Adrenaline is bound to rush through the veins when a motorsport enthusiast hears the bestial roar of a 670 HP stock car engine revving to its fullest throttle. Add to it the fact that when 40 cars run three or even four wide along the ovals, the chances of contact and commotion shoot through the roof. Hence, the teams devote a good deal of attention and resources to building their cars in a way that could somehow minimize the impact of these collisions, if not entirely avoid them.
On that note, it must be shocking when one learns that on top of its basic framework, the stock cars are as fragile as butter. After all, a car that is so susceptible to damage must definitely have a stronger build! A Tony Stewart insider reveals yet another shocking news about the Next Gen stock cars.
Tony Stewart’s team exposes the “naked” truth behind the Next Gen cars
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Team owners invest a fortune in each of their cars. Single-source suppliers provide each component of the cars after carefully manufacturing them according to NASCAR’s book of rules and regulations, and in terms of price, each car is as costly as a Lamborghini.
Additionally, the charter system opened its doors to the team owners in 2014 just to secure the hefty chunks of money that the team owners spend on cars to be able to participate in NASCAR’s three top-tier racing series. The cars are of so much importance that if a driver is injured and stays out of a race, the owner replaces them with another driver. That goes to show how important these cars are to the owners. Look at Chase Elliott; the Hendrick Motorsports icon is still in the playoff rumble solely for the fact that the #9 Chevrolet is in the owner’s championship for the current season.
Shockingly, social media personnel at Tony Stewart’s garage revealed how these high-value cars were nothing but a thin sheet of metal. “This is a naked race car. And this is a not-naked race car… Did you know that adding the sheet metal to the chassis of these cars only adds approximately 140 pounds?”
Quite a shocking revelation from SHR, don’t you think? However, there’s actually a very scientific reason why the teams make their cars so easy to crumble.
Being a NASCAR fan is probably the easiest way to learn physics
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Whether it is driving in good or bad air or leveraging the draft from fellow competitors, there is a vast application of physics on the tracks of NASCAR. So many aerodynamic factors work together to determine the speed and control of a car.
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A NASCAR race car bears kinetic energy that is about the same as the energy stored in 1.4 kilograms of TNT. Imagine a car running at 200 mph coming to a sudden halt. That impact would be gruesome, wouldn’t it? Now think about the most fragile component inside the moving car. Indeed, it’s the human body.
Watch this story: Denny Hamlin Blames Tony Stewart for Letting Down “Slowest” Kevin Harvick
If the chassis of the cars were rock solid, the entire impact would have hit the driver so hard that it could easily cost him his life. To obliterate that risk, NASCAR allows ‘crumple zones’ in its cars. These areas crumple upon impact, absorbing the maximum amount of shock in order to protect the driver.
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Moreover, NASCAR tracks are surrounded by crumple zones as well, which would crash easily if a car rammed into them. It does make sense now, doesn’t it?
Read more: Tony Stewart’s Mentee Becomes the Mentor as He Prepares to Take Kevin Harvick’s Mantle