Roush questions NASCAR inspection process: Team owner Jack Roush questions the consistency of NASCAR's laser platform, raising issues with an inspection process noteworthy for the numerous warnings issued teams this season. Cars must go through NASCAR's laser platform for inspection at the start of the weekend, before qualifying and before the race. The laser platform logs measurements of various parts, including front and rear wheel camber, wheel base and rear axle location. The laser platform can record measurements within 1/1,000th of an inch in some cases. Controversy has surrounded NASCAR's inspection process and the platform this season. Roush raised issues about the laser platform Wednesday night on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's "Dialed In" show when asked about inspection issues this season. "That laser machine is also a problem because it's recognized and understood by everybody that either operates it or either inspected by it ... it is not consistent, it does not repeat 100 percent of the time," Roush said. "It is off. We don't know why it's off. Sometimes, we think maybe the humidity has something to do with it. The temperature may have something to do with it. It does not always give you the same answer for the same set of circumstances on the car dimensionally. That's caused NASCAR to increase the tolerance sometimes. So if you've got something that varies and they give you a tolerance to take care of the variance and you're a racer, then you try to use the tolerance in your favor to make your car better." NASCAR declined comment.(NBC Sports)(6-12-2015)
RCR adding to engineering department: When Martin Truex Jr. won at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, he didn't get to Victory Lane alone. Certainly, there was the unwavering investment of time and effort of his Furniture Row Racing team. But the engine and the chassis underneath Truex came from a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing. JTG Daugherty Racing, Germain Racing and Circle Sport Racing also enjoys similar relationship the Welcome, N.C.-based race shop which has increased technological investment considerably over last year. RCR's Competition Director Dr. Eric Warren wasn't kidding when he referred to RCR's engineering department as the United Nations. In 2015, RCR has bolstered its resources with talent from all over the globe but primarily Formula One.
In January, Amro Karim, Miguel Botella, Travis Slagle, Richard Youden and Ben Siegle were added to RCR's engineering department. Karim most recently was a Vehicle Performance Engineer with Marussia F1 but also worked as a F1 Project Engineer for Wirth Research. Bottella was a Software Engineer at both Caterham F1 and HRT F1 Team. Younden was as an Electronics & Control Systems Engineer at Williams F1. Previously, he worked as an Applications Engineer at Racelogic, an Electronics Design Engineer at Hasford Sensors and a Systems Engineer at Honda Racing F1 and Stack Ltd. Slagle advanced from a Systems Engineer at Moog to Systems Development Lead prior to joining RCR. On June 1, Javier Marcos Padros, a performance engineer from Williams F1 and DIL Simulator Engineer Lawrence Hodge, who also worked as a Trackside Aerodynamicist with Scuderia Ferrari F1 and McLaren Racing, joined the fold.(Motorsport)(6-12-2015)