It’s race day and life in the pit crew is like being a goalie, 99% boredom and 1% panic, working 12 hours a day every day. When I arrived at LOWES motor speedway in North Carolina, everyone was in this 99% boredom phase, or their “down time”. It’s 7 a.m. and the cars of each team sit in the one story tin garage building with unfinished concrete floors looking almost like it was temporary, halfway equipped for the upcoming race and surrounded by their respective crewmembers. As I walk through the inside of this garage, big enough for twenty-five cars but filled with about fifty cars, the walking paths are carved through the clutter of race cars, roll-a-ways and loose parts. It is right to say that it is crowded. The U.S. Border Patrols pit crew had to prepare for any possible mishaps on the track. Working on and off throughout the day wanting the car to be as safe as possible but also try to exceed the natural laws of physics.
8 U.S. Border Patrol pit crewmembers ranging from ages 20-35, all male, varying from Caucasian to Hawaiian, dressed in their team green and white turtle neck jumpsuits, are hiding away in the garage as they begin to take the car through rigorous inspections. Each having a specific job, but different from what they do on the track. For example in the garage there is the head builder, the fabricator, the chassis specialist, the gear specialists, and the mechanics, but on the track these men are the front and the rear tire changers, the tire carriers, the gas catch man, the spotter, and the jack man. Every pit crew must make sure that their car is able to pass two key inspections. One is to make sure the car is safe and able to run the whole way through the race with no major malfunctions, and two that the...
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...anks, rips of a windshield cover, get water for a driver and try to stay centered. As the car pulls out of the pit lanes it does a burn out as the driver accelerates to fast, leaving tire marks and the smell of burning rubber behind. To the naked eye tuning and servicing a car in a flat 14 seconds might seem like complete mayhem, but to the pit crew its their natural routine. But it hasn’t always been that way, because of the intense pace and strength needed in a pit stop, Each team member is required to go to Crew school, which is a school made for people and mechanics who want to be in the pit crew of NASCAR specifically. Asking Paul how the U.S. border Patrol pit crew does it he responds “its just one big choreography, like dancing each person knows were the other is at all times, the only difference is we are doing it on a car with a jack, air guns, and tires.”
In the past year and a half, NASCAR has revamped its penalties and violation claims towards its drivers, racecars, and the pit crew teams themselves. The new 2014 NASCAR rule book will display a new structure of guidelines that will be easier to read by the drivers and crew members. The list of penalties begins with warnings and then includes six penalty levels: P1 being the least significant and P6 being the most significant. Before the modifications were made, NASCAR had been perceived as racers and team members who would try and play the rule book and thought nothing applied to them. This issue was clearly illustrated in the 1990 Tony Scott film, Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. NASCAR has true rules and regulations for its racers and this movie falsely portrays the truth behind this.
NASCAR was formed by William France, Sr., who was an auto mechanic from Washington D.C. The current CEO is Brian France who is the grandson of Bill France. NASCAR headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida and it has several offices throughout the United States and some in Mexico and Canada. Before Bill France started NASCAR, racing was a very dishonest business where the promoters often stole money from the drivers. France believed that if racing became an organization with rules it would become an honest type of business. In December 1947, France asked many drivers and promoters to meet in Daytona Beach, Florida to create racing rules. NASCAR was created on February 21, 1948 and starting out racing on a track that was half sand and half asphalt. The track was called Daytona Beach and was located in Florida. (Jordan) I feel that NASCAR is a great sport for the fans and anyone else who likes racing in general. NASCAR has an interesting history and is still fun to learn about today.
Tucker began a one month trek to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He had a big interest in race cars and their designs, and decided to move to Indianapolis to get closer to the automobiles. He earned a job as the transportation manager, and looked over deliveries for the company. The designer and leader of the company, Harry Miller faced bankruptcy in 1933. Tucker and Miller then formed “Miller and Tucker, Inc.” and started building race cars. This new company continued race car development until Miller’s death, 10 years later.
The morning of their departure they loaded all the luggage and food that they could into Fredrick’s forest green Ford focus. Before they pulled out of the parking lot they had to lay some ground rules:
At its core, economics is all about how people make choices. Choices are necessary because we live in a world of scarcity. Even the richest among us have to decide how to allocate our resources. When it comes to racing there are several ways that the economy can have an effect on it. The economic downturn that began in the late 2000s and persisted through the early 2010s has revealed how much NASCAR relies on a healthy, growing economy.
There was once a time when people would get up on a Saturday morning, go into the garage, and tinker with their car, everything from a basic oil change and a tune up, to replacing the cylinder heads, and everything in between. It was a rite of passage for young boys to follow dad into the garage and have some good quality father/ son time, or it was a few friends getting together for an afternoon of friendship and camaraderie. It was a simpler time and a simpler car. Today, times have changed. Modern cars are now so complex that a person needs specialized training and tools to do the repairs; however, the “Shadetree Mechanic” is not extinct yet.
Nascar…. When you think of moonshine you think of the hillbillies in overalls fireing up grand daddys still in the b ack forty. It may come to a shock to you when you learn that nascars the billion dollor enterprise with 100,000 cars that are engineered to be as fast as they can be. Its hard to belive it all started from shine runners. During the great depression millions of gallons of shine were in need of distribution. This is where the ridge runners came into play. The shiners needed a way to get there shine from the stills to the stash houses…. The cops at the time had stock cars and if you could out run them then you wre free. You can only get in trouble if you are caught in the act….. the backwoods shiners started to build cars that would out run the cops. This was the beginning of nascar…..
The track was damp with puddles for unintentional obstacles. The competitors began to approach the starting line to prepare for the commencement of the race. Most people would experience the heavy
" Shut the car down!! You're done for the night." I have been around racing all my life and I have never witnessed something so intense. After 15 years, I am finally on a pit crew. Racing has taught me that I must be prepared for everything because one can never predict the future.
spectators in case of a crash, and the track is said to be the safest and
“Come on car . . . Please work . . . Just this once . . . There you go.
Dale was showing some serious celerity on the race track because he was driving so fast.
Dragsters Jonathan l. Dragsters. The cars that go in a straight line and get tested for speed to finish the track by. And this is what I’m working on and telling you about today. But first why do people even drag race or dragsters to use in the first place? Well it gives us a test of what drag and aerodynamics is and tests it in these cars and in this sport. It also help with students learning about technology (drawing, CAD, specifications and tolerances), science (newton’s law of motion, forces, friction, inertia, mass, acceleration, and so forth) engineering (design, prototyping, analysis, production, improvement) and math
It is 1am on a summer Saturday night, the wind is gently blowing through your hair and your favorite song is playing on the radio. The stress of your daily, white-collar routine is left behind for just one night – a single evening out with your friends to catch up on the chaos of your lives. You cannot help but enjoy this rare crack in your hectic, nine-to-five schedule; a fleeting moment when everything feels right and you feel free. In the distance, you notice flashing lights. Thinking little of what they could mean, you continue your journey. Suddenly, you come face-to-face with one of the most despised enemies of urban life: traffic. As you slow to a grinding halt, you cannot help but feel irritation, anger and helplessness. It is ruined. Your one night is completely ruined. As you take your place in the endless parking lot that was once a four-lane highway, you realize that the source stoppage is a massive construction project. You look and hear them pound at the pavement with their jackhammers. Trying to control your frustration, you take a deep breath, exhale, and turn your head away. Again, you feel the victim of this deepening social crisis: the shortage of skilled workers.
Formula One Racing Formula One racing, or F1, is known to be the most prestigious type of auto racing in the world. Unfortunately, in the United States F1 racing is not nearly as popular as other motorsports such as Nascar. On a typical Sunday afternoon if one were to flip channels on the television, Nascar would most likely be airing on a major station. Furthermore, if one were to watch the race he