Free and open to the public
Book signing to follow
Books will be available for purchase

Description:
A group of racecars piloted by the best drivers in NASCAR are turning a corner. Without warning, one of the cars suddenly hits the outside wall. There were no engine failures, no flat tires, and none of the cars touched. . . . so what happened?

This is the question that sparked physicist Diandra Leslie-Pelecky’s interest in racing. What she thought would be a ten-minute search of the web turned into a book, The Physics of NASCAR, that takes NASCAR (and science) fans behind the scenes at top race shops, onto the asphalt at Texas Motor Speedway and into the garage with the Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ No. 19 car and its crew. Her talk guides the audience through understanding what it takes to make racecars faster and safer, and why driving a stock car is much harder than you might think. Her talk is filled with examples of current NASCAR science, including why drivers seem to be asking their crew chiefs to help them get their cars to turn better, how SAFER barriers revolutionized track safety, why designing tires for the new car is such a challenge, and how something as simple as leaving an oil-tank lid slightly askew could lead to a competitive advantage. The talk – which assumes no prior knowledge of NASCAR or science – is accessible to upper-middle-school level kids and up.
http://coas.missouri.edu/events/thomas.html