Even Jeff Gordon's guys back at the shop are fast.While most NASCAR teams This is a list of NASCAR teams, a list of all teams that race in one of NASCAR's top three divisions (NEXTEL Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series). Full-time teams are teams that attempt to qualify for every race in their division (with very few exceptions, such as those form those sheet metal panels for their cars that are invariably in·var·i·a·ble adj. Not changing or subject to change; constant. in·var  i·a·bil dented, ripped, or otherwise destroyed on a weekly basis by hand (imagine your handformed work getting managled by Tony Stewart For other persons named Tony Stewart, see Tony Stewart (disambiguation).Anthony Wayne "Tony" Stewart (born May 20, 1971) is an auto racing driver who was born in Columbus, Indiana. He has won championships in sprint cars, Indy cars, and stock cars. !), Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports is a group of NASCAR racing teams started by Rick Hendrick in 1984 under the name "All Star Racing", racing only Chevrolets, racing in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series circuits. (Charlotte, NC) is using a different approach in its Metal Shaping Dept. Says Ralph Brawley, manager of that department, "In our business, we must remain flexible. Body panel designs change continually and we have to be ready to change with them." So they're using a castable polyurethane to produce diesets for some 300 replacement parts for the cars. It takes about a week to produce a dieset with the RenCast 6470 polyurethane from the RenShape Solutions Group of Huntsman Advanced Materials Advanced Materials is a leading peer-reviewed materials science journal published every two weeks. Advanced Materials includes Communications, Reviews, and Feature Articles from the cutting edge of materials science, including topics in chemistry, physics, (Auburn Hills, MI). According to Brawley, "Our RenCast polyurethane dies are strong enough to withstand the 400 tons of pressure used to form large panels like C-posts." C-posts are used for body side support. Brawley adds about the polyurethane dies, "They're also suitable for deep, three-inch draws." The cured material has a Shore hardness of 91D, ultimate compressive strength of 13,900 psi, and ultimate tensile strength of 4,700 psi. What about kirksite? "If kirksite dies were used, we'd have to melt down the tooling and start over with every alternation alternation /al·ter·na·tion/ (awl?ter-na´shun) the regular succession of two opposing or different events in turn. alternation of generations metagenesis. . Polyurethane allow us to simply mill out the die section being modified, recast the surfaces and we're back in production." Being fast is important for racing teams off the track as well as on. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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