Nascar's Hendrick Motorsports: The Technology in Its Secret Sauce
To create engines that power a winning team, Hendrick Motorsports relies on information fueled by top-notch technology.
CIO — Before officials drop the green flag at the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 for 43 hopefuls to surge forward, before Hendrick Motorsports stars Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon get close to gunning their engines, the people back at the Hendrick engineering facility have crunched enough data to make a driver's head spin.
That data serves up a recipe for creating and fine-tuning the engine parts and configurations to enable Johnson, Gordon, and their teammates like Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to demonstrate the winning speed that has some analysts calling Hendrick Motorsports the New England Patriots of Nascar
What's in a Nascar Car?
Jim Wall, engineering group manager at Hendrick Motorsports, and his team face a pressure-cooker situation back at the Hendrick campus in Concord, N.C. They're responsible for creating and configuring highly technical components that build out the almost primitive Nascar-regulation parts: the engine block (or cylinder block), cylinder head, intake manifold and carburetors.
The combination of part specs and configuration possibilities can seem almost infinite, and finding the winning combination requires hard-core testing and data analysis.
Creating that perfect balance is an ongoing challenge as conditions change and problems arise. The cars spend race day and a couple of days before a race testing at location; each week, engineers in Charlotte may have only three days to troubleshoot the cars at the main facility, design a solution, manufacture components that will solve the problem, and test and retrofit a fleet of engines, Wall says.
"We try to push things as hard as we can," he adds. "We're constantly searching for a better level of performance."
To match the furious pace required, Wall's team uses tools such as Siemens PLM Software's computer-aided design applications, which allows it to save time and money by creating and testing various designs virtually. After deciding on the best design, it produces a limited number, then builds the engine with that part. The sample engine is strapped to a dynamometer, a machine that measures the engine's horsepower and torque. If the part succeeds in that test phase, a small number can be produced and then tested on the track. If successful there, it can be produced on a wider basis and distributed throughout the team.
Using Technology for Information
All that testing produces a lot of data (a terabyte of data is backed up every night). To keep track of it, engineers use product lifecycle management tools (which help manage a product from birth to "death") and product data management applications, which warn the team of any problem configuration a part has had and which will show quality check history. All this information is accessible both at headquarters and at the racetrack.
