioning body is the 'kinder' part, not the sport itself. After all, many consider it to be the 'motorsport equivalent of wrestling'. On that part, I'm not sure that letting the drivers and teams get after each other on pit lane after the race is over is really going to help that image.

I find it unlikely that Robin Pemberton et al. are going to revert to letting drivers use their cars as weapons (e.g., the Kenseth/Harvick spat during a caution a few years back), although they might... the best battle to watch on that count will be Hamlin/Keselowski, as they've been building up plenty of animosity for each other.

Thus far, NASCAR has let them mostly settle it between themselves, with words and occasional on-track action; but that doesn't mean there haven't been 'chats' with officials in the mobile Principal's office. And how those 'chats' continue and how far NASCAR officials are willing to let things go is still an open question.

Dakar 2010 in the record books....

...and the ending wasn't so different from Dakar 2009, at least for Volkswagen. A full VW podium for the car class.

Apparently there's still some ground to be made up for the gasoline-powered vehicles, even after the first round of changes to level the playing field.

Turbodiesel rocks.

Driver Chatter ?= Driver Distraction

If you're any sort of motorsports enthusiast, you've probably got a gut reaction to the title (i.e., 'No'). After all, drivers are clearly skilled at managing their discussions with crew chiefs, spotters, owners, etc. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine many circuits without this sort of communication. There's a certain safety component to having information from the spotter available to the driver; there's competitive considerations for having a driver's input available to the crew chief, and so on.

...but, as I am a HUMAN performance researcher, looking at more general trends, I still have to wonder. Just because the risk/benefit analysis leans toward benefit doesn't mean there's NO risk. Additionally, what makes a professional motorsports driver better at managing these conversations than me in my car?

As far as I know, this isn't something anyone's really considered, in part due to the "you can't do without it, so why bother?" approach (after all, the #1 response to addressing driver distraction is to say "don't do it." I have issues with this, too, but I digress). However, there are some lines of thought to consider....

1) Race car drivers are extremely skilled drivers so any impact of distraction is insignificant

2) Race car drivers are better multitaskers, due to high levels of practice and specific expertise

3) Because radio chatter is typically much more context-dependent and -constrained, it is less distracting than typical cellular phone or passenger conversation

4) Race car driver performance IS impacted by interactions with crew members, but drivers have developed strategies to mitigate the distraction impact.

My personal view falls most closely to #4. There is no reason on a HUMAN performance level to assume that drivers, however skilled, can entirely avoid the impact of distraction from a secondary task. Nevertheless, there are clear differences in the 'chatter' of a race team versus my chattering to a friend on my phone.

Anyone who has listened to radio chatter may have noticed certain traits of it.... one is that you hear the spotter a lot more than you hear the driver; listening is considered far less distracting than interacting or conversing. Drivers typically talk more about car setup when it needs to be addressed, but only when they have the opportunity. A driver having difficulty in a turn will probably wait until the straightaway to tell his crew chief it's 'pushing like a dump truck' or whatever. Everyday drivers may be less sensitive to driving conditions (but conversely, their driving conditions are typically less extreme).

These differences are interesting to me for a variety of reasons, but in part, because 1) there may yet be a competitive advantage to certain styles of interactions between crew members, and 2) race car drivers aren't the only drivers required to multitask in extreme situations. What race car drivers have that law enforcement, military, and others don't have, is a LOT of information about their environment and other constraints.

So, when it comes to the consideration in the title.... can motorsports chatter provide insight into DRIVER multitasking, and help move us beyond a legislative "don't do this" mentality. For example, can Ryan Newman's radio chatter aid his sponsor's (US Army) understanding of what's going on in the minds of soldiers in convoy situations? Or Tony Gibson's remarks guide dispatch communications to law enforcement? I don't know, but I think it's pretty clear by now that I'd like to have a chance to find out.

Driver Performance - Motorsports vs. Traditional

...and now for something completely different.

As I briefly hit on in the first post, I'm a research geek. In particular, I'm interested in driving performance and distraction. I have a psych background, anchored in skill acquisition and visual attention. More recently, I've picked up some computer science and a bit of engineering in an effort to make my knowledge of human performance more marketable to industry.

Some of the issues that I consider in my research include military operations, law enforcement, and driver interactions with secondary devices. I have access to a fabulous driving simulation laboratory. But my first love is still motorsports.

What is interesting to me is that the Driving Simulation community is strongly oriented toward the driver... whereas the growing motorsports simulation realm is most assuredly not. The one exception to that that I know of is iRacing.com, which is a pretty awesome deal. A racing simulator based on real vehicle dynamics on real (laser-digitized) tracks. A number of professional drivers have accounts, and VW is using it as a qualifier for their SCCA-sanctioned series. It's a place where you and I can race against the real deal.... if we prove ourselves at the lower levels enough to not be a hazard (just like the real deal).

But in the end, when I talked to iRacing about my work, they didn't see the connection. Cellular phone conversation? Motorsports? Nothing there.... radio chatter? oh. Hmmm.... (condensed/paraphrased version).

Motorsports is all about the CAR. Tire engineers know what temperature is best for traction, what air pressure is best for what track temperature. Suspension engineers know camber vs. toe, what the insertion of a spring rubber means to damping rate.... but if a crew chief and a driver can't communicate effectively? Shuffle the deck and start over. (See RCR's 2009 season for examples). Human factors research just hasn't made its way into the domain... and there's good reason for that. I'd still like it to change.

For 'standard' road vehicles, driving simulation is often used to simulate high-risk situations and measure human performance. Most current simulators are designed to allow for parameters such as suspension, curb weight, torque, acceleration, etc, etc to be adjusted to affect vehicle performance. But the focus, due to limited resolution, is how the DRIVER reacts. In motorsports, where precision is everything (think how much happens in a tenth of a second), there's really no room to consider what's "between the steering wheel and the seat". They can tune a car to a driver; tune a driver to a car? Or a TEAM to a car? The limited resolution of a simulator could mean disaster (or at least a poor finish) on the track.

Drivers have been taking advantage of simulation (of a sort): drivers use both iRacing and video games to learn track layouts, this is becoming more important as testing restrictions are tightened. Still, there's a lot more that the simulation and human performance communities have to offer to motorsports... and that gives me something to talk about for the next couple of days.

F1: Return of Schumi -- to Mercedes

I promised myself I'd talk about something other than NASCAR this time. So here it is: Michael Schumacher is officially back.

It was only a test, but since he didn't come out of it complaining about his neck (as he did after an aborted return with Ferrari in Massa's stead), it looks like his old motorcycle injury has healed enough to bring a seven-time champ back into the field.

....great. One of the things about Schumacher (and any multiple-time champion), is that basically you can love him or hate him; there is no middle ground. There are a couple of side stories that make this return interesting, though.

1) There's the standard changes that have occurred in vehicle specs since Schumacher retired from full-time competition.

2) There's his return with the Mercedes (formerly Brawn GP, with Mercedes power) team, who are facing the challenge of having to organize two teams... Neither driver was with Brawn last year, as the driver who gave Brawn the championship this past season, Jenson Button, is now with McLaren (which in the past has also shared a fair amount of tech, particular engine/powertrain, with Mercedes).

It doesn't matter that this was a team that won the championship this past year (driver and constructor), or that Schumi is a past champion several times over.... some reorganization challenges are going to arise. Yeah, I know, the success of Brawn last year argues against that, as they were the previously tepid Honda team.... but I'm sticking to it at least until I see some real on-track action...

3) Which brings up the next point of the current F1 ban on testing outside of sanctioned periods. Until we see a Mercedes F1 car being driven by Schumacher, that is, the full package, it's difficult to say what this is really going to mean. It could be he comes in and dominates the sport again (after all Brawn did that last year).... at which point, we can all start ignoring F1 again. Of course, the US in most cases already does that.

....we'll have to see if USF1, another new addition to FIA's top series, can make the first steps to changing that attitude as well.... F1's opening event is March 14 in Bahrain.

NASCAR: Wing vs. Spoiler?

Another story that's been around a couple of days, but I'm just now getting to it. After a rather crazy season with some really strange incidents (i.e., 'flying cars'), even by Talladega standards, NASCAR is looking at switching out the rear wing for a blade-type spoiler.

Now, for those who don't recall, NASCAR moved to the rear wing based on drivers' input from the tests of the new car. The new car is heavier, boxier, and it was designed to be less sensitive to aerodynamic influences.

This hasn't really worked; NASCAR claims the move away from the wing has nothing to do with cars going airborne at 'Dega. ...Uh. Sure. Whatever. Either way, the new car isn't less sensitive to aerodynamic influences as all, as we've learned time and time again watching guys try to pass (or not), because the cars have such a huge impact on the air passing around them. Sure, it slows them down, but they've got the horsepower and torque available to move past that... A spoiler will arguably decrease this impact a bit, as well as overall rear downforce. With the heavier cars, it should lead to better turning, and a higher propensity for the cars to get 'loose' (rear end breaking traction)... of course, guys like Carl Edwards and many of those who came up through dirt tracks would enjoy that.

On the flip side, you have to wonder what it's really going to mean for the racing... after all, the drivers like the wing for a while... now it's back to a more aero-sensitive spoiler? Hmmmm.... I'm waiting to hear the open-wheel guys start whining any moment now. It's a tough balance to make, and I'm glad to leave it to NASCAR to determine. It's why they make the big bucks.

Hopefully, they'll talk to a few computational fluid dynamics gurus (whether the ones down at ICAR in Clemson, Mississippi State's SimCenter, or elsewhere) at some point... but that's a rant for another time.

NASCAR: Budweiser Shootout

This has been up at NASCAR.com for a bit now, but meh, it's a starting place...so the Shootout has changed. Again.

The (multiple) recent format changes aren't all that surprising... Anheuser-Busch gave up sponsorship of the pole awards (which went to Coors Light), and thus they didn't want to base it on the previous season's poles anymore. They've always sponsored the event since its inception in 1979 as the Busch Clash, so what AB wants, they're probably going to get. Marketing in NASCAR sorta works that way.

Okay. Fine. We can accept that.

So it became the top 6 finishers in owner points, for the season before for each manufacturer, plus a 'wild card' or former champion as the seventh driver. Apparently, this didn't work to their liking, either. One potential reason is that basing it on owner's points made it susceptible to Silly Season, but since I wasn't in the room at the time of the argument, I really can't say.

Now, we get this (taken from the official press release found here):

• The 12 drivers that qualified for the 2009 Chase
• Past Cup Series champions
• Past Budweiser Shootout champions
• Past Daytona points race winners
• The reigning rookie of the year

This leads to the inevitable cries from fans that it was done entirely for Dale Jr's sake... which is possible... I guess.

More likely, it was done to get away from the Manufacturer ties, focus on the drivers more directly, AND focus more on Daytona (which is more or less the argument Pemberton gave). And if nothing else, it guarantees that qualifying for the Shootout is now just as convoluted as qualifying for the 500 itself.

Regardless, it's changed. Again. And once again, there is no real way of wrapping your brain around anything that happens at Daytona until the Checkered Flag falls and HOW they got there becomes less than relevant.

And if it doesn't work to their liking this time....? They'll just change it again next year.

When does the motorsports season begin?

Now that I've introduced myself, I figure I should probably actually talk about a motorsports topic to live up to my description.

As it stands, this is currently the 'dead time' of year... but what I'm wondering is what really signals the 'start' of the motorsports season (across series).

The Dakar Rally (now half a world away from Dakar, Morocco) started New Year's Day, but it's difficult to judge the entire motorsports domain by a single, however hard-core, race.

I used to judge the start of the season by the Daytona 500... yes, I started out as a Cup fan and branched out from there. But, because I HAVE branched out in my interests, it doesn't seem that simple now. Maybe it's just me thinking too much (get used to that).... Rally America's season starts in January (barely), as does WRC and Grand Am. NHRA gears up in February, as do the NASCAR National series. F1 and IRL start in March. And of course, every local track has its own weather-permitting schedule as well.

So, when during that six-week span does the 'season' begin? Or does it just depend on each enthusiast's own personal obsession? If that's the case.... Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Another day, another blogger

So... yeah. I finally broke down and decided to save my non-motorsports geek friends from my ramblings, and instead post them here.

As a brief introduction, I'm an overeducated motorsports enthusiast who works in driver performance research, hangs out with engineers, and generally geeks out at every opportunity. Oh, yeah, and I'm a chick. This may or may not mean that I take a different approach to motorsports than all the guys (and for that matter, all the other female motorsports enthusiasts). The empiricist must wait and see; the rationalist can conjecture at leisure.