So apparently Autozone's Duralast brakes are now officially used by NASCAR? WTF!

FDP Becomes Newest Official Partner of NASCAR

 

Clicked the link expecting the story date to be 1 April.

It wasn't.

I know the crashes are the best thing about NASCAR, but this?

This is a bridge too far.

 

If you pay enough money, you can be the official tow truck of NASCAR. Naming rights are a source of revenue, like Lucas Oil having enough ad budget to pay for a stadium name. Doesn't mean every coach or crew chief uses the product. And it would not be the pads you buy at the store, they are very much thicker, braking at 190 mph eats them away at a more rapid rate than on the expressway.

 

If you went down and spoke to the crew chiefs, you would find that their cars use a lot better pad then Duralast. Nascar car brakes run pretty much cherry red from start to finish something only a speciality pad can do.
Don't believe everything you read.

 

Maybe they use Akebono.

 

You guys have all bought into the "go broke buying parts" mentality.
First off if you were to actually talk to a crew chief or driver they would tell you that the ONLY time they use the brakes is when coming into the pits, that is the ONLY time they use the brakes other than maybe to avoid a crash.
Most will tell you that if there is a crash you let off the gas and head for the center of the crash because it will be gone by the time you get there.
So once again, wrong info, NASCAR brakes do NOT glow red, because they do NOT use them.
Now rally racing and road circuit race cars brakes do glow red because there are twists and turns that they need to negotiate, thats why they use drilled and slotted rotors to dissipate the heat faster.
NASCAR uses vented rotors, just like you and I.
Duralast brakes are good brakes, not their cheap ones, but their good ones, their middle of the road ones are ok.
And you can bet your hairy *** they are changing those brakes before each and every race, just like they do with the engine, it gets changed before every race and rebuilt, and yes they use the same oil that you can buy.
If they did not use the parts they advertise that would be false advertising and is punishable by law.

 

I could not agree with this statement more. When we had our first disco II my wife drove it from 21k to 130k before we traded it. Original gaskets and drive shaft. Now, I did replace the drive shaft on our current truck but as for the rest I do not worry about a thing. Change fluids on time and drive it.

 

While I have seen NASCAR's "car of tomorrow" in various stages of assembly on a tour of the Roush facility in NC, I admittedly don't watch NASCAR enough to know their driving strategy, I'm more of a WRC/ F1/ Supercar Series sort of guy, and in those circles good brakes mean everything.

On what's available on the shelf at AZ, I've had enough bad experiences with their parts failing prematurely to just not buy anything there but oil, bulbs, belts, and batteries, or name branded parts. The QA on their Duralast branded stuff is all over the road, and brakes aren't something I'm too keen on taking that chance on.

 

I also prefer WRC over NASCAR any day of the week.
A friend of mine used to drive the transport semi for Dave Sensiba, the brakes on NASCAR cars are small, like normal sized car small, they do not use them for hard braking.
At 200mph the wind resistance slows them down quick when they let off the gas as well as the drag coefiecnt of everything else.
They remove as much weight as they can to make the cars faster and having a big old heavy set of rotors and thick brake pads only adds weight.
Once those guys are at speed they mash the go pedal to the floor and hold it, let up in a turn, mash it coming out of the turn, repeat. No braking at all.
Now a rally car on the other hand, brakes are very important.

I use Duralast brakes, they are good brakes, last forever and have a lifetime warranty.
Each to their own, I just dont want people thinking they have to go broke buying parts for their truck.