The Daytona 500 Experience

I've had some opportunities go and see some very unique places with my job. From the underground face of coal mine 8 miles from the surface to sporting venues and events. Some have been creepy, like the picture to the left of the mine. Others caused me to worry just abit about my health, such as labs and containment rooms at medical and pharmecuetal buildings. 

But for an event that screams raw power, there has been nothing like the Daytona 500. I'm not a racing fan, but after this week I have gained a much greater respect for the shear magnitude of this sport and the people who participate in it. 

The first thing I was amazed by was the amount of regulation that NASCAR provides in these events. I always was under the false impression that part of the thrill of the race was the fact that the teams had a wide open slate in tuning and tweaking thier cars. Not so! There are rules that not only dictate weight of the cars, but even the length and body style. NASCAR has gotten to the point of even issueing the rear spoilers to the teams before the race. Also, the cars run with restrictor plates which caps the speeds that the cars can obtain. The goal is level the field and make racing about the drivers and thier teams than about the technology race for the better car. This also helps teams standardize their cars which c

an help contain costs. 

So how fast can these cars go? Well, the trucks will generally go between 170 and 180Mph while the cars will be between 180 and 190Mph! The NASCAR representative told us a story about some testing that they did a few years ago. They were needing to test some new in car communications technology to make sure it could keep up with the speeds of a race. So the asked Rusty Wallace to bring a car and be thier test subject. They instructed him to do five laps as fast as he could. The technology worked great! Back in the pit, they looked at his car. The right side tires were blistering only after five laps. They then told him he averaging 240Mph around the track! They then asked him if he would like to go that fast with 42 of his closest friends 'double wide'. Rusty responded that there was no way he wante

d to go that fast again and that it was the scariest thing he had ever done. Morale of the story? These cars can flat out fly...

I didn't get to watch much of the races during the week because I was there to do a job, but on Sunday we were the guests of the track in thier suite over looking the track. Here is a panaramic shot of the track (sorry so small) :

The Daytona track is 2.5 miles in lengh. So the Daytona is a 500 mile race or 200 laps. In the case of rain, they can call the race anytime after 100 laps, which happened this time. They will seat between 180,000 and 200,000 in the stands and are able to sleep about 100,000 in the infield camp grounds. So this place gets packed. We had access to golf carts all week, but had to part them about two hours before race day because of the people. (As a side note, the track has to deal with law suits every year regarding people claiming to be hit by golf carts.)

The pre-race show was a short set by Keith Urban. So they packed the inf

ield by the pits with stages and howling Urban fans for the short, but sweet performance. To my knowledge, there were no Nicole Kidman sighting. (Keith is circled in the photo to the right). When he was done, they went to driver introductions and then cleared the area for the race. 

The television production for this event is a massive undertaking. During our time onsite we got to visit the 'TV Compound' which is where all the magic happens. This is an area of closely packed haulers and satellite arrays. All the audio and video comes into this compound and then is put together is many ways for delivery to all the viewing and listening outlets. There are timing and scoring, statistics, driving graphics, and even Fox's "Digger Cam" (which are cameras actually embedded in the track at the turns) are all produced here. The live feeds are directed, merged and sent out with less that a 2 second delay in many cases. We were told it is like doing a Super Bowl except they will do this every week for the next 38 weeks!

So then we have the race start. 43 cars are paced around the track by an official pace car. When they are all in the correct starting position the pace car pulls off (seen left) and they are off to the races (literally). It is quite the roar when these cars go by. If you should be standing at the fence (which isn't allowed, though they can't stop you from walking by) when the 'pack' comes by it literally will take your breath away. The power sinks into your chest like a mule kick. The picture depicts a two wide position, but during the ride they will get three and even four wide when it gets going. 

Something that I thought very interesting was the physics of it all. When the cars are lined up like this they are "drafting" which means they all are able to go faster. Due to the speed and mass of the vehicles, the draft will pull the cars along, but also the lead car gets a "push" from the line behind them. The longer the line the better the push. It is impossible for a single car to catch up with the pack with pack, or over take another car without drafting help. This is due to how evenly matched the cars are. Its about teamwork and who else might help a driver out. Its an very interesting team dynamic with teammates helping each other out, but they also have to rely on cars from other teams as well. 

We also we able to watch the race on a FanView device. These portable devices allow the user to watch the race from many different camera angles. You can view from the video feeds that are on the Jumbotrons, or from the driver's cameras in thier cars. Statistics are also available at the push of button. It was fun to listen to the officials channel during caution periods because you could hear the coordination and assessment of the wrecks or track conditions. As an added bonus, the headset that comes with these devices really quiet the background noise so you are not deaf by the end of the race. 

Its been a long and busy week here in Daytona Beach, but it was very interesting, entertaining and educational. I'm glad to be going home, but have greatly enjoyed the wonderful opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at racing institution. 

If you are a people watcher, this is the place to be. Everything from the rich and famous to the scary and infamous can be found at one of these events.