[Pune_Bike]

Hello
I had an interesting weekend and thought I could share that with fellow enthusiasts. The company I work for sposers the Menards race team (Number 15 car) and we got passes for the race at the Michigan Iternational Speedway in Detroit on sunday Aug 17.

These pass were called Hot passes and let us go to the garage area, just outside the inspection area, the trucks, track, the trophy and last but definately not the least the pit. We saw the whole race from the pit and were sitting on the tires. It is just amazing what goes into making a race car and pictures do not do it justice at all. The cars are continuously sending data back to the control station and at every pit stop the tires were swapped, the removed tires were first put under a torch and the top layer removed, the depth is then measured (there are small holes with certain depth).

One interesting thing is that the new tires that are about to be mounted have the lug nuts soldered on to the rim and then just driven (guess it breaks the solder) when being put on, on an average there are 8-9 tire changes. At the same time fuel is filled (those tanks have 12 gallons of fuel). The front window actually has plastic sheets stuck on and at every pit stop the top layer is peeled off. The average time for a pit stop was around 12.8 seconds.
Had a bunch of pictures but had other folks in there and did not want to add theose snaps in here as well.

We had a chance of meeting the team owner and the driver, they were both wonderful people and I cant believe that they were so calm and relaxed and team dynamics was just awesome. Sorry am not much or a writer and cannot do justice to the whoe experience. I have some video of the pit stop and can email if someone is interested.

Pune_bike

[anku]

Wow that is one of my dreams you've just lived. Its an awesome experience to be in the pit whilst a pit stop is underway.

We want more pictures and videos too.

[aah78]

Hey!
Awesome experience! That's one thing that you probably can't do in any Formula 1 race - go out, examine the cars and have a chat with the drivers.

While NASCAR isn't very highly regarded among Europeans (NASCRAP they call it - you know the little thing about taking a big left turn), it's interesting to see former Formula 1 drivers make the change over to NASCAR.

Glad you got to get an up-close look!

[akshay4587]

Nice
you are lucky to have gone through such experience

[im_srini]

Hi Pune_Bike, nice pictures - it must've been awesome hearing those V8s thunder around the track. What surprised me was all the wires & stuff hanging about inside the car ! I remember reading somewhere that the lug-nuts are super-glued on the wheels...

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Nice
you are lucky to have gone through such experience

well, I've driven a Nascar at 170mph. I consider myself lucky too.

Originally Posted by anku

Wow that is one of my dreams you've just lived. Its an awesome experience to be in the pit whilst a pit stop is underway.

We want more pictures and videos too.

I've got tonnes of pix. Hang in there. lemme pull it out.
now here goes the briefing about it. I was in Alabama oct-nov last year and was really wondering all the things I could do to make sure i wasn't sitting in my room and watching a hindi movie online. I found this.the talladega speedway!! Now this place is bustling with a lotsa races and in those ocasional silent days, there is a different type of action. there's a group called Dale Jarett racing adventure (Incidentally dale jarett is a nascar driver too) which travels to all nascar racetracks and takes with them 20 cars and allows people like us to get a feel of it. its expensive I must add at 350$ for 6 laps. I signed up for 6 laps.check these teaser pix and I'll put the rest of the story and more pix later.