{"id":29247,"date":"2020-04-02T15:05:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T20:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=29247"},"modified":"2020-04-05T14:25:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T19:25:29","slug":"nascar-industry-makes-a-difference-for-covid-19-caregivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/02\/nascar-industry-makes-a-difference-for-covid-19-caregivers\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR industry makes a difference for COVID-19 caregivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

The interruption to the 2020 NASCAR season as our country and the world manages the COVID-19 pandemic has been understandably disappointing and disconcerting for racers, fans, teams and the industry as a whole. But instead of completely retreating during this time of general uncertainty, NASCAR and the racing industry at large have instead responded immediately with exactly the kind of huge pick-me-up that is making a legitimate life-saving difference.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

The NASCAR Research & Development Center, located outside Charlotte, has turned its high-tech capabilities into real life medical assistance \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

CORE Autosport, a team in IMSA\u2019s 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 has similarly turned its efforts during this pause in racing to making face shields for medical distribution and has ramped up production to 20,000 shields per day.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

Roush Fenway Racing has developed a special prototype \u201ctransport box\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

When it comes to innovation, rapid response and answering the call, the sport of NASCAR is all in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what really puts us in a unique spot to be able to help out.”<\/p>\n

Unlike any other major sports, the very essence of NASCAR racing involves cutting edge technology conducted \u2013 literally \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting 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. \u201cAnd the crew we have here working on this stuff is all volunteer. People are volunteering to come here at nine o\u2019clock at night and stay until midnight \u2013 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\u2019s even giving students at home right now the opportunity to contribute.”<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to working hard and being on the go all the time so it\u2019s 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\u2019s good for everyone to feel like they are contributing and helping out and they certainly are.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It was a similarly random connection for Roush Fenway Racing, according to the Roush team\u2019s Operations Director, Tommy Wheeler. Dr. Brian Talenk, the brother-in-law of Roush\u2019s Simulation Director Marcus Marty, reached out to see if Roush operation 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.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018yes, of course we can. Let\u2019s do this now,\u2019 Wheeler recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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 \u2013 a day later which I\u2019m pretty proud of \u2013 we were online with what we call our Version 2 Box.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were impressed by that (timing).”<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

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 \u201csneeze guard\u201d at a salad bar. The clear guard is placed over the patient in bed \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they are intubating people, it can be a messy and high-risk environment, because there\u2019s coughing, there\u2019s fluid, it can become an aerosol,” Wheeler said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they\u2019re called aerosol boxes because there\u2019s pressurized air effectively spewing small droplets into the atmosphere. Imagine you\u2019re in critical care in the ICU or something. What was happening was you\u2019d have two or three healthcare professionals standing around the patient as this [incubating] occurs and wipes out all their personal protection equipment that as we know is already in short supply right now.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat this does is contains it, so now it moves their [health care workers] outer garments from being the first line of defense to now a secondary or third line of defense. It means we\u2019re wiping out less face masks, less goggles, and effectively, the only thing exposed to the threat is their gloves and sleeves.”<\/p>\n

Telling is that all these organizations \u2013 plus many more in the auto racing industry \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

CORE Autosport, whose Porsches finished second and third in the GT Class of IMSA\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,” CORE Autosport Team Manager Morgan Brady.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common and assuring theme for so many in the racing industry \u2013 all willing to be all in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very proud of our guys and what we\u2019ve been able to do for our community,” Roush\u2019s Wheeler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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 craftsman and fabricators and engineers. What really makes it unique is our \u2018whatever it takes\u201d attitude and our time to market expectation far exceeds what the real world is accustomed to. That\u2019s what allows us to go from concept to production to release in less than 36 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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\u2019re going to. We\u2019re glad and proud to be asked to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can we do? Here\u2019s something we can do, so let\u2019s do it and help everyone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service The interruption to the 2020 NASCAR season as our country and the world manages the COVID-19 pandemic has been understandably disappointing and disconcerting for racers, fans, teams and the industry as a whole. But instead of completely retreating during this time of general uncertainty, NASCAR and the racing industry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":29249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-29247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/NASCAR-Shields-7.jpg?fit=1152%2C864","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-7BJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29247"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29256,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29247\/revisions\/29256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}