@nascarcasm: 0.003 seconds in scientific perspective
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It can be difficult for the human mind to comprehend a span of time as short as 0.003 seconds. So allow us to put Sunday’s mind-boggling finish into some scientific perspective for you, thanks to some facts we pulled from Wikipedia. If any of these are wrong, blame them.
WATCH: Relive the wild Atlanta finish
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According to Wikipedia, the average, run-of-the-mill, boilerplate eye blink lasts somewhere between 100 and 400 milliseconds, according to scientific studies. Written out, that is 0.1-0.4 seconds. Daniel Suarez defeated Ryan Blaney by 0.003. Say we were able to put just the moment between the No. 99 and the No. 12 crossing the finish line on a loop. If you blinked, you’d miss 30 or so replays of it.
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Wikipedia tells us that the median duration of a lightning flash is 0.52 seconds (Which is comprised of several much, much smaller strokes). That’s over a half second. This is about 170 times longer than Daniel’s margin of victory. KA-CHOW.
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The hummingbird -- you know, that energetic little organism bouncing around from place to place, sort of like Tyler Reddick? Wikipedia says that these things flap their wings around 80 times a second, and a single wingbeat from a hummingbird can be as low as 5 milliseconds. What is that in decimal form? That would be 0.005. This margin of victory was shorter than a single hummingbird’s wing flap. TAKE THAT, BIRD.
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Take any pitcher with a thunderbolt of an arm and put him on the mound. The pitcher's mound is located 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. If we account for the release point of the pitch being a bit closer than that, and that pitcher throws an absolute 100-mph heater right down the pipe, it's going to reach home plate in around 400 milliseconds. That's 0.4 seconds. Daniel's margin of victory was 0.003 seconds. The time it takes for the ball to reach home plate is still around 130 longer than Daniel's margin of victory. Work on your delivery, fellas.
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It turns out that the wing flap of an average honey bee -- like a hummingbird -- is around five milliseconds. Another one of Earth's flying creatures that can't flap their wings as fast as Daniel's margin of victory. SOFT.
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That 0.003-second margin was between the No. 99 and the No. 12. But what about Kyle Busch in the No. 8? He's WAY back there, over twice as far behind Daniel Suárez as Ryan Blaney. By "over twice as far," we mean 0.007 seconds. Imagine you finish 0.007 seconds behind the leader and you finish THIRD. Bananas.