Local robotics team makes pit stop in Lexington

By Shannon Mann

As the first professional sport to welcome back fans during the COVID pandemic, a North Carolina-based NASCAR team also welcomed a few students from Johnston County for a STEM-based pit stop recently.

Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in Lexington, invited the Techno Tigresses — Johnston County’s only all-girl FIRST Lego League Challenge team — for a tour to talk about how NASCAR incorporates technology and fitness into their sport.

As part of this year’s robotics competition theme, “Game Changers,” teams across the globe will examine the evolution of sports and activities that make people physically and mentally strong. Teams will identify problems within parameters of the theme and develop innovative solutions for solving those problems.

“We learned that drivers and pit crews need to stay in shape,” said Sloan Mann, robotics team member. “They have a really big gym at RCR and a lot of the pit crew were college athletes.”

Ashley McCluney, RCR’s director for partnership and event marketing, told the team the history of RCR and how Richard Childress started in the mid-1960s with an old taxi cab that he purchased for $20.

“Today, we have 12 to 15 cars per driver and a budget well into the millions,” she said.

McCluney allowed the team to get a behind-the-scenes look at how race cars are built and fitted to each driver and track, and how technology embedded into the cars helps pit crews make real-time decisions.

The robotics team even got to try their hand at using a few tools while visiting the Caterpillar Pit Stop Simulator.

“I thought it was very interesting because coming into it I knew almost nothing about race cars,” said Kaitlyn Nolte, robotics team member, “Coming out I know a decent amount about RCR and how statistics and technology are used to get better.”