Is the Daytona 500 Winning Margin Calculation Accurate?

[thetexan]

Am I crazy (don't answer that) or what? Every article I read about the Daytona 500 race shows that Denny Hamlin nudged Martin Truex by .011 of an second. According to my calculation if you use 12 inches as the winning distance (could be 8 or 9) that would make their speed at the finish 61.983 mph??! That clearly is not correct. The speed ranged from about 187 to 197 with 195 about average.

Based on 195 at the finish line (they were floor boarded at that point) according to my calculations that would make the margin .00349 of a second! A distance of 8 or 9 inches would make the time interval even shorter.

Am I missing something here?

tex

 

[gleem]

I thought I read (can't recall where) that the distance between them was 4 inches!

 

[berkeman]

Am I crazy (don't answer that) or what? Every article I read about the Daytona 500 race shows that Denny Hamlin nudged Martin Truex by .011 of an second. According to my calculation if you use 12 inches as the winning distance (could be 8 or 9) that would make their speed at the finish 61.983 mph??! That clearly is not correct. The speed ranged from about 187 to 197 with 195 about average.

Based on 195 at the finish line (they were floor boarded at that point) according to my calculations that would make the margin .00349 of a second! A distance of 8 or 9 inches would make the time interval even shorter.

Am I missing something here?

tex

Reference link?

 

[rcgldr]

It was reported as .0010 or .0011 second, and less than 6 inches. At around 195 mph, that would be about 3.78 inches. The photos seem to show a bigger lead than that, although the location of the splitter versus windshield versus tires could be different on the two body profiles.

 

[berkeman]

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/vc1mcxo9qlpzyrablggr.jpg

 

[thetexan]

It looks to me that the distance is about 8-12 inches. Hamlin's car is at the checker edge of the yellow strip which looks to be about 4-5 inches wide. Truex's car looks to be about 10 inches from the car edge of the yellow stripe. So that makes the distance about 12-14 inches approximately. Based on several other angles of the photo finish that 12-14 seems good. In any case we're talking thousanths of seconds not hundredths.

tex