NASCAR R&D Center Wins SAE Motorsports Conference Award

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International Motorsports Engineering Conference Award was presented to the NASCAR Research and Development Center on Tuesday for its efforts towards “designing safer and more competitive vehicles."

NASCAR’s new NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car, a seven-year project undertaken at the R&D Center, made its debut on the track in 2007 and was fully implemented into the series at the beginning of the 2008 season. The new car was designed with three primary goals in mind: improving driver safety, improving competition, and helping teams be more cost efficient.

Peter Wright, FIA Technical Consultant and the conference’s keynote address speaker, presented the award to Mike Fisher, NASCAR’s Managing Director of the R&D Center.

“The NASCAR R&D Center is honored to receive this award and our thanks and appreciation go out to all of the people in our industry who have been involved with the development of the new car, including the race teams, owners, manufacturers, and the staff here at the R&D Center," said Fisher. “Safety is our No. 1 priority and is certainly an initiative that we work on every single day."