NASCAR Winston Cup Research Articles

On the Analysis of Balanced Two‐Level Factorial Whole‐Plot Saturated Split‐Plot Designs

This paper considers an experimentation strategy when resource constraints permit only a single design replicate per time interval and one or more design variables are hard to change. The experimental designs considered are two‐level full‐factorial or fractional‐factorial designs run as balanced split plots. These designs are common in practice and appropriate for fitting a main‐effects‐plus‐interactions model, while minimizing the number of times the whole‐plot treatment combination is changed. Depending on the postulated model, single replicates of these designs can result in the inability to estimate error at the whole‐plot level, suggesting that formal statistical hypothesis testing on the whole‐plot effects is not possible. We refer to these designs as balanced two‐level whole‐plot saturated split‐plot designs. In this paper, we show that, for these designs, it is appropriate to use ordinary least squares to analyze the subplot factor effects at the ‘intermittent’ stage of the experiments (i.e., after a single design replicate is run); however, formal inference on the whole‐plot effects may or may not be possible at this point. We exploit the sensitivity of ordinary least squares in detecting whole‐plot effects in a split‐plot design and propose a data‐based strategy for determining whether to run an additional replicate following the intermittent analysis or whether to simply reduce the model at the whole‐plot level to facilitate testing. The performance of the proposed strategy is assessed using Monte Carlo simulation. The method is then illustrated using wind tunnel test data obtained from a NASCAR Winston Cup Chevrolet Monte Carlo stock car. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

NASCAR Winston Cup Race Results for 1975–2003

Stock car racing has seen tremendous growth in popularity in recent years. We introduce two datasets containing results from all Winston Cup races between 1975 and 2003, inclusive. Students can use any number of statistical methods and applications of basic probability on the data to answer a wide range of practical questions. Instructors and students can define many types of events and obtain their corresponding empirical probabilities, as well as gain a hands-on computer-based understanding of conditional probabilities and probability distributions. They can model the rapid growth of the sport based on total payouts by year in real and adjusted dollars, applying linear and exponential growth models that are being taught at earlier stages in introductory statistics courses. Methods of making head-to-head comparisons among pairs of drivers are demonstrated based on their start and finish order, applying a simple to apply categorical method based on matched pairs that students can easily understand, but may not be exposed to in traditional introductory methods courses. Spearman's and Kendall's rank correlation measures are applied to each race to describe the association between starting and finishing positions among drivers, which students can clearly understand are ordinal, as opposed to interval scale outcomes. A wide variety of other potential analyses may also be conducted and are briefly described. The dataset nascard.dat.txt is at the driver/race level and contains variables including: driver name, start and finish positions, car make, laps completed, and prize winnings. The dataset nascarr.dat.txt is at the race level and contains variables including: number of drivers, total prize money, monthly consumer price index, track length, laps completed, numbers of caution flags and lead changes, completion time, and spatial coordinates of the track. These datasets offer students and instructors many opportunities to explore diverse statistical applications.

Fixin' To Git: One Fan's Love Affair with NASCAR's Winston Cup (review)

Sociologist Jim Wright has taken on a two-fold task in Fixin' To Git: to make a sociological study of nascar's Winston Cup Series and to reflect on his firsthand experiences in attending six races during the 1999 season—what Wright refers to as his "Fixin' To Git Road Tour." As such, it contains a mix of academic study and personal reminiscence, alternating between an academic tone and a folksy, even chatty one.

Fixin' to Git: One Fan's Love Affair with NASCAR's Winston Cup

In the past twenty years, big-time stock-car racing has become America's fastest growing spectator sport. Winston Cup races draw larger audiences - at the tracks and on television - than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. What accounts for NASCAR's surging popularity? For years a closeted NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cup's legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. The Fixin' to Git Road Tour resulted in this book - not just a travelogue of Wright's year at the races, but a fan's valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup racing. Wright busts the myth that NASCAR is a Southern sport and takes on critics who claim that there's nothing to racing but drive fast, turn left, revealing the skill, mental acuity, and physical stamina required by drivers and their crews. Mostly, though, he captures the experience of loyal NASCAR fans like himself, describing the drama in the grandstands - and in the bars, restaurants, parking lots, juke joints, motels, and campgrounds where race fans congregate. He conveys the rich, erotic sensory overload - the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel - of weekends at the Winston Cup race tracks. Jim Wright grew up in Indiana watching his father race on quarter-mile dirt tracks in the 1950s. After spending a couple of decades establishing himself as an academic, he began regularly attending NASCAR races in the 1990s. A sociologist who has taught at Tulane University and currently teaches at the University of Central Florida, Wright has written seventeen books. He lives in Orlando.

Fixin' to git: a fan's love affair with Nascar's Winston Cup

Fixin' to git: a fan's love affair with Nascar's Winston Cup

T HE C ALIFORNIA 500: M EDICAL C ARE AT A NASCAR W INSTON C UP R ACE

Background. Stock car racing is America's fastest-growing professional sport. With more than 5.5 million paid admittances and another 148 million watching the 34-race NASCAR Winston Cup series on television, emergency physicians are increasingly called upon to organize medical support for such events. Currently, little reliable information is available to assist in determining what specific personnel and equipment are necessary to optimally support a race event. Objective. To characterize the spectrum of presenting injuries and illnesses at a NASCAR Winston Cup event. Methods. This study was a retrospective review of all patients presenting to nine on-site first aid stations from June 19 to 22, 1997, for the inaugural California 500 race weekend at California Speedway in Fontana, California. Staffing of the nine first aid stations was provided by 20 paramedics, 25 emergency nurses, five emergency physicians, nine advanced life support (ALS) ambulances with two crew members each, and a medically configured helicopter with flight crew. Results. Of the 923 patients seen, 38 were drivers/crew, 230 were track employees, and 644 were spectators. One hundred thirty-six of the patients were treated in the two infield facilities, while 787 were treated in the grandstand first aid stations. Patients seen per hour peaked just before the start of the race at 73 patients seen. Of the ten patients transported to the hospital, three required admission. No deaths occurred. Conclusion. These data may assist individuals planning medical support for large motorsports venues.

The combined effect of heat and carbon monoxide on the performance of motorsport athletes

Two of the major stressors endured by a motorsport athlete (MSA) during a racing event are the effects of heat and carbon monoxide. To date, there has been little research into their combined effect on driving performance. Using an interactive racecar simulator located within an environmental chamber, subjects drove a simulated race (60 min) in environmental conditions similar to those that develop during a NASCAR Winston Cup oval track race (50°C ambient temperature and 10–12% carboxyhaemoglobin levels). Subjects also completed cool (20°C) and heat only (50°C) race simulations. During the simulations, oxygen consumption, heart rate, core and skin temperatures and psychomotor performance were measured. The results demonstrated that exposure to a racecar micro-environment combining both heat and CO produced significantly greater ( P<0.05) sweat loss and core temperature change (1.53 kg; 1.06°C) when compared to the heat only (1.14 kg; 0.73°C) and cool conditions (0.35 kg; 0.09°C). Furthermore, a significant decrease ( P<0.05) in psychomotor performance was also shown between the heat/CO condition (contact points=38), and both the heat only (25 points) and cool conditions (22 points). It follows that lengthy exposure to these two stressors could produce a substantial decrement in driving performance, thereby endangering the MSA and other race competitors.

Masculinity, Hierarchy, and the Auto Racing Fraternity

The burgeoning popularity of NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing promotes the growing association between entertainment, advertising, and the public enactment of gender roles. This article offers consideration of the competitive combination of fraternal institutions and technology that produces such a distinctive, influential entertainment spectacle. Such competition—in particular, the crescendo of pit stops—promotes the products of sponsors as well as influential models of masculine social conduct and collective behavior. Unlike other masculine rituals, the actions of stock car racers are meant to have direct association with our lives. Woven throughout these exemplars is the technological Doppelgänger: the race car. Both a mode of association and means of distinction between fans and racers, the race vehicle emerges as a multifaceted social construct reflecting the intentions of advertisers, the interests of the racing fraternity, the expectations of fans, and the regional roots of stock car racing.

The California 500: Medical care at a NASCAR winston cup race event

The California 500: Medical care at a NASCAR winston cup race event

From moonshine to Madison Avenue: a cultural history of the NASCAR Winston Cup series

NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing is America's fastest growing and most popular spectator sport. This book is a cultural and social reading of Winston Cup racing, the people who made the sport what it is today, and the corporations who sponsor the participants during their thirty-two race, ten-month quest for the national championship.