Using Alteryx to Perform Analysis of NASCAR Races

Introduction

This Alter Everything podcast (sound only) gives an overview of the work I have been doing over the past year for GM Performance Motor Sports. Of course, this is a high-level overview of my work rather than a detailed look into the data science and computational methods I’ve developed to do certain things with NASCAR data.

To get an idea of what this discussion sounds like, you can watch this 1-minute video preview that shows me explaining some work I had done in the past before joining Performance Motor Sports. However, this short video is unrelated to the NASCAR work I do.

The May 2024 Alter Everything Podcast

This podcast was recorded on Tuesday, March 5th, 2024, during the fifth week of the 2024 NASCAR season. During the conversation, I surmised that NASCAR has achieved a state of sporting parity that is unmatched, creating exciting finishes and unpredictable results.

Here is the podcast that does prove to some degree that I am a soothsayer! Thank you, Megan and Alteryx, for allowing us to have a fun discussion!

Inset picture of Jett and Ken Black at the Sept 2023 NASCAR Bristol Race. This is Ken’s third “Alter Everything” Podcast, recorded on March 5th, 2024.

Aftermath

Two months after this discussion, on May 5, 2024, Kyle Larson won the Kansas race by 0.001 seconds, the closest finish in NASCAR history. The cars were separated by about 3 inches at the finish line, with each going over 182 miles per hour. At the last computational point of my analysis code (a few feet away from the start-finish line), my analysis showed the cars separated by 0.002 seconds. These are the types of examples that give me great satisfaction because they prove the work that I have done is very accurate.

After that finish, I had to write a note to Megan to show her what I had described during the podcast.