I ran a single qualifying session and amusingly set exactly the same lap time (down to the thousandth) as someone I had been communicating with about the Brickyard 400 on Twitter. I felt I probably could have done a faster time, but my qualifying time felt comfortable and I really wanted to not drive over the limits of my skill or the setup during the race. My time of 43.690 was enough to put me fifth on the grid anyway.

Starting on the inside was a definite advantage and I saw that quickly when I managed to start fifth and be third before the end of lap one. I stayed third until lap ten when Dwight Plesh got a little sideways and then eventually pitted under the next caution, allowing me to take second.

Leading the field into turn one at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I restarted 18th on lap 44 and by lap 62 had worked my way back into the top-five, leading lap 66 due to drivers ahead of me fighting too hard for position and all losing out. I decided to pit on lap 68 and this put me 17th for another restart and back on-sequence with the leaders. I decided to pit again on lap 76, figuring that my off-sequence pitting and quick pace going through the field on previous runs meant I could win the race that way if I stuck with it.

The lap 76 restart from 16th-place was good and I quickly moved my way back to the front, leading by lap 91. I led until lap 100 when drivers with fresher tires started to come up behind me, and just like I had in the entire race I let them by as soon as they were close enough to do so. I comfortably ran in the top-five again though and eventually pitted on lap 104.

Chuck Chambliss hits the wall after contact from Tomas Klopp.

For the restart on lap 148 I ran in sixth-place and this is where the impatience of some of the drivers in the event became annoying… We had three restarts between laps 148 and the finish because people wrecked in the first turn on each green flag. I managed to pass two cars around the outside on the lap 148 restart (yes, on the outside), but never got a chance to get up to speed for either of the other two restarts, so remained stuck in fourth.

It became a terribly disappointing finish. I really hoped the race would not end that way, especially ending under a yellow flag.

Still, I suppose that’s racing… You win some, you lose some, and I can’t really say I am upset Michael Kundakcioglu got the win… He seemed like a really decent guy and was really pleased.

I am pleased, of course, to have had no incidents. Yes, that is right, I battled through the entire field multiple times and I fought for the lead, yet I emerged with no incidents and a massive gain of 1.02 on my safety rating. My fastest lap, on lap 116, was a 53.914.

Let’s face it, why do I race simulations? Because I enjoy it! What on earth is the point of not racing to avoid being in a wreck?! I’m a clean enough driver that I tend not to get the contact penalties others get on Superspeedways and if I get involved in a wreck I can then choose whether to quit the race and take the hit by not finishing, or I can then choose to run around purely for the safety rating. Besides, I can make back my losses from an SS race in a late model race or two… Well, maybe the ones I practice for, the ones I don’t practice for I make too many mistakes. ;)

The Talladega 499 is about to start!

I took the restart in 19th-place and ran up towards the front until lap 23 when it seemed like a wreck was about to happen. I pulled to the inside on the backstretch and let the field pass, rejoining and crossing the line next time by in 21st-place. Then in turn two one lap later a car in the lead group got on the apron and did very well to not wreck the entire lead pack: I like to think that my spider-senses tingled correctly and that this was the wreck I avoided by dropping back.

We soon created our own pack of cars led by Joe. We ran as that group until lap 49 when some cars started to pit who had not pitted during the first caution. I didn’t need to pit, so took a high line to avoid trouble but that obviously wasn’t enough because trouble managed to find me instead. As we exited the tri-oval to start lap 52, William Bennett (28) came straight up onto the banking after his pit stop and this caught Kenny Lopez (7) off guard, he came up and we made contact. Somehow I, probably due to the massive speed differences involved and the obvious lag that creates, didn’t take any damage – but did get a car contact penalty. I was now running in the top-five and had a 13-lap fuel advantage on most of the pack.

Running hard at Talladega.

It didn’t take long before I realized I would not be able to draft with anybody for a while: The couple of cars ahead of me were lined up and those behind were racing side by side, making them as slow as I was. I decided to run high and drag the brake until that group behind caught up with me and on lap 64 I had rejoined the group I entered the pits with.

By lap 69 we had settled down and were running in a line, we ran that way for 10 laps but then some in the group started to race again and on lap 84 we were losing tenths per lap to the couple of cars lined up by themselves ahead of us. This race had been extremely clean and I knew that if we were going to stay in contact with the lead group someone was going to have to take a lead and show the group how to lap faster: What’s funny is that this is probably why others in the group were racing, they all felt like they could go faster. Thankfully though, I turned out to be correct and after lapping in the 50.9-51.1 bracket I passed the group around the outside and immediately started to reel off consistent 50.7-50.8 laps with Christopher Shetzler (15) tucked in behind me.

On lap 95 the lead cars started to pit. At the time I was running 13th but as things cycled through I found myself leading by lap 97.

Christopher stuck close at Talladega.

I pitted on lap 102 and took the lap 105 restart from 10th place. It was a very messy restart at the front of the lead pack and the net result was a lot of lifting back in the pack. Things got sorted out though and the entire field sped around the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway at neck-breaking speed for 31 green flag laps until an error was made by the 1st and 2nd-place cars, sending the yellow car of Brad Coleman for a wild ride on the apron of the race track. Incredibly, he held it together and the pack continued under green until lap 142 when Simon Trendell (32) hit Robert Woloschuk (21) in the rear in turn two, sending Robert down into 3rd-place Kyle Vesa (24) and all of them up into the wall.

Most of the pack got by unscathed, but all those directly involved in the wreck were eliminated. I was now in 8th-place and decided to pit on lap 143 and again to top off fuel on lap 144. Surprisingly yet again some of the leaders did not pit which again I thought was strange. I was now fuelled to the finish…

As it had been back on lap 105, the lap 147 restart was awful. Joe slowed (he said he missed a shift over the voice chat) and Bob Grooms (25) moved high to avoid. Seeing this unfold ahead of me I overreacted, clipped the apron, lost control, went up the racetrack, hit the wall and collected Jason Wright (5). I felt bad about Jason, but largely relieved that I hadn’t done this towards the front of the pack and taken out the entire field!

Hitting the turn two wall at Talladega.

What’s strange is that in the Talladega 312 on Friday I had wrecked early and had a terribly damaged car: I finished 7th. Today I wrecked on lap 147, still had a good car after the wreck, but finished 16th. The reason, of course, was because the Talladega 499 had a field of clean drivers who made their cars last to the finish. I was the first car not on the lead lap! We only had five cautions and ran green for all but 19 laps. That’s awesome.

I’m glad I didn’t lay back too much in this one and I’m glad I had fun out there while running without that fear. I was disappointed at my wreck for a moment but then I moved on and realized how much fun I was still having even though I wasn’t in a position to win anymore. I had 12 incidents (3 x car contact) and set my fastest lap after my wreck on lap 154. The race win went to Kevin West II (26).

Unfortunately I won’t make the Indy 500 iRacing World Tour event as fortunately I’ll actually be at Indianapolis working for iRacing! Hope to see some iRacing members at the event and hear about a successful iRacing Indy 500 when I get back.

Bedford, MA (April 12, 2010) – With apologies to the poet T.S. Eliot, if you are a stock-car racing fan, “April is the coolest month” – both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series visit Talladega Superspeedway, the fastest closed-circuit race track in the world. And this month, iRacing.com’s 2010 World Tour presents the iRacing community with its only double-header, races on April 23 & 24 honoring both of NASCAR’s top divisions. So every member of the iRacing community will have the chance to see for themselves the differences between the Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars with these full-length back-to-back races on the legendary Alabama high-banked oval.

“Based on the response we had to our Daytona 500 event in February, we expect a huge turnout of iRacers for Talladega,” said Kevin Bobbitt, iRacing.com’s director of marketing. “Many of NASCAR’s top drivers will be doing 811 miles of racing on the last weekend of April, and this is the chance for our members see what that’s like and to make back-to-back comparisons on how these two very different racecars perform on NASCAR’s fastest and often most exciting track.”

Bobbitt noted that the event is open to all iRacing.com members, regardless of license level, from the newest rookie to the most grizzled veteran. (iRacing.com is currently running a special promotion. New members can purchase a 3-month membership, which includes Talladega Superspeedway, for $25.00, which is 50% off the regular price. See www.iracing.com for complete details.)

Because the number of entries will be so large – as many as 2,000 of the service’s 20,000+ members are expected to compete – the field is broken down according to skill and experience level into an appropriate number of iterations of 34 cars each, with each iteration of the online race running on its own server.

“Someone can join iRacing.com the day before and still compete,” Bobbitt said. “They’ll be racing with other rookies, while our more experienced members will be racing with others of their skill level. Everyone has a chance to win his or her race, and to experience the thrill of 185 mile-per-hour pack racing on the fastest track in the world.”

The ‘Dega Double runs on Friday, April 23 (iRacing.com Talladega 312 for the iRacing Class B Impala SS in NASCAR Nationwide Series) and Saturday, April 24 (iRacing.com Talladega 499 for iRacing’s Class A Chevrolet Impala SS in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series configuration.)

Open practice sessions will for both races begin April 17th at (00:00 GMT). Qualifying for the iRacing.com Talladega 312 begins at 00:00 GMT, April 17th and runs at 45 minutes past the hour, every hour until race start on April 23rd. The race will begin at 7pm ET on Friday, April 23rd, (23:00 pm GMT). Qualifying for the iRacing.com Talladega 499 commences at 00:00 GMT, April 17th, beginning at 45 minutes past the hour, every hour until race starts at 11 am ET (15:00 GMT) on Saturday, April 24th.

At 2.66 miles in length and with 33-degree banking, Talladega Superspeedway is not just the fastest track in NASCAR – the all-time official Sprint Cup qualifying record stands at 212.809 mph, by Bill Elliott in 1987, before NASCAR technical regulations reduced horsepower and speed at Talladega and Daytona International Speedway but undoubtedly the fastest closed-circuit race track on the face of the globe.

Talladega holds the record for most leaders in a 500-mile race (26) and most lead changes as well (75 at the start/finish line), but on the last lap don’t ever bet against a driver named Earnhardt. Dale Sr. racked up an amazing ten Sprint Cup race wins, and Dale Jr. already has five on his resume, including a remarkable four-in-a-row streak in 2002-3.

On Saturday 13th February, 2010 I was unable to run the 500, but got in a quick qualifying session for my race on the 20th just 15 minutes before the race session: I set a 48.075 and this would put me in 11th-place to start the race.

With 30 minutes of warm-up, it gave everybody plenty of time to check their setup, practice put stops, etc. I personally just practiced getting into and off pit road at speed and missed an opportunity to notice and correct that ‘terribly important’ thing once again…

The start of the iRacing Daytona 500.

We raced through a few cautions in the early laps, but things remained fairly constant for me until lap 15: It was the first time I’d really had to slam on the brake and when I did so it must have knocked my calibration off (recalibrating was the ‘terribly important’ thing I’d forgotten to do). At that point I was running 12th and just biding my time, but unknown to me the brake was now dragging and I hadn’t noticed the tiny sliver of red on the brake indicator.

Over the next 100 laps or so I just went backwards. At the time I believed I had lost an engine cylinder and was down on power, it wasn’t until about lap 114 that I realized what had happened, having finally noticed that the brake indicator was showing applied brakes.

Initially I just pulled back on the brake with my left foot while pushing on the throttle with my right, but after I began to experience cramping I managed to fix it for good on lap 164. However, during those last few laps I had had enormous fun: I normally wait until there’s ten laps remaining before I push really hard to get to the front, but knowing my position I used a combination of strategy, aggression and good luck to come back from two laps down to one, and come back from 22nd-place on lap 114 to 14th as the race ended.

Three-wide at Daytona.

So I ended with mixed emotions, just like everyone else: At one point I had resigned myself to just running for safety rating with a damaged engine, but I ended up having a lot of fun in some really tight racing. I had very few incidents (scraped the wall on lap 100, car contact on 190, the wreck on 194 and an off track on 198 while I got out of the way of the other cars on the final restart), but I still can’t help but think what might have happened had I not been trailing brake for half of the race!

My only real solace is that if this were real life, NASCAR would have probably forced me to start at the back anyway due to an ‘engine change’ in my PC… Starting back there I probably would have gotten involved in one of those early accidents and wouldn’t have had the fun I did during the race. Maybe next year I’ll be able to finish on the lead lap!

If you would like to run the 2010 iRacing.com Daytona 500, check out this promotional video I made that features a great promo (3 months, free COT, free Daytona – $32).

Anyway, let’s talk about my race…

I qualified in second-place with a 47.830. I was just using the (new) Advanced setup for the car (which is actually quite good now) and knew that I had a good shot.

I started well and slotted into third-place on lap one. Everyone raced side by side successfully with only one hairy moment when the car ahead of me touched the apron in turn four. On lap 30 there was a wreck ahead of me and I just managed to clear it. I pitted, coming out in sixth-place.

For the entire race I had been experimenting with the high line. It seemed that if I was overtaking on the outside I could do it by myself as long as I wasn’t near the front, once I got closer to the leader on the high side the air just knocked me back. After the restart from the caution on lap 30 I knew this and decided to wait until ten laps to go before I pushed for the lead.

So, with ten to go I went for it, I was moving up from fifth-place and luckily caught the fourth-place man as he had a blip in his connection. I just snuck my nose on the inside and he had to give way. At the same time the second-place car had bobbled up in the turn and I followed the inside cars through, moving into third almost straight away.

I wasn’t able to move into second-place until lap 64 of 70, when the second-place car bobbled in the turn just enough for me to stick my nose on the inside again. It was close, but being a clean racer he knew he had to give me the inside and just said “Damn it!” over the in-race radio… Now I just had to pass the man who had been leading since lap 17!

I certainly tried my best. I tried to look for a gap on the low side, but one never came. I tried to go high on the backstretch, but always decided to slot back into second. Eventually I decided that after hearing others complain about not being able to hold the car down in the turns, I’d try and see if I could make the leader have that problem… So I started to bump draft at the end of the straight, hoping he’d have to run up the banking and give me the low-side.

Unfortunately, the leader was always glued to that inside line and eventually I started to bump draft simply to try to stay ahead of the outside line which was forming. I crossed the line a mere 0.070s behind.

So, like I said: I am not sure if I will compete for a championship in the NASCAR Class A Series. Certainly feeling pretty good about the World Tour event though… Daytona 500, here I come!

It is the start of a new season, 2008 Season III is finished and now, finally, we’re on Season IV. Here’s how my licenses started the season:

Under an hour before the race, I ran a practice and qualifying session. I felt pretty competitive in the practice using the default advanced setup, so entered the qualifying session at 7:45 pm, setting a time of 47.832. I registered to race at 8:00 pm and found that my qualifying time meant I would line up third in the starting order.

I got a decent start and very quickly found just how little you’re able to see when running in a pack of these new cars. They’re very wide on the back end and the rear wing completely takes away the ability most stock cars give where you can look through the windows of the car ahead for extra vision. So, feeling blind I wanted to get up-front and try to stay out of danger…

I managed to move into 2nd place by lap 2, but by lap 4 had dropped to 8th. I steadily moved up and on lap 16 while in 5th place, I saw an accident ahead of me after someone had taken too much of the apron in the turn… He came up the track and hit someone, who spun straight across my nose, taking my steering out of alignment.

I tried pitting, but when that didn’t work, reset the car. On lap 22 the race would restart and I found myself in a lowly 11th place. There had been a number of cautions already, so I figured it was likely there would be more and knew I either needed to hang back, or push forwards… I pushed forwards!

Over the next four laps I had an incredible run. I moved from 11th to 2nd almost magically as the spaces just opened up for me. There was a little scare when someone made door to door contact with me – but for the most part I just had to stay patient and wait for the gap.

For the next 17 laps (until lap 42) I ran in 2nd place, seemingly unable to make a pass (I knew that nobody would help me on the high side if I pulled out). Then, going around turns 3 and 4 at Daytona I saw the leader drifting up in the turn and knew I needed to stick my nose in the gap… Thankfully the other driver was clean and although he tried very hard to squeeze me into lifting off completely to give him room – I didn’t… I took the lead!

We went through another couple of cautions and then restarted for the final time on lap 62 of 65. I had heard the former leader talking during the cautions and had seen them working on the high line on the previous green flag laps, so I knew they would be coming hard – and they did – because with about 2 laps to go I had already accepted I probably wouldn’t win…

As it turns out, a car in the low lane drifted up and hit the side of the 3rd car in the high line, this slowed that third car down enough that he lost the draft to the cars ahead, meaning that for just a few seconds we were 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top and there was no way they were going to win that battle… They gradually drifted back and I won with a best laptime of 46.960 set on lap 23 (during my charge to 2nd place).

It’s unfortunate that my Safety Rating went down, but it’ll work itself out. At least now that I am Class A all I have to worry about is staying above 2.0 to avoid demotion!

I managed to get Sony Vegas from Amazon for an absolute steal (there’s still one there for about $33), so you may notice a few extra effects being slowly brought into my videos! I hope you like this one. It includes my charge between laps 22 and 26, me taking the lead, me leading the pack and then me holding them off for the win.

Chevy Impala (Mine is on the inside).

I’ve never really had top of the line equipment with my simracing, so I have managed to pick up a few tricks and now that replays are enabled within iRacing, I’m going to start using them again.

Basically, when all the software has to do is display the replay, there’s a lot of CPU, RAM and maybe a little Graphics Processor left over. Why are they left over? Well, because you’re not driving while watching that replay! So, simply turn up your graphics settings, open the replay and enjoy superb graphics your machine can normally only dream of during races… When you’re done with the glorious effects, switch them back!

Here’s the basic instructions:

1. Save your replay (preferably a cut segment of it so it’s easier to find what you want to capture).
2. Make a note of all the settings you currently have on your graphics page. If you have never altered the graphics settings before, then you’re using the defaults, just make note of that instead and follow the applicable instruction later.
3. Turn all the graphics to the maximum, but do not touch the memory slider in the center. You may also increase the resolution (as long as it is supported by your display) to a much higher one than you would normally be able to race with.
4. Exit the sim.
5. Go to the replays page and load the replay.
6. You should now have a viewable replay in high graphical settings. Take your screenshots, capture your videos…
7. When finished, exit the sim/replay viewer.
8a. If you were using the default graphics settings simply open the Instruction section of the members site, click Quick Start Guide, then select Configuring Your Hardware on the left side. Select Auto Configure and your settings are now back where they were.
8b: If you had configured your own graphics settings before this, simply open a test session and set all the graphics setting back to how you noted them, then quit the sim.
9. Open a test session to confirm everything looks as normal.

Note: Some hardware may not support maximum graphics. If the sim fails to load, go to #8a above (or click here) and follow instructions to reset your graphics settings. If the replay itself fails to load, then it is too large: Lower your graphics settings, load the replay, then cut it into sections.

The only real limiting factor for this whole thing, is texture memory. My graphics card has quite a lot of memory, so can show some really nice textures, yours may not, so things might not look quite so sharp. This is why you shouldn’t really fool around with what the default iRacing setting is for video memory because really your card has, what it has.

If any of you still run NASCAR Racing 2003 Season or Grand Prix Legends, both made by the same people behind iRacing, you can do similar to this with those simulations also.