August 21, 2018 10:12 pm

Wednesday, Revisit Planet NASCAR with Chuck Nice, Gary O’Reilly, and Neil deGrasse Tyson

If Formula One is the apex of racing and technology, and Formula E is the future of racing, that means that NASCAR is their bare-knuckled, unfiltered, unkempt cousin speeding around the track to victory… dodging explosions and collisions in their path.

For a time, I had a personal problem with NASCAR – I thought it was boring, that the cars were ugly, and that the drivers only knew how to turn in a single direction. However, after further investigation (and after watching a brilliant piece on Top Gear), things became clearer. If Formula One is all about finding the ultimate harmony of technology and racing, NASCAR is about feel. No fuel gauges, no speedometers, no F1 level access to technology, and no reason for it. NASCAR is all about pure racing and it has been since its origin, when moonshine runners modified their cars filled with bootleg alcohol to outrun the Revenuers, aka G-Men. What’s not to love? (And, since you know I love me a good movie, check out the holy grail of moonshine running movies, the classic film-noir Thunder Road starring Robert Mitchum.)

For this week’s episode of Playing with Science, we re-visit Planet NASCAR with Chuck Nice, Gary O’Reilly, and our resident astrophysicist and benevolent StarTalk overlord Neil deGrasse Tyson. On this episode, we take a look at some of Neil’s tweets to break down the science of this high-powered sport.

You’ll learn why “If you travel faster than 165 mph on the 24-degree bank turns at Charlotte Motor Speedway you will skid into the embankment,” and why “Rubber tires on asphalt grant a maximum speed of about 165 mph in the 24-degree banked turns at Charlotte Motor Speedway.” You’ll also learn about the role that Newton’s laws play in acceleration and speed.

Discover more about spoilers: how they increase the effective weight (traction) over a car’s rear wheels at high speed without increasing the car’s mass. Chuck tells us some innovations that NASCAR could implement in order to make him a fan including corkscrew tracks, solid rocket boosters, and “No-Brakes-NASCAR.” All that, plus, find out how long it would take a NASCAR driver to drive to the Moon!

Please join us tomorrow night for Planet NASCAR, with Neil deGrasse Tyson (Repeat) right here on our website, as well as on our Playing with Science channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen