A NASCAR driver often cuts his way through chaos to win races. From wrenches flying in the pit stall to shouted instructions from the spotter on the team radio, it’s rush hour once the green flag drops. But inside the cockpit, there’s one silent guide always within reach: a simple strip of tape on the steering wheel.
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The tape is a practical aid that provides a reference to the wheel’s center position, a.k.a. the 12 o’clock position. While the drivers have more than a general idea of the center, it’s the precision that can make or break a race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently explained how.
He was asked about the tape’s purpose by a fan on the Ask Jr. segment of the Dale Jr. Download podcast. Junior answered, “That used to be helpful when we would bust our a** and spin out, and we’d need to get the wheel straight. But now I think you use it to tell if you have a bent toe link or any kind of toe damage.”
The tape at the center isn’t the only reference, however. Junior pointed out that there are two more markers at the 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock positions. They help keep the steering wheel in the right position to change tires during a pit stop.
Laying out the mechanism behind this, he said, “Due to the geometry in the front, the casters, cambers, and how tight the wheel openings are, when you come to pit road, you’ve got to cock the wheel a little bit so you can get the wheel off and on.”
So while casual fans might think that a routine eight-second pit stop in NASCAR provides the driver with a breather, this is not the case. They still have work to do at the wheel. But how did the tape originate?
According to Carl Lopez, author of the book “Going Faster!: Mastering the Art of Race Driving”, it was race car driver Mark Donohue who first implemented this simple solution.
A 1990 International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee, Donohue was renowned for using his engineering expertise to fine-tune his own cars. His specific use of the tape was to assess the steering wheel’s direction while exiting a corner.
Nowadays, the tape is also a customization tool for everyday car owners to improve the visual appeal of the steering wheel. But for NASCAR drivers, it can be the difference between avoiding the wall and going head-on into a wreck.
