Thanks for explaining that - I saw the video and was wondering "why are the other cars going so slow, is there a traffic jam?"

These cars don't seem to stick to the ground like they do in F1, so I guess they need to slow down a lot for the corner just like regular cars. Except for the guy who uses the wall to push him through the corner.

Okay but why didn’t anyone try this before? They just didn’t think of it? What made it a good idea this time but not any other time if it’s faster?

The 2022 “NextGen” cars are significantly stiffer than prior cars; it’s possible that they are stiff enough to be better able to run the full half lap without getting stuck, but I more suspect no one seriously considered it.

Even with Nextgen cars, it’s a last half-lap move at most.

I also suspect nobody seriously considered it or thought they could get away with it. If they don't add rules to stop it, you will see people welding bumpers or even wheels to the sides of their cars to take advantage.

IMHO they should rule it out changing the wall construction in some way that it no longer gives an advantage. E.g. attaching TecPro barriers to it.

I think they should design the walls to make this easier and folks should put wheels on the side. Let’s go crazy, that was awesome.

If everyone has side wheel, it would get boring fast. The one that can hug the wall first win.

It'll be too hard on the driver's brains as well

Just race in a giant sewer pipe, I guess, heh.

The obvious one is that it ruins the car, at the end of the video you see his car is stopped on the track, presumably he broke some control arms and can't drive it back to the pits.

So it works once, then you're out, and you have to hope you pull it off safely. It was a massive risk, not all courses have a wall that wouldn't have wrecked the car. He mentions that part in the video.

He actually drove back to the pits OK, amazingly enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27S42Y5km4I

That is pretty crazy. I can't imagine he kept his wheel alignment which would have been impactful if he had to keep racing, but it's impressive the suspension arms survived that. Maybe the new gen cage contacts before the wheels and they took most of the force?

I wonder if they modified the car for this at all? I've gotta imagine that he at least discussed the possibility of doing this with his crew before he went and did it.

He did discuss it with his crew with five laps to go, so it wasn't spur of the moment but pretty close.

Any recordings of this part?

Getting into the wall usually means a flat tire or at least being slowed down considerably. I don’t think you could do this on a superspeedway track because the forces and friction would just destroy the car before the turn was over. On a short track it looks to be a different story.

Its insanely dangerous. Really just neigh-criminally stupid.

Any little lip in the siding on the wall could have caused him to flip or twirl about or get speared or launched his engine all over the place. The walls are designed to keep people safe, including the fans. They are fantastically well engineered and made. But, if he had caught the wall wrong and was catapulted into the stands, he may have killed a lot of people, let alone the danger to other drivers, let alone to himself. The various safety systems, of which the wall was but one, aren't made for that move and could very easily have been compromised in very bad ways.

I mean, it was awesome to watch, just incredibly cool. I'm glad it worked for him, he's in the history books for that move for sure. I can totally see NASCAR evolving to utilize that move in the future.

But he put many lives at more risk than anyone was expecting in such a kinetic sport.

I think just this year the body design on the cars became strong enough to try this. He also risked a yellow flag being thrown which would have disqualified any passing afterward. But they weren't quick enough with that lol.

I get that he’s not going to slide off the track, but I don’t understand how he wouldn’t be slowed by the friction of the side of his car against the wall, though

He is slowed, but the other drivers are slowed more by the need to keep traction in the turn.

nitro_force - friction_force > max_force_before_you_slip_on_that_turn

I bet he was close to passing out on that turn, much like a fighter jet pilot can experience when they pull too many g's in a turn.

Speed through the turn is limited by lateral forces. The wall can provide more lateral force than the tires can. Yes, there's friction, but the cars are fiberglass, it's pretty slippery against a smooth painted wall (and they have a ton of power).

During the course of the race bits of rubber come off the tires and form what is basically a rubbery gravel. The racing line is cleared of it by the passage of the cars. Get down too low or up too high and you start sliding like you would on gravel. So he went high, accepted the slippery-ness and used the wall to keep him going the right direction as he kept the pedal down.

On the racing line, even with a clean track, they still need grip to turn -- he didn't.

Also to note that as it is the end of the race, they aren't on fresh tires and probably most/all of the field didn't have the full grip they would during other portions of the race.

He is slowed down by the friction of the side of his car against the wall. And probably by bits of his car being torn away as it slowly disintegrates. But the engines on these cars are powerful and can easily overcome those effects.

They should add wheels on sides as well to reduce lateral wall frictions!

I'm not sure small wheels would really be an improvement, and large wheels would weigh a lot. So it's entirely possible that a smooth surface is actually the best approach here.

2 Skateboard wheels embedded in the bodywork, to touch the wall front and rear, and off to the races.