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Comment by jacurtis | Hacker News Reader

If I understand this correctly, the glove was engineered so that it would slow him down when he put his hand out the window (the webbing in the glove would add drag to his vehicle).

I need an ELI5 on this.

How does using equipment that is designed to make you SLOWER constitute cheating? I truly don't understand it, so if my comment seems off-base or facetious it isn't. Please correct me.

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See other comments. The window has a non-glass mesh cover over it which lets air in. That increases drag. He's putting his hand against that mesh and thus blocking air from coming into the car. This reduces drag.

Small clarification but there’s a gap between the chassis and the mesh that is just open (almost forms a triangular hole opening).

He’s blocking the gap between the mesh and the car, not against the mesh itself. If you google “nascar window net” you can see what I mean

Seconded.

In addition I also struggle to see how any effect would be large enough. A person isn't strong enough to measurably slow down a high speed car with one arm by pushing again the car, so how would they be strong enough to do the same by pushing against the air?

It might have been enough. He was .033 seconds faster than the next position.

He was faster by pushing against air? How does that work?

It's not known if the glove made him faster, but... maybe. They'll sometimes put their hand up in a certain spot to redirect some air so that there's slightly less drag. The webbed glove would theoretically help that effect. How much it helps (or hurts) is unclear but with that little margin, it's a nice thought.

For the same reason that bigger brakes can make you faster around a track. If you can stay on the gas longer and reduce the amount of time that you're slowing down for turns, you will have a higher average speed.

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