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!