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LAS VEGAS, NV – OCTOBER 15: Chase Elliott (#9 Hendrick Motorsports Hooters Chevrolet) answers questions from the media during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff South Point 400 on October 15, 2022, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV. (Photo by Jeff Speer/LVMS/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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LAS VEGAS, NV – OCTOBER 15: Chase Elliott (#9 Hendrick Motorsports Hooters Chevrolet) answers questions from the media during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff South Point 400 on October 15, 2022, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV. (Photo by Jeff Speer/LVMS/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Mystery still surrounds the world of motorsport with plenty of people not knowing the deep technicalities. Some things are quite basic and well-known, yet people don’t understand that. So, Chase Elliott took it upon himself to make sure it was known.
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Back in 2020, Elliott roasted an interviewer who asked something he thought was very dumb.
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Radio is a very essential part of any racing team; it serves as a crucial component of information exchange between drivers and teams. But the function of the radio is very different from the average road car. Unlike a road car, a race car radio doesn’t play your favorite songs on repeat. Elliott gave a good idea of what a racing car’s radio is like.
Elliott was featured on an episode of the Brilliantly Dumb Show in the same year he won his cup series title. The interviewer asked, “I’m going to throw another question at you. And if you could, I want you to answer the question and then give me a one to ten rating on how ridiculous the question is. Okay. You’re driving around the track. Are you allowed to turn the radio on?”
The Cup Series champion responded, “No radio pal. it’s 1o on Dumb. There’s no radio to turn on. I hate to break that to you.” Which led the interviewer to question, “You can’t throw in a couple of headphones or something. There’s nothing you like to listen to?”
Elliott replied, “Unfortunately not. It’s just you just, you know, all-natural sounds.”
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What’s the purpose of Radio in race cars that Chase Elliott talked about?
As discussed earlier, the radio is an essential part of all communications between the driver and their team. The radio is better known as the communication system which functions on radio signals. Nope, not the FM radios, but the radio waves that transmit the voices from the garage to the car.
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DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 14: Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 DoorDash Toyota, and Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series 63rd Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 14, 2021 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/via Getty Images)
The radio or “comms” button is a big red button on the driver’s steering wheel which they press and hold to talk to the spotter or the crew. Generally, the spotter feeds relevant information in real-time through the radio, and the voices go straight into the noise-canceling earphones that the drivers get custom-made for their ears.
In turn, the drivers themselves can hold the button to talk back with their team and that’s pretty much how radio functions in a stock car. Of course, the importance of a radio system in a race car is pretty high, and having a faulty comms system is “game over.” All important information from pitstop strategy to who is coming to take them out is addressed through the comms.
Written by
Edited by
Nischal Kandpal