Engineering Nascar: No Turning Back
Engineering Nascar: No Turning Back
Engineering Nascar: No Turning Back
~ IN THE TRENCHES 42
ENGINEERING TOOLS_44
~ VEHICLE DYNAMICS_46
~ DESIGN ENGINEERING_SO
~ MANUFACTURING_S2
~ AERODYNAMICS_54
TESTING_56
~ RACE SETUP ENGINEERING 58
~ RACE ENGINEERING_60
ROUGHLY 30 YEARS AGO, ance doesn't really ooze rather to offer a peek behind
there weren't any college- technology. But the reality is, the all-important engineering
trained engineers working for there are tremendous engi- curtain.
NASCAR teams. Today, the neering resources going into The story is told in small,
larger teams employ 50~60 these vehicles." manageable capsules and
engineers - a figure that While not everyone sup~ begins with a brief history of
approaches nearly 15 percent ports the wave of engineering engineering in automobile
of a team's overall workforce. now in NASCAR, it is here to manufacturing and transfers
And teams are spending up stay. Some would even argue to the time when engineer- 2016 TECH ISSUE
to 20 percent of their annual that the introduction of engi- ing entered NASCAR. From
budgets on funding for their
ever·expanding engineering
neers into NASCAR is one ,
reason the sport is more com-
I there, we. examine the
somewhat recent trend of ENGINEERING
programs.
As a result, engineers'
fingerprints are all over every
petitive now than ever. Back in
the mid-1980s, it was conunon
to see three or four drivers
engineers as crew chiefs and
follow that up with a brief
.spotlight of seven current lead
/IN NASCAR
car, and it isn't uncommon for
engineering departments to
finish on the lead lap. Now, it's
routine to have 20-25 entries
engineers in NASCAR.
We then highiight No Turning Back
collect upwards of 1 terabyte finish on the lead lap. a handful of the major
of data each week (1 terabyte "In the oid days of engineering tools before pre-
of hard disk space is enough NASCAR, you'd unload, senting overviews of seven
to store 1,000 copies of the and you'd probabiy had major engineering areas in
Encyclopedia Britannica). the setup that-you had last NASCAR _. vehicle dynam-
And despite NASCAR year," says Doug Milliken, ics, design, manufacturing,
regulations that put tight lim- president of the independent aerodynamics, testing, setup
its on the modifications teams engineering firm Milliken and race engineering.
can make to their cars, engi- Research Associates. "If the This story wouldn't have
neering efforts in NASCAR tire changed, the weather been possible without the
are nonetheless equal to any changed or the track had cooperation of Kenny Francis.
other racing series in the been used a bunch or repaved, Aside from being a standout
motorsports universe. everybody would be lost late model driver in his day,
"When you look at any of except the people with engi- Francis is a college-trained
the big, modern-day NASCAR neering who could predict engineer who served as a lead
teams, their engineering staffs what the new conditions were engineer in NASCAR before
are probably on par with going to do and how to adjust becoming a Sprint Cup Series
the best of the Formula One the car in advance. crew chief in 2003. He is the
teams," says Kevin Bayless, "It's made it much more vehicle technical director at
aerodynamicslchassis man~ comp.etitive." Hendrick Motorsports and
ager for GM Racing. "People The purpose of this story co-wrote several sections of
underestimate it because a is not to explain every engi~ this story.
NASCAR vehicle in appear- neering concept in detail but -Jon Gunn
Ju1y20/6 SS
BACKGROUND ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
"What they discovered was the 'flat ride,'" Milliken says of Olley and his team.
"They concluded that once both ends of the car went up (after hitting a bump in the
road), what you wanted was for it to land flat. The way to make it land flat was to
have the rear go up and then come down quicker (than the front) because it's got to
catch. up to the front. The front had a head start because you hit the bump with the
front first. To get a flat ride, the front has to be softer and the rear has to be stiffer.
"It's one of the classic experiments in automotive engineering."
The father of game~changing technology, GM, which would later earn the
nickname "Generous Motors," provided more and more funding for Olley's work.
"He was definitely doing his own thinking," Milliken says. "He was an engi~
neering genius and a fantastic analyst as well as a designer. He kept right on going
and developed, mostly from an experimental point of view with simple ca1cula~
tions, a lot of the standard things that we use today.
"For example, I don't know who came up with the terms 'oversteer' and
'understeer,' but I believe it was first used by Olley and his associates."
In 1952, engineer William Milliken - who had been overseeing flight
research for the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo, New York, and raced
his Type 35 Bugatti on the side - went in search of books about vehicle dynamics
related to auto racing.
Finding very little, William Milliken and an associate widened their search
and began visiting auto manufacturers in Detroit. They met Olley at GM and
although Olley had no racing~related vehicle dynamics information to share,
once, he heard of the innovative work being done at CAL; he started what became
a lorig~term relationship with William Milliken and CAL by bringing the firm in
as consultants. /'
"GM was miles ahead of everyone else as far as we knew in vehicle dynamics
engineering - our little niche, which is tires, suspension, steering and chassis:'
Doug Milliken says.
Eventually, GM began supporting racing efforts and
William Milliken was part of a group that worked on the
Chevy R&D project with Jim Hall's Chaparral sports car
team in the 1960s.
Twenty years later, the Millikens and engineering
would find their way to NASCAR via a young, crafty
NASCAR crew chief named Gary Nelson.
Nelson was pure racer. After some success in stock
car racing on the West Coast, he headed to the Southeast
to work for DiGard Racing in the Cup Series and became
the team's crew chief in 1981. Also working at DiGard was a young engine builder
by the name of Robert Yates, so horsepower was never an issue.
JUST AS ENGINEERING as we know it is relatively new to NASCAR. engineer- draw them again. It's a circle. You keep on "There was one car builder in NASCAR, Banjo Matthews," Nelson says.
ing wasn't always a driving force in the automobile industry - especially as it going until you can say, 'OK, this part is "Banjo was the guy everybody called when they had problems that they were
IN THE BEGINNING: pertains to vehicle dynamics. Before the 19305, a good 01' intuitive approach
trumped engineering processes and principles in the Detroit automotive scene.
strong enough and it's not too strong and too
heavy. That's the way to build it.'''
trying to solve. And Banjo would build the cars, and he would spend time on the
phone or come to the races and talk.
One engineering pioneer in the U.S. automobile industry was Maurice Olley. 1n 1930, Olley, who had moved to the "Banjo would say, 'OK, if your car's not handling well, here's what you need to
FLAT RIDE, CURIOSITY Olley was a college~trained engineer who began his career in his native U.S" began working for General Motors and do.' And he had it all pretty much in his head. He didn't have a formal education,
& A CALL FOR HELP England working for Rolls-Royce - according to Doug Milliken, who aside from was soon assigned to the Cadillac division, engineering background that I know of.
being the president of the independent engineering firm, Milliken Research where he applied an engineering approach to "I would call him and say, 'Banjo, the car's not doing well. What do you think?'
Associates, co-wrote "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics" with his father, William. bettering the ride of the Cadillac line. One of "He would say, 'Well, move this a quarter inch,' or, 'Move that a quarter inch
"He had this tremendous background in engineering design - where you Olley's earliest breakthroughs led to the mass and try it.'
draw things and then you calculate," Doug Milliken says. "And then the calcula- production of independent front suspension "I realized everybody was doing that with the same guy. Everybody would go
tions say, 'This isn't strong enough,' or, 'This is too strong.' You go back and you on production vehicles. to the race track pretty much the same as everybody else. To me, the only poten-
,
36 Facebook.comlna~clJrlllu$t,ated JuJy20/6 n
tial to beat those guys was to do something Milliken says of his early visits to NASCAR tracks. "I probably got close on a
different from what they were doing. couple of occasions to having a big wrench thrown at me because 1 was looking at
"So. another chassis builder came along, something. I learned very quickly to be careful of where 1looked and whose car I
and his name was Mike Laughlin. He started walked around."
building chassis differently than Banjo's. As Doug watched the Cup cars turn laps, he was impressed with what he saw.
Some folks would buy a Laughlin chassis and "The first thing I realized was, 'These cars look good. They come off the
compete against the Banjo chassis. Primarily. corner, take a set. They are doing something right,''' he says. "I said, 'What I'm
there were two car builders in the series. going to have to do is start by figuring out how the heck they are doing what they
"I kind of liked the car Laughlin was are doing, then see if we can't work forward from there and figure out how to
building, so we started buying Laughlin cars. optimize it or make it a little better, see if they aren't making some mistakes that
I still had a tremendous amount of respect they've backed into a comer on.'
for Banjo, but I just felt like to win a race, you "I didn't come in thinking engineering was going to solve everybody's prob-
had to do something different from what lems. I came in thinking people in NASCAR had gotten to a pl,!ce one way
everybody else was doing. or another - mostly without engineering, in a formal sense, but definitely by
"But when we got the Laughlin cars, we problem·solving.
realized it would take some development. So "'tn that sense, NASCAR has been full of engineers from the beginning. They
I went after engineering to help us to develop just didn't have the formal background or the ability to calculate. Some of them
this Laughlin car." could calculate simple things, but most of them didn't have the engineering back·
Nelson's first foray into the world of ground to calculate complex things.
engineers had come earlier when he started "What I could bring to the table was more tools. They were working, figu-
visiting GM's wind tunnel at the Chevrolet ratively, with a hammer and a screwdriver and I could bring a computer. A
Engineering Center in Warren, Michigan. computer is a heck of a tool, especially if you want to try things out quickly."
"I was the first one in the GM wind tun· Nelson got a taste of how the Millikens could help DiGard improve during
nel, and I'm not sure that anybody else was a trip to the GM wind tunnel. Once the DiGard car was through in the tunnel,
going to the wind tunnel in those days." the Milliken's suggested Nelson bring the car around the corner to GM's Vehicle
Nelson says. Handling FaCility, home to the company's chassis-testing machine, which was an
It wasn't long before Nelson started ask- early version of today's kine·
ing for more assistance from GM. matics and compliance rig.
"1 said, 'We need some more engineer· "People in NASCAR had
ing help, and we can try to figure out how to begun to realize that going to
get the Laughlin chassis to work:" Nelson the wind tunnel was probably
says. "I believe that was the start of the engi· a good thing," Doug Milliken
neering - the change to engineering - in says. "If you came back from
NASCAR." the wind tunnel, you were
Nelson got his help, but it wasn't directly probably going to be faster-
from GM, it came from engineers William especially at superspeedways.
and Doug Milliken. . "But we may have been the
"We'd been working with someone at first - with everything being
GM and he said, '\Y/e got a request from a secret, it's hard to know - to
NASCAR team that we don't qUite know take a NASCAR car and put it
what to do with,'" Doug Milliken says. on a kinematics and compli-
"'Usually they are asking us questions about ance rig. We saw a bunch of
I
1
engines, but all of a sudden they are asking us
questions about handling. You are our han-
things right away that were
pretty interesting and maybe
dling guys. \Vhy don't you go down there and not so good..
38 Follow us on twltter@nasca,l1Iust,Bd
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BACKGROUND ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
sudden, the world opens up. Here's the world: Once I know how the chassis bends
and moves, how the geometry works as you steer it. I can figure out which way
the tires are pointing under load. I can calculate through and if! know how much
force the tires are making to get me around the corner, I can put those forces
back in - in calculation or in reality on the K&C rig - you can actually apply
1,000 pounds of sideforce at the front tire and see where it steers to and that tells
you what the tire operating conditions are.
"Now we get to the most important part of all of this, tires. Once I know what
direction the tires are pointing - and once I know how the tires behave - then I
can predict how the whole car is going to behave and that's vehicle dynamics."
It took roughly a year from the time the DiGard car was first put on the K&C
"THE VETERANS rig before actual design changes were applied - promising, but not the system
people in NASCAR were used to or had the patience for.
IN THE SPORT "The development is expensive and you make mistakes," Nelson says. "There
were a lot of balls for me to juggle in those days, but I just kept pushing and kept
SAID,'THE being persistent because I knew it was eventually going to make more sense than
calling Banjo and calling Michael Laughlin.
ENGINEERING "Luckily, the DiGard team gave me the authority to be able to do those things.
I think we gained more in the wind tunnel early on than we did on the chassis rig,
STUFF NEVER but we did gain. And I think that early work is still paying off today."
As supportive as Nelson's team was, engineering, when other teams learned
WORKS.'" of it. was notan immediate hit in the garage area.
TOP DRIVERS FOR NASCAR No. 24 ,
"The veterans in the sport said, 'The engineering stuff never works: Those
-NELSON were the comments I got on a regular basis," Nelson says. u'You guys can spend
your money on engineering, but you'll never ,.putrun Junior Johnson and Bud
Moore and those type of guys.'''
Nelson not only st':!ck to his guns, in 1982, he hired a full-time engineer, Paul
Giltinan, just to work with DiGard.
"The other teams had started trying to understand what we were doing,"
Nelson says. "It would be hard for somebody to go to the rig or the wind tunnel
and not get some of those gains that we were getting. So, I went out and hired an
engineer outside of Chevy and outside of General Motors, and then we started
making some bigger gains.
"We won eight races in '82 (with driver Bobby Allison) and finished second in
the point standings."
The decision to bring in engineering help really paid off the following season
when DiGard won six races and the Cup title with Allison.
Secrets don't remain secrets long in NASCAR, and the use of engineers and
engineering tools began to increase - especially as crew members moved from
team to team.
"People were leaving the team, going to other teams and shOWing them, 'Hey,
these guys started running better when they did this,'" Nelson says. "So, we con-
stantly were trying to move forward with technology that we could hold on to as
MORGAN SHEPHERD LARRY FRANK
RAY DUHIGG long as possible."
DICK TRICKLE BUTCH GILLILAND Engineering in NASCAR expanded beyond aerodynamics and vehicle
MICKEY GIBBS
ROSCOE THOMPSON BOBBY MAUSGROVER dynamiCS when Nelson, in his quest to stay ahead of the competition, began col-
JIMMIE LEWALLEN
BOB HAVEMANN KENNY WALLACE laborating with engineers about brakes, gearboxes and power steering.
BOBBY ALLISON
JIMMY HENSLEY BUDDIE BOYS By 1985, Nelson began running a team strictly for research and development
BOBBY WADDELL
DICK CLOTHIER HENLEY GRAY purposes with unheralded driver Greg Sacks.
LENNIE POND
SAM MCQUAGG ARNOLD GARDNER BOB GOULD "\'fIe were struggling, not getting the wins that we had been getting,~ Nelson
BILLY WADE RONNIE THOMAS says. "Everybody was running the same stuff we were. I went into the R&D side,
JACK HARDEN
TINY LUND DAREL DIERINGER saying, 'OK, Bobby (Allison), if you want to go back to the old ways ofdoing things,
BOB WELBORN
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BACKGROUND ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
iii . fine. but I want to go try to prove some new gets to a pretty good answer - even though it may take awhile. They had the and in-house CNC machining of custom more expensive equipment such as vehicle simulators and K&C rigs - $5 mil-
if ideas.·.. long timeframe the teams didn't have. They contributed that long-term view that parts. lion to $10 million pieces of equipment. That's when it sort of carne full circle in
~I The racing world was sent reeling when
Sacks drove to victory at Daytona in July.
could give engineers a trial."
Once engineering became accepted, teams made big moves of their own beyond
f "Back around when engineering in
NASCAR got going, it was one engineer and
that the OEMs are investing in those resources and providing those across their
groups of teams:"
'I Allison was so incensed he left the team. the manufacturers' involvement in an effort to build their engineering departments. ) a little bit ofsoftware. Then, engineers were As the size of engineering departments at NASCAR teams has grown, so too
Despite the many advances and solid "It goes in cycles," says engineer Eric Warren, director of competition at looking at testing and data acquisition and has the demand for college·trained engineers. The Univ. of North Carolina at
results, it would take nearly another decade Richard Childress Racing. "In the early days, manufacturers were providing started doing the shocks. The setups were Charlotte has one of the largest engineering programs in the country and just
I before engineering became accepted in the majority of the engineering support There weren't as many motorsports more in the hands of the crew chief As time over a decade ago added. a motorsports engineering program.
NASCAR. engineering resources at the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). So you went on, race engineering came on where "I have people from various race teams call me when they are looking for engi-
"There were some who shot holes in it, would schedule to get into the compliance rig at one of the production car sites, engineers started spending more time at the neers." says Dr. Jarre Hill, an engineering professor at UNCC and a faculty member
but I don't think those people are around you may have to wait three months before you could get into it. track and started doing simulation work. Back ofthe university's motorsports engineering program. "\Ve have a fair number of
here anymore,... says former Cup crew cruef "Now each of the OEMs has dedicated motorsports engineering facilities, a lot in (the I990s) engineering budgets would have students who do internships and part·time work (with race teams) while they are in
and current FOX Sports analyst Larry more engineers dedicated to motorsports. been a few hundred thousand dollars -less our program who then go on to work in NASCAR."
McReynolds. who worked with an engineer "The teams began building that expertise. The teams began recognizing than 1 percent of a team's budget. Now it And as engineering became more ingrained in the sport and more and more
(Bob Riley) when he started at King Racing in the importance of engineering and a lot of resources built up on the teams. could be as much as 20 percent engineers moved into NASCAR, teams began appointing engineers as crew
the mid-1980s and during his later years (1998, Everybody got 7-post rigs and started doing a lot more simulation and CAD work "Then there got to be a need for much chiefs. One of the first engineers to become a crew chief was Matt Borland, who
'99, 2000) with Richard Childress Racing started calling the shots in the Cup Series for driver Ryan Newman, himself an
(David Holden). "It's like guys who raced engineer, at Team Penske in 2002. Borland is now the VP of technology for the
by the seat of their pants for all those years, Haas Fl team and Stewart-Haas Racing.
the ones that embraced engineering, which By 2006, there were 10 college-trained engineers working as crew chiefs in the
is what 1tried to do, they made the cut, Cup Series. Today that number has swelled to over 20.
you might say. The ones who tried to shoot "The reason you are seeing more
holes in it didn't make it. engVteers become crew chiefs is
"The smarter people in our industry because you are really squeezing the "THE SMARTER
knew what direction our sport was going." last little bit of performance out of
Doug Milliken says the level of (the cars)," Warren says. "There is so PEOPLE IN OUR
engineering in NASCAR has changed much data being generated by the
dramatically since the early 1980s. teams and by the OEMs, .. , It takes INDUSTRY KNEW
"There's been a complete turnaround a lot to be able to quickly digest that
because there were no engineers when I information. The reason you are WHAT DIRECTION
got there," he says. "Team owners want seeing engineers in those roles is
results, and while there were a bunch of
false starts, eventually it became obvious
just because by nature they can see
graphs, see data and react to that
OUR SPORT WAS
that engineering gave results. information faster."
I "Engineers aren't magicians. We need While the increase in engineering
GOING."
I data to work on. Once we've got the data, in NASCAR makes it ideal for engi-
we need to figure out ~ow to analyze it and neers to serve as crew chiefs, there
-LARRY McREYNOLDS
then eventually to turn it into something can be bumps along the road as engi-
that can be a practical result. neers transition from working with data to overseeing an entire team as well.
"Engineering is a relatively slow process 'ln some respects it's difficult because when you are an engineer, your job is
compared to the traditional cut-and-try to be immersed in the details of what you're doing." says Daniel Knost, who holds
process. Therefore, it took a certain amount a doctorate in engineering and was the crew chief for Kurt Busch (2014) and
of stomach for someone to say, 'We're going Danica Patrick (2015) before being reassigned to manager of vehicle dynamics
to invest in engin~rs, we're going to give at Stewart-Haas Racing. "You spend a lot of time studying those things and you
them a few years, we're going to leave them really get to know the car like the back of your hand.
alone, let them think and hopefully they "When you are the crew chief. you have to operate more on the big picture
., will eventually come up with some stuff
that is useful to us:
because there is a lot more than just the car to deal with - you've got the driver,
all the personnel, the pit stops to deal with. So you really can't be nearly as
"That's the place where the manufac- involved in the nitty~gritty details.
turers played the biggest part because "For me, I felt like I really needed to find people (where) I trusted their ability
manufacturers already knew from produc· and then teach them the way I analyze things so that I get the results back that I
tion engineering that engineering usua'lly would expect and trust them to do it for me. That was a big change."
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IN THE TRENCHES ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
ENGINEERING TOOLS can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as small as a tablet and as large as a wind tunnel. personnel at the shop. as engineers strive to mini-
To help tell the story of engineering in NASCAR, here we spotlight some of the many tools engineers use in their daily Although teams are lim- mize tire load variations. In Tire Testing Modeling
work. Top engineers have experience with every engineering tool and are experts with at least one or two of them. ited In the data they can other words, they want the TEAMS collect data on the
collect and transfer dUring contact patch - the area tires during test sessions.
race weekends. there IS where the tire touches the That data is transformed
enough information - like road - to be as large and into another form of
co~utatlOmll
additIve manufacturrng accurate simulatIon mod- changing track tempera- as constant as possible data that can be used in
technology corner IS a new els. The range of sensors tures. Video analysis of as the car motors around simulations and vehicle
type of 3-D printing that - and teams' creatIvity cars. engine control unit the track. Some teams models. These models
welds powder together to F1ui Dynamics In using them - IS nearly data. sound analYSIS - have their own shaker rigs, have been developed to
i
I
make metal parts that can unUZING high-powered
be used In load-carrying
applications
computers and specialized
software, uses numerrcal
unlimited. There's every-
thing from synchronous
versatile input modules to
K&C Rig
THE IONEMAncs and com-
that keep engineers busy
at the shop. It can also
help with real-time race
which cost millions.
Other teams rent time
on shaker rigs.
replicate the true. actual
physical performance
of the race tire so that
analysIs and algorithms hyper-accurate GPS units pliance rig IS primarily strategy. when teams are running
to solve and analyze used to measure vehicle their engineering tools or
problems. Fluid refers to dynamics. The race car IS Simulations. the tire will be
3-0 Modeling anything that flows - In attached to a 4-ton table. Scanning accounted for properly.
this case. airflow. Complex By easing the chassis A WHITE UGHr scanner ThiS IS vital because a firm
'I USING powerful software. equations (among the and suspension through produces a 3-D Image of understanding of the tire
J
engineers create virtual most difficult in the world a senes of movements, it the car. The car IS coated and ItS interaction with
models of parts and pieces of mathematics) are used can replicate and measure with a powder and then the car is a, large portion
:'1 for design, simulation and to explain the physIcs of loads that race cars expe- a series of targets/dots of what engineers study.
h
--
manufacturing. the airflow around the rience on the track. Just are applied to the surfi'ce
race car. Post-processing think of it as a mecha- of the body before being '-"'i:.
Computers And software translates the nized interrogator, whose scanned. Most teams have
Vehicle Simulation ~!.-: \~.
r
\
Y1"",: . \ \~,
/
sole purpose is to extract
numerical data Into charts
and graphs that reveal Internet Of Things mformation from jt~ four-
thiS capability in-house
and it's typically used In ENGINEERS are able to
Software high and low pressure SENSORS capture data wheeled subject. Each the setup-engineering Simulate forces and loads
COMPUTERS have been areas. Think of CFD as vir- from a wide range of of the manufacturers In phase. on computers that the
used for engineenng In tual Wind tunnel testing. sources/objects - every- NASCAR has K&C rigs the race cars experience at
NASCAR for decades. thing from race cars to teams can use and there IS the race track - how the ~~~.
At first. computers at the the movement of the air a privately owned K&C rig tires Interact with ttie ~
shop were used for basic guns tIre changers use. near Charlotte teams can track, different kinematic
modeling and engineering This technology helps rent by the day. geometries. etc. The
Wind Tunnel
i' I 3-0 Printing
ENGINEERS use ~-D prlnt-
calculations. and at the
track to calculate things
like fuel mileage and gear
determine values and
brings clanty to how
sources/objects Inter- live Command
"drive files" gathered by
data acquIsition are used
on the simulation model.
THE RACE CAR (or a scale
model of a race car on
ers to transform 3-D ratio Information. That's act. For example. teams Vehicle Simulation is run smaller tunnels) sits sta-
computer models Into changed The power of don't only want to know Center on powerful computers tlonary on a platform or
parts. The two most com- today's computers means how long a Pit stop takes. j, IN RECENT years, NASCAR USing speCialized software. rolling road. Air is pulled
mon forms of 3-D printing teams can take a wealth of USing loT technology, has guided the Installa- Some teams are now also
In the racing world are information WIth them on teams can immediately
'"! tion of hard networks at I-Post Shaker Rig uSing "driver in loop" simu-
over, around, under and
even through the car.
stereollthographyand the road and have suitable Data AcquiSition determine how long It "
2!
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the track that are faster HYDRAUUC CYUNDERS lators. These Simulators. Wind tunnel time allows
fused deposition model- storage space for the data AN ARRAY of sensors takes a tire changer to hit '§ and more reliable for attached to the car "shake" according to one supplier, teams to simJJate some
Ing. The printed models mined from everything gather. measure and mon- each lug nut. how qUickly ~ data transfer than older the car to Simulate track "prOVIde motorsports
<'i race conditions. Teams
can then be used for from Wind tunnel testing itor the car's performance he can get up from each < systems. Some teams conditions. Actuators at teams With a means to can measure things like
mockups to see how the to Simulation work. Along as it laps the track dUring side of the race car and
j have set up command each corner test the car's accelerate and stream- downforce. lateral force,
part will fit. Some FDM
plastic parts are of such
With more and more test sesSions. Collected how tight he got the lug i
~ 2'"
centers at their shops that suspension while three line their development pitch, roll and yaw. There
.. quality that they can
powerful computers. the data aIds engineers In nuts. It also allows teams
~
•
<i' are capable of receiVing aero loaders push or pull processes:' With DIL. engi- are several wind tunnels in
r, software teams use has understanding the per- to compare personnel
li ~ information from at-track to replicate the forces that neers can "physically" test the Charlotte area and all
immediately be put into become more powerful
Ii service. Just around the and specialized as well.
formance of the car and
helps them build more
and equipment perfor-
mance over the long term.
iI.
S I activities. This allows
teams to keep more
act on the car during a
race. These rigs are used
vehicle designs through
virtual environments.
of the manufacturers have
wind tunnels.
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VEHICLE DYNAMICS ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
)
vehicle itself and its chassis design. gains in how fast the car can get in, through,
il "In the racing world, it's also necessary and out of a corner, it's going to pay dividends.
to create those same physics in the virtual "Probably the biggest influence on lap
world so the program can do a lot of the times is corner speed," says Doug Milliken,
II analysis and design: work in combination president of Milliken Research Associates.
I
, with 'the engineer." "Vehicle dynamics is about getting around
Due to the complexity of vehicle dynam- corners."
)' ics and the wide swath of engineering
principles involved, while some non-engi-
j: neers can grasp many of the basics, this is
an area best navigated by degreed mechani+
jl cal engineers.
,I "There are lots of folks who understand
11
II how a stock car behaves or know when to
make certain changes, the car will behave in
a given manner," Stackpole says. "But it takes
I the vehicle dynamicist and the firm under-
I standing of the physics behind the vehicles
PRIMARY
ill
to actually potentially understand why. And
having that firm understanding ofvehicle
ENGINEERING TOOLS: dynamics helps you answer that question of
why the car is doing what it's doing.
"Lots of folks ,have real great anecdotal
I K&C RIG, TIRE
data, anecdotal ihformation about the car, or
TESTING MODELING, years of history, but it was that engineer that
I SIMULATION came in and helped quantify the problem
better that allowed a lot of the tools to get
developed to allow everybody to ask those
questions and get better answers out of it."
And in the event of rule changes, which
AT THE CORE of the engineering puzzle are common in NASCAR, a mechani~
in motorsports is vehicle dynamics, which cal engineer's understanding of vehicle
refers to what engineers call the "tire vehicle
system."
dynamics can mean the difference between
success and failure. Case In Point:
"It's a combination of the vehicle itself
and all its attributes, and then ultimately
the tire and how it interacts with both
"It becomes really interesting when
NASCAR decides they're going to change The Power To Change
the rules and make some particular
the vehicle and the "road surface," says thing that you've been doing illega}," says In the past, many of the early innovators
Mike Stackpole of Stackpole Engineering Graham Gatt, senior mechanical engineer in NASCAR made advances by the "cut-and-
Services. "Because ultimately. the tire will at Stackpole Engineering Services. "If you try" approach - make one change, see what
define predominantly how that vehicle is understand why that worked, maybe you it does.
going to behave. can explore another avenue to do the same With engineering entering the sport, that
"There's the vehicle dynamics section, thing with another part of the car." process has undergone a dramatic change.
which basically describes all the motions Teams devote a lot of resources to study- "If you make one change mechanically,
and forces that happen within this vehicle ing vehicle dynamics in an effort to drop lap let's say you change one spring, to someone
platform and how it interacts with a tire. times. But why not just put more money into doing cut and try, without the idea of systems
And then, if you branch out from vehicle engines, and rely more upon horsepower engineering, you might get lucky and you
dynamics, there are all different subsets of to get results? Teams do spend millions on might get the right spring," Milliken says. "If
things that feed that. The basic chassis itself engine development, but there's more to you think of that in an engineering sense, that
and all of its masses and inertias fit together lower lap times than straightaway speeds. change to one spring changes the whole car.
to define this ultimate system - from tires, The corners are where vehicle dynamics "By changing the load on one wheel,
aerodynamics, drivetrain, powertrain, the really come into play, and if a team can find say the right front, you've also taken weight
46 Follow us on twitter.@nasca,lI/ust,Sd
July2016 47
I
VEHICLE DYNAMICS ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
and put it on the left rear. And because the the car tighter or looser, but between those ward and get a little more weight on the front dynamic properties, tire properties - which What you are ultimately looking for
tires have different weights on them. the tire two is a wealth of detail. And jf you don't tires, rather than changing one spring and is a huge task in and of itself - and you can are the details of what is going on within
behavior is different. understand that, it's going to be very hard to run a lap with the simulation and it will give the setup of the car - whether it's weight
"Along with that spring change, you're draw conclusions, very hard to put a logical
putting the Weight on one front tire:
"'That's the difference, You can look at the you outputs just as if you had run the car distribution, aerodynamic distribution, the CHITCHAT:
probably going to want a different camber framework around it. whole system and see how one change snow- around the track and measured it with data roug~ness of the road and how the tire inter· Doug Milliken, MIT engineering grad,
I setting and you might want to change tire "Thinking in terms of the overall vehicle balls through to changing everything." acquisition systems. , acts With the road. co-author of "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics,"
I pressure a little bit. dynamics response is really powerful. You These simulation tools have various levels Those are some of the things you are president Milliken Research Associates
of sophistication - whether it's a quasi-static looking at with vehicle dynamics. Ultimately
[
"You can see how it snowballs. One
mechanical change is not one change in
think in terms of how the vehicle is going to
react and then you go back and say, 'OK. To Hammer Down: Sim Magic simulation of full dynamic simulation, or a
ride event simulation, There are a number
you're just trying to make, number one, more
grip, more ultimate speed, and, number hVO,
ON, WHAT'S AN
terms of vehicle dynamics. A vehicle dynam- get what we want, we need a different set of Tools used for vehicle dynamics engi- ENGINEER?
ics change would be. 'I want a little more tire loads and you know, maybe changing neering have evolved a lot over the last 10-15 of ways to break problems down. You can interpret your balance and be able to use that
understeer,' or, '} want a little less understeer.' that spring isn't the way to get it. Maybe we years. Now there are a lot of simulation codes have an all-in-one tool or a tool that does one to adjust your balance when the driver is say· "To me, an engineer IS some-
So that one spring change will probably make really need to move some lead (ballast) for- in which you enter your vehicle setup, aero~ thing in particular. ing, "I'm too tight here, I'm too loose there:' one who solves problems It's as
baSIC as that. There have been
engineers throughout history
When bUIldings fell down, some-
body had to figure out how to
make them stronger If you go
back to that. you can see that
an awful lot of people qualify as
engineers Some of them are also
numerate - meanrng they can
calculate things
"That was a bIg step forward
In engIneering - when someone
reaUozed they could represent
reality, whIch IS pretty darn com-
plex, WIth some farrly SImple
1
1 -
mathematiCs But the reality IS
always more complicated than
the mathematical model. But With
the nght kind of mathematical
model, as an engineer, you're In a
POSition to make progress pretty
qUickly because you can try lots
of expenments on paper"
I
always do theIr own thinking, and
that's why they are such Interest~
rng people:'
1
II
II 48 Download the free NASCAR lIJustr.tG app tociay
July20J6 49
.,
0'
DESIGN ENGINEERING ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
II EVERY PART on the car has to be built In the past, the fabricators were the years," says Hendrick Motorsports engi- tabs on the competition - engineers won't tions to their problems.
II at some point. That means there has to be design engineers. Even though they weren't neer David Kapp of Cup cars. uThe team hesitate to expedite the design process if "No two people are going to solve the
a design for it that either tells a fabricator engineers, they were engineering parts and generally wiII take that platform and try they see a chance to make a gain. same problem exactly the same way," Kapp
il how to b.uild it or a CNC machine how to pieces. Now it's evolved to where you're to optimize it until NASCAR changes the "In our business, any time we have says. "We all have experience; we all have
h
PRIMARY
I
cut it. using a computer aided design program to rules to such a degree that maybe some- what's perceived to be an advantage, we examples in our past where we've seen
If
In the design phase. team members do the drafting, drawing and make solid thing is no longer being applicable to the ~ want' to try to roll that out to the track as something work or not work.
!
I ENGINEERING TOOLS: dream up a part or piece - whether it's
the basic chassis, a truck arm, lower con-
models.
What teams spend a lot of time doing
sport. fast as possible to gain that advantage,"
"The main thing teams look at is to take Kapp says. "So we really try to compress the
"It's also very important for the end user,
being the race team, to be part of that brain-
trol arm or seat mount. Someone has to these days is trying to make the parts and what they have and continue to optimize it, design iteration times as much as possible." storming. We as engineers need to fully
II 3-D MODELING determine what the part or piece should be pieces as light as they can. revise and refine." And when it comes to upping the understand what it is that they're fighting
made of, how strong it needs to be, how it "The foundational piece that we begin Because teams are always trying to design gains, it's rarely a one-man show. against, what the problem is.
II
II will be made. with has been refined and revised over the improve parts and pieces - as well as keep Teams regularly brainstorm to find solu- "That open and clear communication
in the very beginning is critical to make
11"
I"~ sure we deliver a solution that meets their
'I
I
need."
One of the most crucial considerations
II',. in the design engineering process - as
I well as the one that can land a team in the
NASCAR doghouse - is pushing the lim-
III its, interpreting the rule book.
II "It can somewhat dep~nd upon your
view of guidelines," Kapp says of pushing
I
"
I,
;1
il right out of the bag and bolt directly to the car."
II While in-house engineers often "dream"
I:,I up new parts, in most situations, requests
iI
for in-house parts start with the individual
teams.
"The race team comes back from the
!
JI
I
track," Kapp says. "They're struggling with
either the current component not exactly
doing wh~t they need it to do, it's difficult
to use, it failed or they need more of a cer-
!Il
.'
II
J"
\
PRIMARY
ENGINEERING TOOLS:
tain component but the vendor doesn't have
any more on the shelf."
That's when the design engineering staff
takes control and moves into problem-
solving mode.
-The staff gets that request from the
3-D MODELING. 3-D team and tries to define the problem that
PRINTING needs to be solved," Kapp says. "We're trying
to define how fast we have to get these new
parts manufactured. We try to define how
many of these we are going to need. We try
to understand if it's a problem for all four
A LOT OF the parts and pieces for current teams or maybe it's driver specific.
Cup cars are made in~house. The larger "You get a lot of those questions
teams, especially, make a lot of their own answerej. as soon as possible so the design
,I items. These days, the smaller teams often engineer can start modeling that new com-
rely upon the larger teams to supply parts. ponent. Along the way, we may create a
The percentage of parts and pieces some rapid prototype part that we can do a physi-
teams are building can be as high as 75 per- cal mock-up with on the race car.
cent. It's gone way up ovec the last decade. "So, you try to understand what the part
In the past. teams would go to one of the is. If it's a durability item, OK, we need to
several chassis suppliers and order a chassis. schedule some durability testing. If it's a
It would come with the lower control arms, performance item, OK, then we need to
truck arms, spindles, drag links and steering do a comparison test between the original
system. Now, all that is made in-house, and product and the new one. Is it just a pure
a lot of the individual pieces that make up replacement in a sense that we only have
bigger pieces are made in-house. one and now we need two more? OK, let's
"When it comes to our sport. we're look- look at the manufacturing side. Can we
ing for something that gives us a competitive produce this part faster? Can we get it to
advantage," says Hendrick Motorsports the teams in time?" Maybe it's a material
engineer David Kapp. "Anything we can change. Can we source the material? It can
manufacture ourselves is a performance be anyone of those things.
advantage. It's to our benefit to manufacture "You continue to have these questions
that in-house so that it stays in-house. that need to be answered, and that's where'
"Imagine a simple part that appears to be you end up going and talking to all the
a box, I would like for (others) to look at that people in the loop.
and have to wonder, 'Is it hollow? Is it solid? If "All along, you're just doing your best to
it is hoUow, how thick is the waI1?' There are communicate and make sure everybody's
all those things that go into that. The closer on the same page so that when the product
we can keep those kinds ofitems to our- comes off the machine, it's ready to go to
selves, the better we are. the car. You've properly solved the problem;
"There are very few parts we're going to take you've actually answered questions."
,
52 Facebook.com/nllsclI,lIIustnJtfi/ JId/y20/6 ss
AERODYNAMICS ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
•
I Because you're turning left all the time, you
try to build sideforce into the car that actu-
ally generates an aerodynamic.force to the
left and that's rather unique to NASCAR."
The direction of airflow and how the
airflow is managed are also important ele~
ments of the aero engineers' work.
"There are things you will do at the front
of the car that will help condition the air
as it reaches the back," Bayless says. "For
rear down force, obviously the spoiler is
the external device for making rear down-
force. There are things engineers can do at
the front of the car that affect how the air
reaches the spoiler. It's really taking it into
an all-encompassing view of how the air
works around the vehicle as well as how it
I
~Aero is important in NASCAR because development because NASCAR regulates the aerodynamic development of a Cup "The amount of down force a car makes is that engineers also focus on sideforce. ing to see what each other is doing."
/
I
II
'.
54 Fotlow us on twitter-@nasca,l/Iust,Sd July2016 55
TESTING 2016 TECH ISSUE
I, r,
I
II
I
I
'I,
,
I PRIMARY
11
1 ENGINEERING TOOLS:
j
1
I
,P CIALIZED
, OW,
"
,II DATA CQUI ITION
Ii,I HARDWAR
Ii
II
II
I
II
components of the car and parts in three
dimensions and make sure everything is in
PRIMARY spec. He then logs everything that we've done
of the time. The basics of it are, you've got a track in previous events and what the driver
car and you've got to figure out what parts and did and didn't respond to, what you can hope·
pieces to bolt to it fully do t:'J.at identifies certain bounds you
The setup basically pertains to the suspen- want to operate within. If you get above or
sion. alignment and weight distribution - the below them, the driver won't like it.
items you play with in practice during race "That establishes your operating param-
weekends. eters you try to optimize with the setup."
"There is a lot ofengineering behind the And when it comes to the setup engineer-
race car setups and the process we use to ing process, getting it just right is becoming
install it," says Daniel Knost. former Stewart- increasingly important as NASCAR intro~
Haas Racing crew chief and current manager duces changes to reduce dowofm"ce.
of vehicle dynamics at SHR. "They are very "When there are rule changes. that's where
engineering driven." the procedure is the most critical," Knost says.
. Over time, as engineering tools change, "When you are setting up the car, you have
teams have developed specific processes they certain targets you want to hit. You'll have a
follow to prepare a car for action on the track. certain downforce aerodynamic distribution
''Initially. we review data from our previous you want, you'll have certain dynamic wedge
races that we believe are similar, and we look that you want - which deals with how much
for trends within that as to what should be load is on each of the four corners.
effective for the track we are going to," Knost "'\Xlhen there is a rule change, say cutting
says. "From there, we'll take measurements the size of the spoiler down. that changes the
of the specific car and parts and we use our aerodynamic distribution. Now, the front and
simulation tools to build a computer model of back are out of balance with each other and
the car as we plan to race it. Then we work out that can make you loose or tight
all the detail of the parts that go into assem~ "We will start adjusting the setup param-
bUng the car. eters to get the car back to the balance we
"At that point, we send the list to the know we need to be within while we've
mechanics that collect all the parts. They put compensated for the rules adjustment. That'~
all the parts on the car, and then it goes to the where that whole setup engineering process
setup plate. The setup technician will verify really kicks in."
everything matches the numbers and he'll
July20/6 59
58 For more. go to NASCAR.com!lIIust,.tH
I
, RACE ENGINEERING ~ 2016 TECH ISSUE
60 Facebook.com!nlJ5ta,lIIust,atfli July2016 61