Two NASCAR Cup Teams Using AI to Gain Competitive Advantage

"It just builds a little bit more each year," said Josh Sell, RFK Racing's competition director. "We're doing more now than we were a year ago. And we'll probably be doing more a year from now than we are sitting here right now. It just continues to evolve."

On its operational side, the team is using AI to streamline its process of race analysis. Some software is helping automate the data inspections for the team, eliminating the crew chief's manual process. To get codes faster, the team's engineers now utilize ChatGPT to generate them, letting them focus on the execution more. 

"It's trying to figure out ways where, instead of having a crew chief spending three hours studying whatever it might be— photos, videos— if we can shorten that to an hour of really impactful time," Sell said. "Looking at things that are important to them, not searching to find those things. That's the biggest gain we see; whether it's through the week or on race weekends, time is our limiting factor.

"You have a finite amount of time from when practice ends to when the race starts. What you can do to maximize the efficiency of that time is kind of a race in and of itself," he concluded.

As the best example, Hendrick Motorsports— the most successful Cup Series team— has already deployed AI tools for its race radio chats. The team is feeding its radio chatters into a real-time AI model to identify which calls worked and which didn't. 

"Information is speed in this game nowadays," said Tom Gray, technical director at Hendrick Motorsports. "He who can distill the information quicker and get to the decision quicker will ultimately race to win."

In one of the defining partnerships, Hendrick Motorsports is also collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) since Prime Video sponsored one of their cars. This technical collaboration has catapulted the use of AI across key areas for the team. 

For visual communication, Hendrick's engineers generate complex concepts as images when pitching new ideas and technical strategies. The team also uses AI for its four-decade-long race data to test old strategies and setups, giving them an edge for future success. 

"We've had a long history in the sport," Gray said. "Not only can we look forward, but we can also look backwards, back-test all the information we have, and see how that predicts the future."

With such high-tech AI tools, Hendrick Motorsports is undoubtedly making the most out of it this season. As seen in the current driver standings, Hendrick's racers, William Byron and Kyle Larson, sit top of the pecking order. Considering this, it is time for the other teams to make note of it and consider making use of AI-based tools in the future.