Shocking, Isn't It?

In my never-ending quest to try to report about what actually goes on in the NASCAR garages, I bring you the shocking story of the procedure the rear-end shocks move through on race weekend. My partner in crime is none other than Luke Cunnington, our very own Miller Lite Dodge Shock Specialist. Luke was kind enough to let me follow him from the moment he removed the shocks from the car to when he turned them into NASCAR to finally getting them back on the Blue Deuce on Sunday.

To make this all the more shocking you get to watch it, not just read about it! But you'll still have to deal with me and my cheesy questions...

To start, here is Luke previewing the procedure with the rear-end shocks.



In this next video clip, we have moved into the Miller Lite hauler where Luke explains the difference between shocks on a road course vs. an oval and then shows us the shock dyno. (sorry for the rough edits!)



This video clip shows just a bit of the shock dyno working and then Luke explains the output on the computer. It is difficult to see the computer screen but essentially there is a graph with two curving lines that curve away from one another. So not only do these guys wrench on the cars, they do need a lot of computer knowledge as well to keep themselves on the cutting edge of the technology of speed.



Here Luke shows off the uber-organized shock cabinet in the Miller Lite hauler. I have found all the Penske haulers would put my closet to shame. Luke said it is imperative to have the shocks easy to find especially when they need to change them out quickly during practice.



And here you get a better flavor of how packed in the haulers are with crew members and equipment. Luke completes the process with the shocks in the hauler by removing all the air pressure from them and discusses how some teams abused shocks to get an advantage.



Finally, in this video clip we head over to the NASCAR Shock inspection station. Every team must have their shocks inspected, tagged and stored here before the garage closes.



On race day, the Brew Crew gets the car tuned as they want it and then pushes the car through inspection. The first inspection station they arrive at is always the shock station. Here they find the same inspectors from the night before with their tagged shocks. They cut the yellow tie off them and Luke usually has Stretch (aka Eric Bailey, the general mechanic on the No. 2 car) put them back in the car. Sadly, I don't have the picture of Stretch under the car so this will have to do.



Hope you enjoyed following the Miller Lite shocks around the garage -- Thanks to Luke and the officials for letting me document this on video and film!




And as always...thanks for reading!