Prep school

Motor, Mar 1998 by Nash, Tom

Is it racing season already? It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were watching those exciting season-ending NASCAR races at Atlanta, Homestead and Las Vegas that would determine the champions in the Winston Cup, Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck series. And then there were those races in Japan, where fans there sat awe-struck at the thunderous and colorful spectacle of NASCAR racing. Can it be time to race again so soon?

While the rest of us enjoyed our end-of-year holidays, NASCAR teams went back to work preparing for the 1998 season. The amount of work they faced was staggering-new sponsors, new crew members, new combinations of owners and drivers and, for the Winston Cup Ford teams, new cars. Of course, everyone has to build or rebuild new cars for the coming season, but the Winston Cup Ford teams literally had to start from scratch. Ford has discontinued manufacture of the Thunderbird and wants to race the Taurus, their popular four-door sedan, a car the public can relate to. This meant creating new cars with new aerodynamics and physical structure. The time for designing, testing and perfecting the cars before the tracktesting sessions in Daytona was short and precious. In just a few weeks, the season would begin with a roar, and there was so much left to accomplish.

To make matters worse, in the second week of January, the media converged on the North Carolina shops of many Winston Cup teams like crows to a ripe cornfield, eager to get quotes, pictures, interviews and stories to feed fans of the most popular form of auto racing in the world. The last thing these teams needed was to stop their frantic work to speak with the press, to answer the same questions over and over. But they did, with great patience and grace. So, like a good little crow, I spent time with many of the teams, picking up kernels of information to share with MOTOR readers who want to know a little more about what goes on behind the doors of a NASCAR shop as it readies for battle.

Building From the Bottom Up

NASCAR vehicles are built from the chassis up, just like our own personal cars are created on the assembly line. The chassis of a racing car or truck is the backbone of the vehicle on which all the other systems are mounted. Since it's the central structure of the racer, the chassis requires special attention and is custom built for the type of track it will be run on.

NASCAR teams build different cars for high-speed tracks, short ovals and road courses. The steering, suspension and weight distribution vary for the 20 or more different tracks used. Due to budget constraints, the smaller, singleentry teams make do with a few cars and adapt them to the course at each racing venue. The larger garages with several entry and driver combinations for Winston Cup and Busch racing may build 18 or 20 cars for the season. Some cars will become "show cars," which may be used for drivers' public appearances and exhibition, or for use by the team's sponsors.

Many NASCAR teams choose to build their own chassis rather than purchase one from a chassis specialist, such as Laughlin. The larger teams, such as Roush, Penske and Hendrick, build their own chassis to ensure consistency and incorporate the features they believe necessary. Dedicating shop space and manpower and purchasing the materials to build chassis in-house can be very costly, but part of the investment is returned if they sell their used chassis to lower-budget teams.

Once a team has the chassis, it's further improved and modified by adding mounting brackets for the components, body attaching points, accessories, etc. After it's painted, the chassis becomes the skeleton onto which is mounted the engine and body skin. At this point, the team may have more than $75,000 invested in the chassis alone.

Next, the body panel "skin" is applied to the chassis by shop fabricators. "It usually takes the two of us about a week to fit the primed body panels to the car, which is then painted and plastered with decals," says Dale Clark, fabricator for McDonalds/Bill Elliot Racing. He and his shop partner, Kim Oliver, have already prepared several Taurus models for the 1998 season. The bodies' contours must comply with the shape templates authorized by NASCAR in order to be able to compete. The exact measurements of the car are checked by officials before a race. The roof, hood and grille are stock Ford panels. The aerodynamic quality of the car is extremely important for speed and stability, so the dimensions are checked and rechecked. At this point, the car weighs about 1000 pounds.

The suspension components are next added by a specialist who customizes the suspension dynamics of each car individually. We spoke with Roger Fortney, suspension specialist for the SABCO Racing teams, about his work. Roger's workshop is filled with parts that are thoroughly inspected and labeled as to their specifics and usability, then stored on shelves until they're ready for the build-up process.

A car is rolled on a dolly into his shop, and he builds the suspension based on the type of track the car is to be run on, driver preference, the results of testing and past performance.