From the green to the checkered flag, a lot can happen during a NASCAR race. With up to 40 cars on the grid competing at speeds exceeding 180 mph in races spanning hundreds of miles, every lap presents potential incidents, penalties and decisions that officials must evaluate in real time.
For years, officials working inside race control towers at each track were responsible for this task. However, as NASCAR evolves, traditional race control operations needed to keep pace with the sport’s growing data-rich nature, pushing the towers’ limitations.
Today’s NASCAR races generate large volumes of information, including dozens of video feeds, telemetry from every car and radio communications between drivers and teams. The physical constraints of trackside race control rooms made it difficult to process all the information simultaneously.
In addition to the array of cameras positioned around the track and in-car cameras from every vehicle in the field, NASCAR also collects data from the cars themselves, including engine performance metrics and other telemetry streams.
Scott Miller, competition strategist at NASCAR, understands the challenge more than anyone. He has spent more than four decades in motorsports, including eight years overseeing NASCAR race operations. “NASCAR is always evolving. As the technology advances, we’re able to process increasing amounts of information. For example, we can monitor engine data and telemetry, which we could never do before the new technology,” Miller stated.
In the past, officials have had access to some of this information, but there was no central hub pulling it all together in real time into a single display.
“We had a replay system that we used in the tower, and it was completely track-based. It went from the TV truck to the tower, but that was as far as it went. There was no real way in the tower to bring in car data, radio communications and all the new and different feeds,” Miller explained.
Space limitations also meant that only a few officials could work in the tower at any given time. NASCAR wanted a solution that would expand officials’ visibility without disrupting the established race control structure.
“Race controls at the racetracks are limited in space, and they can only have so many people in there. We needed another way to get more eyes on more things as the event unfolds,” Miller explained.
To support officials working in the tower and manage the growing volume of race information, NASCAR set out to build a remote monitoring environment that could visualize the entire race in real time and enhance how races are monitored.