Which teams are turning tire tests into improved performance?

RACENOTE.COM

By David Smith

Prior to engineers, laptops and simulation technology, NASCAR teams relied on testing. Those single laps on an empty track provided a base of knowledge on which to build. In the instance of Richard Childress Racing, testing played a pivotal role in both the rise and fall of a dynasty; NASCAR’s original test ban, back in 2009, stymied RCR, until Scott Miller, now NASCAR’s competition czar, integrated simulation technology that brought an old-school power into the 21st century.

Testing is all but gone, save for a few open test sessions under the watch of NASCAR and tire tests, closed experiments by Goodyear meant to identify the most competitive rubber compounds, while in turn providing welcomed track time to race teams.

The extra time on the track is such an advantage that NASCAR and Goodyear randomized its participants prior to the 2015 season, cutting down on the backlash garnered by choosing a track’s most trusted performer and behind-the-scenes politicking.

But which teams have actually capitalized on test sessions in 2016? To find out, I measured average green-flag speed rank, a NASCAR Loop Data metric, in races at tracks on which teams recently tested and compared it to the speed conjured on tracks without tests:

The biggest mathematical jump in speed rank belongs to the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team of rookie Chris Buescher and crew chief Bob Osborne, who move from an average ranking of 28.47 in races without prior tests to 20.33 in races with prior tests. Now, obviously, there is some sample-size fun being had here — Buescher has taken part in just three test sessions this year, two of them considered NASCAR “open” tests. But two of those races, Kentucky and Indianapolis, saw heavy surges in speed; he ranked 15th in average green-flag speed at Kentucky and 18th at Indianapolis, both over 10 positions better than what he averages on tracks without prior tests. Those two races also comprise half of the races in which Buescher ranked 18th or faster this year, with Fontana and the Daytona July race being the other two.

Richard Childress Racing is appropriately represented here. Austin Dillon, with crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe, saw a 7.44-position improvement on tracks after recent tests. Paul Menard and crew chief Justin Alexander improved by 5.82 positions on average.

Though not the biggest mathematical increases, the teams of Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex scored the fastest green-flag speed ranking in races after test sessions; Johnson ranked first and won at Las Vegas, while Truex nabbed first-place rankings at Charlotte, where he won the Coca-Cola 600 in dominant fashion, and Kentucky. It’s believable that two of the most well funded teams in the series extracted the most from their test sessions.

Of course, correlation doesn’t always imply causation. In the case of Johnson at Las Vegas, his No. 48 team has been a statistical stalwart on fast intermediate tracks like LVMS dating back to last season. For Truex, Charlotte was a track on which he earned a pair of top-five finishes in 2015. Still, the significant gains made by Front Row and RCR shouldn’t be ignored. They were much faster. It’s a good best that the tests leading up to those races played a role in their improvement.

Physical on-track testing will likely remain limited, because it’s such a budgetary nightmare. Simulation technology is rapidly evolving, providing more usable data for a team’s buck. The old-school practice of turning laps on an empty track will soon be obsolete.

Until then, it’s fun to figure out who might be receiving the best education from the old school.

David Smith is the founder of MotorsportsAnalytics.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA.