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Over the last decade large improvements in driver's safety have been made in all areas of stock car racing. A large contributor to the science of these improvements has been the data provided by onboard IDR's (Incident Data Recorders). Starting in 2002, NASCAR® (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc.) implemented its first IDR. Beginning with the 2011 racing season, a new IDR and mounting system resides in all of NASCAR's National Touring Series race vehicles. This paper details the testing, development and implementation of this system into the NASCAR National Touring Series.

This paper discusses the current and future demands and requirements placed on crash test Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) and the technologies available to address these demands. A full vehicle crash test today can require 250 to 350 sensors (not including the channels in a crash barrier load wall) and the complexity, size and mass of traditional DAS has many crash labs adopting alternate data acquisition strategies. Consumer information programs like EuroNCAP are putting four or more dummies in their tests, and the newer dummy designs have additional sensors for advanced injury assessment. The use of computer simulation models, while reducing the number of physical crash tests, has required additional and unique sensors in the dummies and vehicle to generate critical data for validation of the models. These new sensors include angular rate and optical deflection measurements.