Mathematics is found everywhere in life, from art, cooking, sports, and auto racing is no exception. Many people know auto racing as NASCAR, which is a sport in which drivers compete against each other to see who can complete a set amount of laps first. There are numerous uses of math in auto racing: from the timing of laps, to tire pressure, weight, and many other examples. These examples of math in Auto Racing are differences between a racer placing at the top of the podium versus missing the podium all together. Inaccurate calculations can lead to a devastating roll over or taking the lead. In my Internal Assessment I will further research how tire pressure affects the outcome of placement in a race.
The purpose of racing similar to all sports is to win, and in order to do that there must be a lot of math correctly measured to lead to a fluent movement in the vehicle to give you the highest chances of winning. If you don’t use math and use it correctly then you will not win. The most important uses of mathematics in auto racing is through Car Setup and scoring measurements. How scoring works in auto racing is through a decreasing number system which scores racers different amounts of points based on their position in the race. Math is used in the scoring or points system of auto racing. The points system in NASCAR uses math in order distribute points to the drivers and teams. In 2016 NASCAR rewrote its rules on scoring, in the new scoring ERA it goes as follows. There are a maximum of 40 racers per race, the winner of a 40 person race would receive 40 points for winning while the person who places second in the race would receive 39 points. For every placement afterwards would be a decrease of one point. However the only exception to receiving points is if you are the top placed racer, the winner of every race receives an extra three points. ( I made a connection to slope and how the point system is based on a decreasing point system to award the fastest racers.). Involved in car setup can be a multitude of options, including but not limited to, tire pressure, aerodynamic drag, center of gravity, and many other small parts.
The most important and most common research I found on auto racing related to math was how the center of gravity affected top speeds due to the chassis being lower to the ground. Due to the more readily available information on aerodynamic drag, and lowering the center of gravity I decided I was going to research how tire pressure affected placement of each car. The plan of action I plan on taking is as follows. I am going to research the listed p.s.i in each winning car of a multitude of races, including, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, and possibly a couple more to research the top 10 races. My reasoning for choosing these ten races are because I wanted to see if there was any correlation between course variation that would cause a change in the “perfect amount” of p.s.i in the winning cars. I also want to see if a specific level is better on a specific course and possibly how to determine prior to the beginning of the race.
Before starting my research I created my own hypothesis, I stated, “I believe the winning racer’s car will have an average of 0.1 – 0.5 lower p.s.i over that of the second place racer’s car.”
I stated this because from understanding and my research from the old scoring system, the placement of each lap was not as nearly as important as the new system. Unlike the new scoring system the old you would not see points for placing first for every lap, instead you would receive a decrease in your time, only a .001 off your overall time but in a 200 lap race if you place first each lap 100 times you receive a whole hundredth of a second in a lap where milliseconds can be a determining factor in the winner of a race.
In the following graphs I have two sets of data. In graph 1 I have the reported p.s.i levels of the top two cars of the top ten races of 2015. In graph one you will see a different trend in the graph versus graph 2’s. Keeping in mind the orange dots are second place, nearly every orange dot is listed higher than the winning cars reported p.s.i. Furthermore, this actually
Apart of the application of math throughout a race cars setup is when there is an adjusting of the spring rates in the vehicle’s suspension. The ability to raise a cars spring rate is due to an increase in air pressure, which also means that a decrease in air pressure results in a decrease of spring rate. What spring rate essentially does is that it affects the vehicle’s handling characteristics, such as the car pulling or drifting in a certain direction, or wheel tightness. In NASCAR each pit crew driver and sponsor are considered a team, it’s the teams knowledge of the driver and car itself which allows them to choose the proper P.S.I for the vehicle. Air temperature is also an essential piece of information for every crew, if the air is too hot it will create friction inside the tires on a car going 200 miles an hour for 200 laps. Downforce, the air pressure traveling over the car’s surface, cannot be measured without math. If the P.S.I. is higher, the downforce will also be higher as a result, due to this result The effect on the course itself is that it creates a better tire grip, allowing higher speeds through turns and allowing drivers to maintain control of their car.
