Go or No Go

Red, yellow, blue, green…sounds a bit like kindergarten class, but the colors on a template gauge block are measurements for passing a class much more complex - NASCAR inspection. At each Cup venue, officials place 32 templates over every team’s 3400-lb stock car. The template gauge block is slid between the body of the car and the edge of the template with a “go or no go” response – dictating if you got the pony into the show. The room for error is small - 1/16th of an inch for red up to 1/2 of an inch for green - so race shops are equipped with the same set of templates (photo of template rack) to check, double check, and recheck their cars before they ever leave the shop.