Stock Car Air Vents - Air Time

Depending on which track the NASCAR Winston Cup Series competes at each weekend, race cars can have 10 feet to over 30 feet of air vent hosing packaged inside them.

At a large track like Daytona or Talladega, teams will install as little of the vent hosing as they possibly can. These tracks demand speed and aerodynamics, so only a small amount of venting is used to cool critical areas such as the rearend cooler. On the other hand, at a short track like Martinsville or Bristol, teams will use as much air vent hose as possible to cool the brakes and the driver.

"At the shorts tracks, you're always going to use a lot more of the vent hoses to get air inside the car," says Lance Ferno, car chief on the No. 14 Conseco Pontiac driven by Stacy Compton. "We run rearend vents to the cooler, and we also use a lot of the hosing to keep the front and rear brakes cool. Somewhere like Charlotte, we don't need all that much vent hose."

As a matter of fact, at some of the largest tracks, teams don't even cut a hole in the front of their car for a duct because drivers are rarely on the brakes for any duration.

"With our restrictor plate cars (used at Daytona and Talladega), we don't cut an extra hole in the nose for the brakes," Ferno says. "At a track like that, the main function is to keep the rearend cooler at the right temperature. At some of the tracks-like Pocono or the two road courses-we use transmission coolers that also need to be kept cool."

Aside from drawing air into the car from the front, vent hoses are installed to draw air from the side windows. On the passenger side of Compton's car, a small bracket at the front of the window allows air to blow-sometimes through a cool box-onto the feet and upper body of the driver.

"The window vents are used primarily for driver comfort," Ferno says. "Each driver is different, but most guys like to have that vent hose blowing on them. It's all very basic. Some drivers will use a cool box that has air being blown into basically an air conditioner before it reaches them. You also have to take into consideration that it's cold at some of the places we race, so the drivers don't need them."

Ferno says the vent opening on the small right-rear plastic window serves one of the more vital functions. "The back window vent is what we use to cool the rearend," Ferno says. "The rearend has to be kept cool."

When it comes to the driver's side, the vent routing is a little different. While the back vent on the right side is used strictly to cool the rearend and transmission, the other side feeds to both the rearend and an opening in the back of the seat so fresh air can blow onto a driver. The vent opening at the driver's side A-pillar is also used primarily for driver comfort.

"A lot of what we're talking about is related to keeping the driver cool, but when we need them, there are a lot of other uses for vent hoses," Ferno says. "If we're racing at a short track like Richmond, I can't tell you how important those vents can be to help keep the brakes cool. It really all boils down to what kind of track we're at on any given weekend as to how much vent hose we use."