NASCAR Turns To Microsoft And Windows 8 To Streamline Race Operations

Race Operations on the Surface tablet

Have you ever experienced the chest-rattling thrill of a NASCAR race up close and personal? There is a lot of effort involved before the green flag drops to start the race to make sure all of the vehicles comply with NASCAR rules, and—most importantly—that the vehicles are safe. The pre-race inspection is a tedious process, but thanks to a new app developed with the help of Microsoft, NASCAR officials and pit crews have greatly simplified things.

Until recently, the pre-race inspections were executed using a paper form. The form consisted of a hundred or so individual items broken into categories based on the type of inspection. That form would stay with the vehicle and follow it through the inspection process—providing little, if any, value beyond the immediate race. The process was slow, and tedious, and consumed nearly 25,000 sheets of paper per NASCAR season.

Then NASCAR engaged Microsoft to help develop a more streamlined solution. Now, instead of paper, NASCAR officials and pit crews use a Windows 8 app running on Surface Pro 2 or Surface Pro 3 tablets to complete the process in half the time—and with a much greater visibility into the status of each vehicle for all parties involved.

I had a chance to spend a day behind the scenes and witness firsthand how NASCAR uses the app at the Charlotte Motor Speedway earlier this month. First, Fred Prendergast, Vehicle Inspection Tools and Procedures Engineer for NASCAR, walked me through the capabilities of the app and demonstrated it in action for me.

The app includes all of the items from the paper-based form, but in a format that is much more efficient and informative. A dashboard view displays all of the vehicles, along with their relative progress through the inspection process, and color coded flags for any identified discrepancies or violations. It is easy to see at-a-glance how the inspection process is proceeding, and with a tap or a swipe you can drill down on any individual vehicle to review more details about any pending issues. There is a button at the top to open up a digital copy of the NASCAR rulebook to verify any issues, and officials can annotate violations with notes or even photographs.

Every NASCAR official I spoke to praised the app, and thanked both NASCAR and Microsoft for developing it. It has simplified the process, and made their jobs easier. For one thing, every single item on the paper form required a signature or initials to indicate that it was good—meaning that officials were signing their names or initials hundreds, possibly thousands, of times for every pre-race inspection. The app uses a default good approach, and officials only need to flag areas where there are discrepancies and violations. It requires much less effort and input, and zero signatures.

You might think a bunch of mechanics and officials who are used to doing things on paper would be opposed to swapping to a new system, but Microsoft and NASCAR relied heavily on input from the officials who use the app to develop it. The net result is that there were no surprises in the finished product, and it wasn’t a case where NASCAR or Microsoft just created an app and ordered them to use it. The app was created to work the way the officials asked for it to work, so there is no pushback from the field.

There are a variety of tangible benefits to the app beyond just streamlining the inspection process. First, the app is essentially a wireframe that is built based off of information in a backend database. That means that changes can be made to the app on the fly simply by adding new fields in the database. As officials encounter new scenarios, the app can be tweaked and modified to address any new issues.

The second benefit is the cumulative value of the collected data. In theory the information from the paper forms would eventually be entered into a computer somewhere and kept for posterity, but it might take months and there was no real-world functionality to the data. Now, information is collected and stored in real-time, and NASCAR executives can quickly identify trends and patterns to help maintain a level playing field for all racers, and ensure an exciting, quality race “product" for the customers in the stands.

Streamlining the inspection process is really just the beginning. NASCAR execs are under a mandate to modernize and make greater use of technology—not just in the garage, but also for race fans. I met with Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer at NASCAR to talk about the future, and he told me, “The next step is to deliver our new technology to the fans. We want the fans to be that 44th driver. Everything Jeff Gordon is seeing in his car—the dashboard, the visual experience—we want to bring to our fans, whether they’re in the stands or at home."

Watching a few dozen cars drive at 200mph around an oval might not be your idea of excitement, but when you peek behind the curtain at all of the activity and moving parts that go into just getting those vehicles to the starting line, it is an impressive undertaking. Windows 8 and Windows touch screen tablets like the Surface Pro 3 are transforming that process, and putting NASCAR on a path to extract valuable data from the process, and deliver an even better experience for fans. Forbes.com