The word technology is used frequently in motorsports. After all, it’s the driving force that makes this sport so intriguing. Unlike stick-and-ball sports, auto racing changes every day.

Technology affects rules decisons, the cost of racing, speed, winning and losing. Our sport revolves around technology.

Technology affects rules decisions, the cost of racing, speed, winning and losing. Our sport revolves around technology.
When comparing the three most visible types of racing in America, we look at NASCAR, IRL IndyCar and Formula One. The technology of each series can be related to the respective budgets. An average Indy-car team budget is $8 million, NASCAR is $20 million and F-1 can be as high as $700 million.
I refer to the 5-and-15 rule when making comparisons among these three series. F-1 is the top racing entity in the world. It has the highest TV revenue and by far the largest budgets. It is the leader in technology.
Five years behind F-1 is Indy-car racing and 15 years behind Indy-car racing is NASCAR. This comparison pertains strictly to the method of operating and technology, not popularity. The gap between IndyCar and NASCAR has closed dramatically in recent years as many of the engineers from IndyCar are now employed in NASCAR.
Let’s look at some of the comparisons.

Formula One

Technologywise, F-1 is rivaled only by NASA. It’s the epitome of racing technology. F-1 led the way in scale-model wind-tunnel testing, data acquisition, active suspension, high-RPM engine technology, full-scale rolling-road wind tunnels, real-time telemetry, ground effects, sequential paddle shift without lift, etc. We take notes from F-1 and bring technology to our side of the pond.
For instance, pressurized cooling systems, like the ones built by C&R, were used in F-1 20 years ago and are now standard in NASCAR.
F-1 races around the world. The teams are huge and bring as many as 100 crew members to a race. The garage area at an F-1 race could be described as James Bond meets “Star Wars.” The utilization of high-tech equipment reminds one of Mission Control at NASA. 

IRL IndyCar

The majority of IndyCar teams have very clean, efficient operations. Although the technology progression has stopped due to the spec nature of the series, the method of operation is still high tech. 
There are talented engineers, many whom came from F-1. The cars use high-tech components, engines and data acquisition. Technology advancements, in terms of development to make the car faster, have slowed considerably. The focus has changed to safety. I feel Indy-car racing leads the world in safety. Soft walls, crash-recording devices, state-of-the-art safety teams, mobile hospitals and cars designed around safety are all ideas that were generated from Indy.

NASCAR

Technology in NASCAR is an interesting subject. Because the rules hold this racing to components that are very antiquated compared to IndyCar or F-1, many don’t think there is a lot of technology involved. NASCAR stock cars have steel-fabricated bodies, carburetors, steel Ford-style rear-end housings, four-speed H-pattern transmissions, mechanical gauges, iron blocks, steel wheels and truck-arm rear suspension. One would assume this isn’t high-tech racing, but there is a tremendous amount of technology used every day to make these iron sleds run 200 miles per hour.
The teams spend many hours in the wind tunnel, both scale model and full scale. Most every team has a dynamic pull-down chassis test rig, a chassis dyno, a shock dyno, a Pi system (data acquisition), and a team of engineers.
NASCAR teams test on seven-post rigs, which is a vehicle dynamics rig used to test chassis suspension systems for better handling. Teams use computational fluid dynamics to develop cylinder head shapes, air intakes, ductwork and even body shapes. 
CFD is widely used in F-1. Data acquisition can only be used for testing.
The fact is  — all of this technology finds its way to the Saturday night racer eventually. Like the pocket calculator, extremely expensive when new, but very affordable once it hits the general market.