CONCORD, N.C. — Eric Jacuzzi made the rare trip from Milan to Charlotte to Daytona Beach last week.
NASCAR’s Vice President of Vehicle Performance has been working on quite the cool, and unexpected, sports connection.
Stock car racing and luge.
“It’s been a really cool project,” Jacuzzi said. “I don’t have to hype people up very much. They want to be a part of it.”
NASCAR has been consulting for USA Luge as a technical partner over the course of the last year, ultimately hoping to improve the team’s speed down the ice.
The luge team eagerly jumped at a chance last summer to speak with NASCAR about becoming more aerodynamic in both its sleds and uniforms.
That sparked a partnership that even saw NASCAR’s branding on the athlete’s helmets during World Cup events.
Earlier this year in Salt Lake City, NASCAR scanned the athletes and their sleds. After the Olympics those scans will be made into 3D printed versions and run through a wind tunnel at Windshear in Concord, and even down a man-made rolling road.
“I told the coaches we’re going to do it NASCAR style,” Jacuzzi said. “We’re going to read the rule book a little bit and you guys tell us where are we going wrong and what we need to do to fix that.”
Jacuzzi credits USA Luge with having most of the knowledge, but NASCAR’s role is to take the concepts from beginning to end.
“We really want to make them feel like they can compete at the highest level,” he said. Ultimately this is not a one-year partnership.”
While the partnership is in preliminary stages, both sides hope it produces a major impact for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“If we’re going to put Americans on the podium on American soil we’re going to need to make improvements,” Jacuzzi said. “And that’s what we aim to do.”
Contact Nick Carboni at ncarboni@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.