Crew chiefs enjoying Laser Inspection Platform

NEWTON - It's pretty well known how stressful the inspection process can be for crew chiefs, especially in the NASCAR ranks.

With literal laser-tight parameters to be met, teams don't have much margin for error in making sure their car is legal and ready to race.

It's why the inspection room got its famous nickname.

'It's still the ‘Room of Doom,'” said a laughing Ernie Cope, the crew chief of the No. 5 JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide car. 'The ‘doom' is however far you decide to push it.”

Initial inspection at NASCAR events typically takes four to 10 hours, depending on the event.

Cars are put through a multi-step inspection process. Officials check safety features, undercarriage/chassis, engine, fuel cell, height and weight measurements. Cars go through the template process as well - each manufacturer is given eight unique color-coded templates - with one room checking the nose and tail, and a separate room placing 'The Grid” over the car, which templates the entire car.

From there, the cars are taken to the Laser Inspection Platform, which was introduced at the beginning of the 2014 season for the Nationwide Series.

The platform rotates the chassis to a specified position with white wheel caps holding connectors to move the car. Multiple points on the undercarriage are then scanned and matched with predetermined parameters in NASCAR's computer. The platform

It's a process that shaves tons of time off inspection, and removes all human error. Crew chiefs and teams are no longer at the mercy of one official reading a gauge differently that another.

'We've combined three inspection stations into one measurement,” said NASCAR official Scott Punch, who is an operator for the Laser Inspection Process. 'The actual measurement time it takes to do this is around a minute and a half, whereas it would take two, three, four people per station to take the same measurements in three times the amount of time.

'It takes the human error factor out of it, and to be honest with you, it evens the field up a bit more.”

Cope echoed Punch's words in saying he feels the fancy new inspection tool allows underfunded teams to get detailed information on their cars they otherwise wouldn't have access to.

Teams get a printed readout of everything measured by the LIP - camber, wheel base, tread width, etc. - and it essentially amounts to a setup sheet. They keep that in their ever-growing notebook for future reference.

And while the process still is very stressful for the crews, crew chiefs like Cope couldn't be happier with the LIP. It's simplified things and lets them know exactly where they're at.

'They used to have a bunch of hand-held gauges, and then you're at the mercy of who's holding the gauge and how they're holding it. This is the same for everybody,” Cope said. 'I think it's a fair system. Everyone rolls over the same platform. What it is, is what it is, and it's fair for everybody.

'Once I totally understood the platform, how it works and what it is, this is definitely the fairest way to do it, I believe.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com