Track Jargon

THE TEAM TRANSPORTER

A transporter carries the team's two cars (one primary and one backup) for the race weekend, as well as enough parts and tools to repair an entire car, if necessary. It also provides a place for the team to relax and meet before and after the race.

TIGHT VS. LOOSE

Drivers must adapt their driving styles to the behavior of their racecar, which can often change as a race progresses, becoming either "tighter" or "looser."

• Tight -- When a car is tight, it's hard to turn. To get the car to steer more easily, the driver has to lift off the accelerator while turning -- slowing down the car. This condition can be overcome during a race by adjusting factors like tire pressure, spring stiffness and chassis weight distribution.

• Loose -- When a car is loose, it turns too easily --so the car tends to fishtail. Again, the driver has to slow down to keep control of the car, slowing lap times. Tire, spring and chassis adjustments can be made to overcome a loose condition during a race.

Factors like track temperature and tire wear can play a part in how the car responds to the driver during a race -- even the amount of tape over the car's grill can have a profound impact on its handling. Juggling all these factors, the best drivers and crew chiefs are masters at adjusting the car during the course of a race.

DRAFTING

NASCAR racecars are very dependent on aerodynamics, especially on superspeedways. When two or more cars run one after the other at high speeds, they divide the amount of wind resistance (drag) between them -- and less resistance means more speed. That's why it's so common to see cars running bumper-to-bumper on superspeedways. This technique is called drafting, and it's a crucial art to master if a driver wants to win a superspeedway race.

BANKING

Most oval NASCAR tracks are banked at various degrees to create momentum and velocity. Banking can range from very steep -- more than 30 degrees at tracks like Talladega and Daytona -- to very flat, with virtually no banking on road courses.

Tracks that are progressively banked feature gradually increasing degrees of banking as they get closer to the track wall. This allows for cars to gain and maintain higher speeds in the outer lanes, allowing them to race more competitively with cars in the inside lanes.