"Frightening" is how Jeff Gordon describes fire, even though he knows he's protected head to toe (and right down to his underwear) by fire-resistant Nomex fabric. Firesuits and the associated gear don't just protect drivers from fire, though--they decrease the rate of heat transfer, giving the driver a little more time to move somewhere cooler.

A racecar driver is like Goldilocks: The car always seems to be too loose or too tight. Getting the right balance is hard because the weight of the fuel changes and the tires wear during each green-flag run. Understanding the science is how crew chiefs make the car “just right”.

"Loud is fast" Brian Vickers tells us, and speed is one reason racecars don't have mufflers. Experiencing a NASCAR race means feeling the roar of the engines as well as hearing them. It's all good--as long as you’ve got your ear protection.

There's one thing every driver always want more of: Grip. Grip is the frictional force that holds the tires on the track, but crew chiefs like Steve Letarte describe it as a 'warm and fuzzy feeling' when you have it. Whether mechanical or aerodynamic, more is always better.

Friction always creates heat. Brakes and tires depend on friction to work, but more friction isn’t always better. In the engine, friction is never good and engine builders use everything from oil to high-tech coatings to get a little extra horsepower.

Conservation of energy explains how NASCAR's new car helped driver Michael McDowell walk away from a scary crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2008.

Engine power is constrained at superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega, so teams use aerodynamics to gain an advantage. Teams adjust their cars to minimize drag, but then it's up to the drivers to find 'the draft' and to trust the drivers behind them to literally "bump" them into Victory Lane.

"Science of NFL Football" is a 10-part video series funded by the National Science Foundation and produced in partnership with the National Football League. In this segment, NBC's Lester Holt looks at the role vectors play every time an NFL quarterback throws a pass. With the help of former NFL quarterback Joey Harrington, NSF-funded scientists Professor John Ziegert of Clemson University and Professor Rhonda Hughes of Bryn Mawr College explain how to use vectors to calculate the speed and...

"Science of NFL Football" is a 10-part video series funded by the National Science Foundation and produced in partnership with the National Football League. In this segment, NBC's Lester Holt describes what torque is and how the application of this force on an object causes it to spin. Professors Tony Schmitz of the University of Florida and Jim Gates of the University of Maryland explain that battles on the line of scrimmage are won by finding a player's center of mass and applying torque...

"Science of NFL Football" is a 10-part video series funded by the National Science Foundation and produced in partnership with the National Football League. NBC's Lester Holts explores the path a defender must take in order to tackle a ball carrier, and how this distance - called the "angle of pursuit" - can be calculated by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the hypotenuse of a right triangle, and the distance of a defender's angle of pursuit. Dr. John Ziegert of Clemson University...