Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

CONCORD, N.C. — The crown jewel of Ford Racing's new 33,000-square-foot Technical Support Center is a simulator that embodies the next wave of NASCAR technology.

Both the tech center and its "Driver In The Loop" style simulator were unveiled to a group of automotive journalists and Ford's NASCAR drivers for the first time Wednesday afternoon, and Ford has high hopes for how the simulator will be used.

"This is a critical and necessary investment because it's the way the sport is headed," Ford Racing director Jamie Allison told USA TODAY Sports. "It's the natural evolution of where things are going."

All NASCAR teams currently use simulation programs to help determine which setups to bring to the racetrack. But those programs operate with a computer predicting the best line a driver would use to get around the track; engineers make inputs and then get data on how it affects the car.

But Ford's simulator, similar to the ones used by Formula One teams, will provide data generated by the drivers themselves. The simulator is a realistic driver cockpit on a full-motion platform — it tilts, sways, moves forward and backward and goes over bumps — surrounded by a wraparound screen illuminated by five projectors.

The images are so vivid and realistic, and the cockpit so close to an actual race car, that drivers could feel like they're actually on the track.

In demonstrating laps at virtual Charlotte Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International on Wednesday, driver Colin Braun had caught the car as the platform slid, matching the motion on screen.

Meanwhile, a control room behind the simulator will be filled with monitors, engineers and a crew chief — which will help teams try new setups in hopes of hitting on something that might work at the racetrack.

"A simulator is not reality by nature, but we continue to get closer and closer to reality," Team Penske competition director Travis Geisler told USA TODAY Sports. "It's really about improving our batting average when it comes to making changes at the racetrack. If this helps add an extra 10 or 15% to the chances of our changes working, that would be a big step."

Though the simulator looks impressive (no photographs were allowed due to it being proprietary technology), Allison said it won't be fully operational until the end of this year. There are still more tracks to map and more tweaks to be made to the physics engine — and then drivers will have to see if what they experience feels like the real thing or not.

"The next step will be to put Cup drivers in the car and say, 'Is this Charlotte?'" Allison said.

Allison declined to say how much the simulator cost, but predicted the technology would soon become commonplace in NASCAR much like the seven-post shaker rigs did last decade. Only one or two teams had seven-posts to start, but then they all built them in order to keep up with the competition.

While there's still work to be done, drivers like Front Row Motorsports' David Gilliland (who viewed the simulator but didn't get a chance to drive it) said the technology could pay off eventually.

"You're going to have to work through stuff and then verify it multiple times (on the track) before you'd be confident enough to rely on it for a setup," Gilliland told USA TODAY Sports. "But if you could get it to that point, it'd be an incredible tool."

The simulator is the most impressive element of the tech center, which also has a command center to view races alongside live data and several standard machines any Ford team can use.

Ford's previous tech center in Charlotte was so small, engineers nicknamed it "The Shack." The new building is a stone's throw from NASCAR's Research and Development Center and across the street from Roush Fenway Racing.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck