Coming to Terms

Nasçar Definitions

• A-Pillars: The body pillars located next to the windshield.

• B-Pillars:The body pillars located behind the side window.

• C-Pillars:The body pillars located next to the rear glass.

• Aero Push: An understeer condition caused when a car pulls closely into another car's air stream. Taking the air is a term used when the downforce is broken by a car beside or behind a car.

• Balance: A term that aero engineers use to describe downforce, front to rear. Balance also is used to explain the situation in a perfect world when the least amount of drag is produced for the most downforce exerted.

• Bell Housing: A metal housing that bolts to the rear of the engine block, covers the clutch and flywheel and allows the transmission to be bolted to the engine. It actually looks similar to a bell.

• Brake Fade:When the brake pads, rotors and fluid exceed their operating temperatures and they no longer stop the car consistently.

• Bump Steer:the amount of change of toe in or toe out when suspension travels up or down.

• Bump Drafting: A version of drafting in which one car bumps another. The initial contact breaks downforce and drag forces momenarily, giving the lead car as much as 100 more usuable horsepower, rocketing it away fromthe pack w/out totally breaking the draft.

• Busch Grand National or BGN: Racing circuit that is one level lower than the championship Winston Cup Series.

• Center Of Gravity: an imaginary line that runs front to rear at the cars perfect center of mass.

• Craftsman Truck Series: A 3rd NASCAR circuit, besides BGN and Winston Cup, with pickup truck bodies mounted on a stock car chassis created to appeal to the growing number of truck owners in America.

• Drag: The force that uses up energy as horsepower as an object is propelled through the wind.

• Depth Gauge: It measures the depth holes in the top of a tire and tells us the difference in wear between a new tire and a tire that just came off the track. It lets us know how far we can run on a particular set of tires before it gets too worn down.

• Downforce: The amount of force exerted downward on a car by wind force. It is related to speed.

• Drafting: A term used to explain the phenomenon that occurs when a group of cars hooks together in a train, fooling the air by breaking the wind with one surface, which lessons downforce and drag force because these are exerted over a number of cars.

• Flags:Flags are used by NASCAR officials to notify drivers of some important information while they are on the track racing.

• Footprint: The amount in square inches that each tire touches the earth. Larger footprints enhance tire grip to the track.

• Front Steer: A term used to designate the location of seering components relative to front wheels.

• Fuel Cell:A mandatory container for carrying fuel in all NASCAR cars. It is a 22 gallon bladder in a metal tank that prevents gasoline from spilling out in an accident.

• Groove:The fastest part of the race track at any particular time of the race. It may start on the bottom of the track and move its way up, but its always the place where you want to run.

• Lower A-Arm: The other link for the lower part of this independent front suspension. The length and location of these A-arms establish the perimeters known as front-end geometetry.

• Pole:The #1 starting position in a race. It is the inside, 1st rows spot at the start and goes to whoever has won the qualifying race. So to *win a pole* means to have won a qualifying race.

• Oversteer:A condition, also called being *loose* where the car doesnt respond well to the drivers steering. When the driver turns the wheel, the car will swing too far and he is in danger of spinning out.

• Rake: The amount of change in ride height from left to right and front to rear.

• Rear Spoiler:A blade mounted on the rear deck lid of the car designed to alter the air turbulence sweeping over the car.

• Restrictor Plate:A plate attached between the carburetor and the air intake that restricts the amount of air to the engine and reduces the power of the engine. This is used only at the 2 superspeedway tracks, Daytona and Talladega.

• Ride Height: The designed height for a chassis to race at. This height is measured at frame corners.

• Scuffs: Scuffs are a set of tires that have only one or two laps on them. Scuffs are used sometimes in qualifying because they can be faster with the newness taken off them.

• Setup:All the various adjustments made to the cars engine, aerodynamics (such as the rear spoiler), tires, brakes, etc, for racing that particular day at that particular track.

• Short Chute:The change from wherever you were running to a short, straight portion of the race track. On a road course, for example, if you've just gone through a series of turns and then hit a short straight portion of the track, that would be a *short chute*

• Spindle: The component the front hub assembly attaches to, which allows the wheel to bolt to the hub. Spindles not only suspend the chassis from the wheel, but also turn, allowing cornering. Spindle height, steering arm location, pin height and king pin control many perimeters in the front end.

• Spoiler:The spoiler is the wing on the rear deck lid or trunk that catches air coming off the roof and back window. The air that hits the spoiler creates rear downforce that helps keep the wheels glued to the track in a turn.

• Stagger:The difference between the size of a right-side tire and a left-side tire. If the left-side tire is 87 inches, and the right-side is 88 inches, we have a 1-inch stagger.

• Static Camber: The amount of camber set in the vehicle initially when the front end is aligned. Camber settings change from track to track, depending on weight transfer, track surface, loads on the chassis, etc.

• Tow-In:The amount of distance the front tires are angled in toward the center of the car.

• Track Bar:Connects the rear housing to the frame of the car and keeps it centered under the vehicle. It can be adjusted up and down to change the car's handling characteristics.

• Upper A-Arm: The link that fastens the spindle to the top ball joint as an assembly to the chassis.

• Wedge: This is the term used for adjusting the amount of weight on the chassis. You turn a jack screw built in the car and either add pressure to the coil spring or take it off. If u add pressure, that wheel and the one diagonally from it carry more weight and the handling changes accordingly.

• Wheelbase: The length between axle center line and spindle center line.

What the Flags Mean

• Black: Pull into your pit; you have broken one of the racing rules. This is used to signal an individual driver.
• Black-and-White Crossed: You are no longer being scored because you have not obeyed the black flag signal. This is used to signal an individual drivers that, essentially, they are out of the race.
• Blue with Yellow Lines: Move over and let faster cars pass you. This is given to drivers who are going too slow and are holding up the race.
• Checkered:The end of the race. This is the flag every driver has been looking for during the several hours of the race.
• Green:The starting flag and signal to begin the race or, if it was interrupted, to resume the race.
• Red:Everybody stop. The race is halted, often because of weather or a bad accident.
• White:There is only one lap to go in the race.
• Yellow:Be careful; something is wrong on the track. This could be an accident, wreckage, oil or or debris on the track, or rain.