NASCAR’S Next Gen car was too hot, so racing turned to 3D printers for a solution
NASCAR'S Next Gen car technology has leveled up and cooled down.
The stock car racing sanctioning body has teamed up with digital manufacturing company Stratasys to 3D print production parts for all of its Next Gen racecars. The parts include a windshield air duct piece and underside NACA duct that are used for cooling driver cockpits. They are the first 3D printed production parts to be used on every Next Gen car.
Although Stratasys was officially announced as a NASCAR Competition Partner on Tuesday, its parts have been used on the Next Gen cars for months. During a test session of the new car last September at Daytona International Speedway, drivers reported excessive temperatures were a concern inside the car, which teams debuted in competition when the 2022 season began in February. At the time of testing, NASCAR'S aero team brainstormed solutions to the heat problem and found that adding vents and ducts to the underside and windshield helped with airflow, reducing temperatures by roughly 3540 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASCAR Next Gen car designer and managing director Brandon Thomas.
“The difference between an unbearable sauna in 15 minutes to cars that they (ran) 600 miles on Sunday night,” Thomas said, referring to one of NASCAR'S most grueling races, the Coca-cola 600.
Once NASCAR found its solution in the added front windshield air duct and underside NACA duct, it needed a partner that could help it mass produce the necessary parts in a way that was efficient and cost effective. Enter Stratasys, which has worked with two of NASCAR'S biggest teams, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske, as a technology partner. JGR, a partner with Stratasys since 2005, has multiple 3D printers in its race shop in Huntersville.
The 3D printing company works across industries and applications, and fills orders for parts and printers, including a $20 million contract to supply its 3D printers to the U.S. Navy.
For NASCAR, Stratasys 3D printed the windshield air ducts, which help to funnel air directly into the cockpit, using its Saf-powered Stratasys H350 printer. It also supplied its Fortus 450MC printer to NASCAR, which designed and 3D printed the underside NACA duct for engine cooling at the NASCAR research and development facility in Concord.
Stratasys did not disclose the terms of its deal with NASCAR, but said it is a multi-year partnership.
“It is exciting to see the evolution of how NASCAR has used additive manufacturing across their vehicles,” Stratasys' senior vice president of strategic growth Pat Carey said. “We've helped them move from 3D printed prototypes to end-use production parts on their high-performance race cars.
“(JGR and Penske) have been quick to adopt cutting-edge technologies to enhance their car designs and provide performance advantages, and now we're happy to support the expansion to all NASCAR Next Gen cars,” Carey said.
Joe Gibbs, the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, highlighted the longstanding relationship with Stratasys.
“They've got four machines (in the shop),” Gibbs said about the 3D printers. “They never stop. It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it's so critically important to us.”
Thomas said NASCAR considered that teams with access to the technology could try to replicate the parts on their own, although NASCAR mandates that the parts be standardized.
“The surface finish would be different and that would be very easy to catch,” Thomas said about possible tampering. He pointed out another checkpoint.
“The other thing is that anything a team does to defeat this is actually hurting their own driver,” he said. “It's gonna make the car faster, don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day, they have to answer back to that name on the windshield.”
Even with the better systems in place for cooling, Thomas said that the cars can still reach 130 degrees when the outdoor temperature is in the high-90s. With summer races approaching at tracks in a warmer climate such as Nashville, Atlanta and Daytona, that's possible and makes the 3D printed technologies all the more necessary.