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But instead of completely retreating during
this time of general uncertainty, NASCAR and the racing industry
responded immediately to help make a life-saving difference.
The NASCAR Research & Development Center, located outside
Charlotte, N.C., has turned its high-tech capabilities into real
life medical assistance -- manufacturing face shields with its
3D printers and even a prototype human head that Wake Forest
doctors and scientists are using to research better treatment
supply options.
CORE Autosport, a team in IMSA's WeatherTech Sportscar
Championship, is similarly committed to helping out. Its team
shop is manufacturing thousands of facemasks for distribution
across the country.
Technique Inc., a Michigan-based company that normally supplies
chassis components to NASCAR teams, is making face shields for
medical distribution and has ramped up production to 20,000 per
day.
Roush Fenway Racing has developed a special prototype "transport
box" that helps provide a safe, workable barrier between a
COVID-19 patient and the many medical personnel treating them in
hospital rooms and transporting them on hospital floors.
When it comes to innovation, rapid response and answering the
call, the sport of NASCAR is all in.
"I think NASCAR is in a unique position across the industry and
especially at the Cup level where you have some of the best
fabricators and engineers in the world and we have all this
capability to make all these parts for cars, parts for testing
so you have a high talent pool and then you have the machinery
and the people needed to kinda do all this now," said Eric
Jacuzzi, senior director of aerodynamics at the NASCAR R&D
Center.
"That's what really puts us in a unique spot to be able to help
out."
Unlike any other major sports, the very essence of NASCAR racing
involves cutting edge technology conducted -- literally -- by
rocket scientists, engineers and tech geniuses who would
normally be putting their minds around new racing innovations.
Instead of making cars go faster, they are now helping a nation
try to manage a historic global medical pandemic.
"Sitting at home for a day or two is great, but I think most
people are starting to look at what they can do," Jacuzzi said.
"And the crew we have here working on this stuff is all
volunteer. People are volunteering to come here at nine o'clock
at night and stay until midnight -- all different types of
departments. It helps having people do that and even people are
taking some parts home and having their teenage children help
with cutting things out. So it's even giving students at home
right now the opportunity to contribute."
"We're used to working hard and being on the go all the time so
it's a big adjustment for us to kind of have this pause. But
this is helping us keep going and really just from an education
side, more people are learning about how to run these machines
and all that so it's good for everyone to feel like they are
contributing and helping out and they certainly are."
At the NASCAR R&D Center, Jacuzzi said the idea to mass produce
the face shields came from a random homeowners' association post
on a Facebook page.
It was a similarly random connection for Roush Fenway Racing,
according to the Roush team's Operations Director, Tommy
Wheeler. Dr. Brian Talenk, the brother-in-law of Roush's
Simulation Director Marcus Marty, reached out to see if Roush
had the capability to help both conceptualize and manufacture a
device that would provide another line of defense for the
medical professionals treating virus patients.
"I said, 'Yes, of course we can. Let's do this now,'" Wheeler
recalled.
"That was around lunchtime (last Thursday) so we mobilized here
so we could make some prototypes, which we did that afternoon
and got them delivered to Brian (Dr. Talenk) to see if they
worked.
"What ensued from there was a round of tweaks and things that
the doctors and such wanted. He started sending pictures and
discussing with his network of physicians and anesthesiologists
around the greater Charlotte area. We then did approximately
three more prototypes and by Friday -- a day later which I'm
pretty proud of -- we were online with what we call our Version
2 Box.
"They were impressed by that (timing)."
Since then, Roush Fenway Racing has delivered 58 units to
hospitals from Wake Forest to Miami. Wheeler describes the
devices as something similar to a "sneeze guard" at a salad bar.
The clear guard is placed over the patient in bed -- covering
their upper body from head to about chest level. There are two
holes that allow physicians and nurses access, but the
protection helps prevent the kind of immediate exposure that has
spread the virus.
"When they are intubating people, it can be a messy and
high-risk environment, because there's coughing, there's fluid,
it can become an aerosol," Wheeler said. "That's why they're
called aerosol boxes because there's pressurized air effectively
spewing small droplets into the atmosphere. Imagine you're in
critical care in the ICU or something. What was happening was
you'd have two or three healthcare professionals standing around
the patient as this (intubating) occurs and wipes out all their
personal protection equipment that as we know is already in
short supply right now.
"What this does is contains it, so now it moves their outer
garments from being the first line of defense to now a secondary
or third line of defense. It means we're wiping out less face
masks, less goggles, and effectively, the only thing exposed to
the threat is their gloves and sleeves."
Telling is that all these organizations -- plus many more in the
auto racing industry -- were immediately willing to offer their
help. In many cases, teams turned their facilities into
impromptu manufacturing hubs, absorbing the costs themselves in
the name of providing a greater good.
CORE Autosport, whose Porsches finished second and third in the
GT Class of IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Series Rolex 24 at
Daytona 2020 season opener, is making thousands of face masks
daily to help the supply, improving the product as they go.
"We got this idea, when (team owner) Jon (Bennett) was just
sitting at home watching the news like all of us and seeing this
national face mask shortage and we looked at each other and
thought there was something we had to do to help and very
quickly came up with this concept and idea for producing face
masks," said CORE Autosport Team Manager Morgan Brady.
"As the word has gotten out about these face masks the demand
has been increasing every day and we will continue to produce
these face masks as long as there is a need in this country,"
Brady added.
It's a common and assuring theme for so many in the racing
industry -- all willing to be all in.
"I am very proud of our guys and what we've been able to do for
our community," Roush's Wheeler said.
"This is a great example because the thing that makes NASCAR and
Roush Fenway employees unique compared to the real world is that
we have very highly skilled craftsmen and fabricators and
engineers. What really makes it unique is our 'whatever it
takes' attitude and our time-to-market expectation far exceeds
what the real world is accustomed to. That's what allows us to
go from concept to production to release in less than 36 hours.
"This was my rallying speech to my staff working on this
project. No one else can do this in this amount of time except
us. And we're going to. We're glad and proud to be asked to do
it.
"What can we do? Here's something we can do, so let's do it and
help everyone."
--By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level
Media.
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