The Superbowl of NASCAR (The Daytona 500) is on FOX this Sunday at 2 pm. If you’ve never seen a NASCAR race before, this is an excellent opportunity to tune in, and I promise the race will be very exciting. FOX has an excellent crew working the race. Racing knowledge and NASCAR history coupled with interesting personalities and a bit of humor make for a great viewing experience. As a matter of fact, the Daytona 500 a few years back is what hooked Margaret and I on NASCAR.

So now you must be thinking, what is a “Thinking” man like Bill doing watching NASCAR? It’s all physics. Everything from how they adjust the suspension (round of wedge!) to give better handling in and out of the corners, to how much tape to remove from in front of the radiator (the balance between engine temperature and aerodynamics).

But the Super Speed ways of Daytona and Taladega provide an extra amount of excitement for the “Thinking” man. It’s basically Game Theory at 200 mph. All the cars on these tracks have a Restrictor Plate on their carburetor that restricts the airflow into the engine which has the effect of reducing horsepower. The main reason for these Restrictor Plates is for safety. Without them the cars can easily clear 200 mph and it was thought to be too dangerous for both participants and spectators.

Restrictor Plates also have the side effect of making all the cars have basically the same top speed. This means that you are never out of the race, and any one (from any starting position) can win.

The Game Theory part comes in to play because you can’t make a move without help. The cars all race in a single-file line and if you pull out of the line to pass someone, you lose your draft. The effect of this is that your car goes much slower and you start losing places to the cars in the line. If you can get some people to go with you (or if you go with people), you can form a second line and get the draft effect back. So it’s all about teamwork. Who can you make a deal with now that won’t screw you later (ie. Say they will go with you when you go, but then leave you high and dry to fall off the pace). But at the same time, everyone out there is trying to win the race. Very exciting if you ask me.

Of course I do enjoy the same things about NASCAR that our viewers enjoy. The wrecks. The fights. Retaliation. And so on. So I’m still human.

So give it try this weekend. If you don’t have the 3 hours to devote to it, just tune in for the end. Since all the cars are the same speed, nobody can pull that far ahead of the pack so it is still anyone’s race deep into the last few laps.

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