A Cup Series racecar requires thousands of man-hours to build and prepare, with engineers and technicians specializing in everything from engines to chassis to shocks. The result is a machine of over 800 horsepower, capable of speeds pushing 200 miles per hour. Despite all this power, the NASCAR racecar is also designed with a number of safety innovations to help protect the driver in case of an accident.
For a car to be as fast as possible, it needs the right setup. A car's setup consists of a wide range of factors, such as shocks and springs, gear ratios, chassis weight distribution and much more. All of these factors have to be managed, adjusted and tweaked to get the car in optimum racing condition.
When a setup is accurate, the car is able to reach top speed, allowing the driver complete control. When the setup is inaccurate, the car isn't as fast and is harder to control, which means slower lap times. Everyone on the race team, led by the crew chief, works together to develop a winning setup.
Anatomy of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Car
Driver Safety
Safety features of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Car include:
- Double-frame rail on driver's side with steel plating covering the door bars
- Energy absorbing materials installed between the roll cage door bars and door panels
- Large cockpit — the driver is close to the center of the car for added mobility and safety
- Fuel cell holds approximately 18 gallons and features a strengthened bladder, thicker container and safer check valve
- Energy absorbing honeycombed material surrounding fuel cell
Gasoline Quick Facts
- The unleaded gasoline used in Sprint Cup Series cars is 98 octane (compared to 87-93 octane-standard in street vehicles) and costs between $5.50-$6.00/ gallon.
- NASCAR provides fuel free of charge to competitors in an effort to maintain the gasoline's purity.
- Teams use 12-gallon dump tanks on pit road to quickly fill the car's 17.75-gallon fuel cell.
- Sprint Cup cars do not have fuel gauges, so teams will weigh remaining fuel from each pit stop to determine the amount of laps a car can travel before another stop is necessary.
Fuel
NASCAR works hard to ensure that all teams are competing on a level playing field. One-way they help ensure equality is by providing all teams with Sunoco fuel, the "Official Gasoline of NASCAR." In an effort to gain a performance advantage, teams may risk using illegal additives. NASCAR attempts to control this form of cheating by providing the teams with their fuel in an environment where they can control the fuel's purity. In 2007, NASCAR began using "Unleaded" fuel for the first time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Teams refuel at the at-track Sunoco fueling station during practice and qualifying before switching to 12-gallon dump cans for use on pit road during the race. Each gas can weighs approximately 80 pounds when full and plugs into a quick release fuel tube, located at the left rear of each car. The fuel cells in each car hold approximately 17.75 gallons of gas at all tracks.
Since Sprint Cup Series cars do not have fuel gauges, the team will measure the amount of fuel put into the car during each stop by weighing the remaining fuel from each dump can. By knowing the weight per gallon of gas, a team's crew chief can determine how many laps the car can run before it is necessary to make another fuel stop.
Tires
Goodyear is the "Official Tire of NASCAR" and has been involved with the sport of NASCAR for more than 50 years.
Teams pay nearly $1,700 a set for Goodyear tires ($421 ea.) and can use up to 15 sets of tires per race.
The tubeless inner liner tire is used at tracks one mile or more in length. They are also mandatory at Bristol Motor Speedway on the right side. An inner is a tire inside a tire and used as a safety precaution allowing teams to return to pit road for service if they experience a blown tire. The inner liners cost approximately $90 a tire.
While Goodyear fills all tires at the track with air, teams will deflate their tires 100% and refill the inner and outer liner with nitrogen. Pure nitrogen is "dry air" while oxygen has varying levels of moisture. By adding nitrogen, teams are limiting the amount of moisture in the tires making them more stable under the intense heat.
"Sticker" tires are brand new tires that have the factory-issued sticker on the exterior. "Scuffs" are tires that teams break-in by running several laps on them during practice for use later in the race.
The "footprint" of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tire is the amount of rubber that touches the track surface. Typically the footprint is roughly the size of a men's size 11 shoe. The "contact patch" is the amount of rubber from all four tires touching the track at any given moment.
