You've probably heard your favorite team talking about going to the wind tunnel. AeroDyn, located in Mooresville NC, was the first wind tunnel devoted to stock car testing.

Aerodynamics play a huge role in how the car handles. Air is much stronger than you might think: It can pick up a car and turn it over like a leaf. A number of safety devices, like the roof flaps that pop up in case of a spin, were developed to ensure that the car stays safely planeted on the ground.

Aerodynamics also is largely responsible for the Car of Tomorrow. The engineers for the race teams realized that subtle changes in body shape could have big impact on the aerodynamics and stretched the car out in all kinds of ways to optimize the aerodynamics. The result is that NASCAR moved all of the aerodynamic adjustability from the body to the front splitter and the rear wing.