What does wedge mean in nascar




















In physics, this is called Hooke's Law. Car engineers are able to take advantage of a spring's unique qualities in a car's suspension system.

This system is meant to combat the negative affects of bumps on a road. When a car is moving and encounters a bump, that bump spends energy by transferring some of the car's forward force to upward force.

It can also make the tires lose their grip on the road. If you ever got a tire stuck in the mud, you know how important grip is. Springs are a great way to absorb the energy that tires encounter with bumps. With a spring at each tire, these suspension systems transfer the energy of the jolting tire to its spring, which pushes back.

This keeps the tire in constant contact with the road as the springs continue to push wheels downward. Even using springs, maintaining grip between the road and the tire can still be difficult when taking a turn at a high speed.

If weight shifts off of a tire during a turn, the tire will lose grip with the road and the driver will have less control of the vehicle. It turns out that the amount of tension on a spring can alter how much of the total weight bears down on a given wheel. When adjusted appropriately, the amount of tension on the individual springs can help attain proper weight distribution and grip during a turn.

Find out how next. We've seen how important it can be for suspension springs to help tires maintain a sturdy grip with the road. It's especially important on a racetrack where every second counts and accidents can end in disaster. To accommodate such delicate conditions, pit crews perform wedge adjustments to alter the tension on the springs.

But if you notice, these crews adjust the wedge only on the rear wheels. Actually, it turns out that adjusting the pressure on just one rear wheel is often all a race car needs.

That's because, as we mentioned earlier, adjusting the tension of one spring can affect the weight distribution on all tires. If you tuck a small piece of folded paper under one of the legs, the table will wobble. Now the wedged leg and its diagonal leg carry more of the weight than the other two legs [source: Guerrero ].

This adds pressure to that end of the car just like putting the paper wedge underneath the table leg. As with the table, the corresponding diagonal corner of the vehicle gets more of the car's weight.

NASCAR recently introduced stages to each race, breaking them up into three segments in an effort to make things more competitive. The first two stages each award points to the drivers in the top 10, making them valuable to the race for the playoffs, and reward drivers for running up front, even if they have issues or wreck later on in the race.

Since a caution flag is thrown after each stage, it ensures fewer green flag pit stops, closer fields, more restarts where action tends to happen and incentivizes the early and middle portions of the race. At Talladega and Daytona, the 2. At other tracks, where you let off the throttle in the corners or have to even use the brakes, bump-drafting at the wrong time in the corners can send someone into wall. When a car breaks a side draft, the resulting pocket of air that gets quickly filled can disrupt the other car, getting them loose or slowing them down as well.

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