The forecast for this Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited race at Daytona International Speedway looks clear for now, but if things take a turn for the worst NASCAR will be as ready as it’s ever been.
Maybe.
The racing series has unveiled the newly-developed Air Titan, a multi-vehicle platform designed to reduce the time it takes to dry an oval track after a rainstorm by 80 percent.
The system is comprised of a pumper truck that feeds compressed air into high pressure blowers being towed along the track surface by another vehicle that force standing water toward the apron of the oval where a vacuum truck sucks it up.
Several of the blower units travel together, staggered to cover the entire track surface. The vehicles are followed by jet dryers to remove the last of the moisture, and two brigades are positioned halfway around the track from each other running simultaneously.
The Air Titan will be on call for the Sprint Unlimited race and the rest of Daytona Speedweeks.
NASCAR hopes to gain real-world experience that it can use to further develop the system before employing it at other venues and events, and thinks it has a future beyond the sport in other cleaning and drying industries.