NASCAR Race Car - NASCAR.com - NASCAR Race Cars

A Cup Series racecar requires thousands of man-hours to build and prepare, with engineers and technicians specializing in everything from engines to chassis to shocks. The result is a machine of over 800 horsepower, capable of speeds pushing 200 miles per hour. Despite all this power, the NASCAR racecar is also designed with a number of safety innovations to help protect the driver in case of an accident.

For a car to be as fast as possible, it needs the right setup. A car's setup consists of a wide range of factors, such as shocks and springs, gear ratios, chassis weight distribution and much more. All of these factors have to be managed, adjusted and tweaked to get the car in optimum racing condition.

When a setup is accurate, the car is able to reach top speed, allowing the driver complete control. When the setup is inaccurate, the car isn't as fast and is harder to control, which means slower lap times. Everyone on the race team, led by the crew chief, works together to develop a winning setup.