Chase for NASCAR Sprint Cup Title - Series Champion: RFLX_Niop

A couple of the incidents were caused by Dowhat's car lagging occasionally. I had a good race, and at the slow speeds we were going at, could've made 40+ laps. (I decided to test everyone's tyre wear by going flat out for the 5 laps before my stop, making everyone's laptimes 2+ seconds faster.) When *name of guy whose name I've forgotten (ended in 77)* ran out of fuel, I was right behind him and hit him, losing 30 mph and the draft of Homeslice. For the next 2 laps I was painfully close to catching the draft, but didn't manage to close the gap fast enough. (I was 0.3xx too far behind to get his draft.)

I was really struggling on tires as I was using a modified Daytona setup and had to two-stop.

Knelly, you had bad luck all evening. First, the pickups where you must have got hit by everyone(including me) and I don't know what happened in the NASCAR just there but you lost the draft straight away.

So, on to the chase and on to High Speed Ring. Dissapointed that I don't have a race win under my belt but that's just the way it goes I suppose. I'll try make every race.👍

Indy Results:

1: homeslice47 (25 laps led) - 20 points, +2 bonus points
2: JoeOfTheFire (7 laps led) - 18 points, +1 bonus point
3. ALA-338 (11 laps led) - 16 points, +1 bonus point
4: CrAzY_bAsSiSt_83 (4 laps led) - 14 points, +1 bonus point
5: Knelly (Pole Position) - 12 points, +1 bonus point
6: Droptop2001gt (1 lap led) - 11 points, +1 bonus point
7: GTP_akmuq (1 lap led) - 10 points, +1 bonus point
8: MSK-77 (7 laps led) - 9 points, +1 bonus point
9: dowhat13 (4 laps led) - 8 points, +1 bonus point



FINAL Point Standings for the Regular Season:






Point Standings for the Start of the Chase:

The Chase participants are FULL of quality, and just prove to be a very closely contested last five races. I hope I can make them all.

Time to start testing for High Speed Ring.

Only 6 points off the lead

I did all my road course testing a couple of weeks ago, go me. It was easy enough, since I use the same setup on every road course, other than transmission. Just make sure you can 1 stop at HSR.
I still need to test those 7 Daytona setups though, I haven't had much time for racing recently. Tonight is the first night that I have completely free in a week and a half or so, so I'll try and test at least 2 or 3 of the 7 Daytona setups.


My pitting targets for the chase races:

High Speed Ring (40 Laps) - 1 stop.
Daytona Superspeedway (40 laps) - 0 stops.
GTP Brickyard 200 - (80 Laps) - 1 stop if the pace at the front is slow enough. 2 stops if it's the normal pace.
Suzuka East (35 laps) - 1 stop.
Daytona Superspeedway (75 laps) - 1 stop.

I'm expecting crashes on the first lap of HSR and Suzuka East, both in the first corner/first braking point. The first braking point at HSR was a mess when we did practice races there for the SCANA race that never happened. HSR Reverse races were much cleaner, so it's just something about that corner.

As for Suzuka, there's nearly always an incident in the first corner, so I'm expecting the same again.

Ha, Joe is planning on 4-stopping the entire 5-race Chase.

MustangRyan

Ha, Joe is planning on 4-stopping the entire 5-race Chase.

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OMG

Well, I was planning a 5 stop chase, but if the 80 lap Indy race is as slow as the 60 lap race was, I should be able to make it on 1 stop instead of 2.

Also I've not tested enough at Suzuka East to see what the tyre wear is like, so that may potentially be 2 stops, though I doubt it. I only tested enough there to set my gears (About 5 minutes >_>).

I'm also assuming that I will find a setup to let me run 40+ laps at Daytona out of the 7 potential new setups that I need to test. My current setup can't do more than 35 laps.

DrifterJoe

Well, I was planning a 5 stop chase, but if the 80 lap Indy race is as slow as the 60 lap race was, I should be able to make it on 1 stop instead of 2.

Also I've not tested enough at Suzuka East to see what the tyre wear is like, so that may potentially be 2 stops, though I doubt it. I only tested enough there to set my gears (About 5 minutes >_>).

I'm also assuming that I will find a setup to let me run 40+ laps at Daytona out of the 7 potential new setups that I need to test. My current setup can't do more than 35 laps.

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I tested during qualifying for the Daytona 250 and I did 43 laps without any substantial tire wear so I'm good for the 40 lap race and have a good choice of strategy for the 75 lap race. I have a setup which is very good at Indy road offline so I'll have to change it a little bit for online.

Indy oval is my downfall, I had to 2-stop the race yesterday and finished a lap down. Have to test a bit there to get a setup.

akmuq

I have a setup which is very good at Indy road offline so I'll have to change it a little bit for online.

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Indy Road isn't in the chase.

DrifterJoe

Indy Road isn't in the chase.

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Yeah but it should work on the road courses.... hopefully.

akmuq

Yeah but it should work on the road courses.... hopefully.

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Yeah it should work well. I use the same setup for every road course (other than transmission settings) and do just fine.

I just had some practice with Drop round Daytona to test my new setup. It was a 50 lap race. I pushed him up to about lap 28, when I tapped him and spun us both. I continued pushing him until lap 48, where his tyres had given up and he span off (I wasn't pushing him as much in the corners at this point). I carried on and finished the race without pitting at all (despite the spin). Woo. This setup got me to lap 53 in free run before I ran out of fuel, though I think it would have spun on the next lap anyway. This is by no means the best Daytona setup out there, as there are people who go 50+ laps with full horsepower (on racing soft tyres), but it's good enough for here. 👍

I use that comparison because I go the same number of laps with full horsepower and racing soft tyres that I do with 502BHP and racing hard tyres. (My old setup got me 35 laps in both.)




Hey Drop, since I didn't actually use your Daytona setup, do I still have to tell you my Indy setup? >_____>


EDIT: Nevermind my comparison thing...

DrifterJoe

Hey Drop, since I didn't actually use your Daytona setup, do I still have to tell you my Indy setup? >_____>

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I think you have to send it, but I can't use it.

MustangRyan

I think you have to send it, but I can't use it.

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If your understeer magically fixes itself for the race there, I'll know you've used it. (Or I could tell you the verison that still has a load of understeer in it.)

I now only have 1 track left to finish testing at- Suzuka East. I need to do a full tyre run without spinning or locking up. <_<

Damm, missed all the fun ... got an hour now but no one is on

No wild card for the chase like they do in real life for the Sprint Cup?

kenkwilinski

No wild card for the chase like they do in real life for the Sprint Cup?

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I could give wild cards to the two race winners that didn't otherwise make it, but I doubt they would show up for the last five races. They only showed up to one race, both of which were hosted in open lobbies.

Quick question. I know all aids are off, but does that include ABS, and if not, what level are we allowed it to?

Nice

I don't think ABS can be restricted through race setup options. Without being able to police it, it is freely available to all.

hmmmm
Testing btw

As there is no-one to test with at the moment, I just decided to see how my 502 BHP #20 would fair in the NASCAR Extreme HSR event, against the full powered cars.

Managed to win it on the last breaking corner, staying clean.

Very happy with my car - got myself the best NASCAR road setup I think I have ever had. Just hope my right front will last 20 laps.

EDIT : PS, What times are you guys hitting for HSR?

EDIT 2 (about 16 hours later) : Hmmm everyone seems to be keeping quiet now we are in Chase Status

Knelly

EDIT 2 (about 16 hours later) : Hmmm everyone seems to be keeping quiet now we are in Chase Status

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I've been at a friend's house since monday and got back a couple of hours ago. I think I managed a couple of 1:04's.

Early in a 21 lap practice stint I was managing mid 1:06 and lots of 1:07 till it started to tail off, with a 6.5s diff on lap 20.

My car is perfect though so may give up lap times for consistency on this track.

May not make HSR but hope to do the rest.

I haven't had a chance to run any laps yep. But when I do, I'll post my lap times.

To Joe, 48.916 at Suzuka hey, I just hit 51.149

Knelly

To Joe, 48.916 at Suzuka hey, I just hit 51.149

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The seasonal event? I did 2 laps with a transmission setting that was too low and making me hit the limiter on the straight, and that's it. I had about half a second of potential improvement round the rest of the lap. >_>

I guess I should try and practice at HSR and Suzuka East, since I've not run there much/in a while. I don't even know what the tyre wear or laptimes are like at Suzuka, all I did was set my transmission.


EDIT: Just tested for 20 laps at HSR, driving as fast as I could get away with, as if I was in 2nd place with 20 laps to catch and pass the leader. Fastest lap was a 1:04.4xx, with 1:04's for the first 8 laps or so (I forget the exact number, but I'm fairly certain it's between 7 and 10.). I Ran 1:05's until lap 16, and 1:06's from 16 to 20, with lap 20 being a low 1:07.

Knelly may have to up his game if his pace is still what it was in his earlier post:

Knelly

Early in a 21 lap practice stint I was managing mid 1:06 and lots of 1:07 till it started to tail off, with a 6.5s diff on lap 20.

My car is perfect though so may give up lap times for consistency on this track.

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What's everyone else's pace like?


Finally, a little FYI: Suzuka East will probably be my worst track.

Problem is, I have a very comfortable car and if I start tweaking to improve lap times, that could be bad for me. There are a couple of things I'm going to try but they are more to do with tyre wear, so, my goal is podium here and Suzuka, while winning t'others

My best so far is 1:05.7 with low 1:06s my average. Looks like Joe might dominate us on this one. Lol

Niop

My best so far is 1:05.7 with low 1:06s my average. Looks like Joe might dominate us on this one. Lol

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I kinda suspected I would, to be honest. This is the track that my road course setup was originally made for (though the paper I wrote it on actually specifies that its for HSR Reverse). The same setup just happens to work well on other road courses too.

I still have the sheet of paper I wrote all my old setups down on. (3 setups- Daytona, Indy, and HSR/all road courses.) I'm still using 2 of these 3 setups to this day, with my old Daytona setup finally having to be replaced for a setup allowing more laps, the change being needed for the chase races. The setups are getting on for being 5 months old, and they're still able to run with and beat the best, even with less horsepower than they were designed for. 👍

There's 2 things I remember from the SCANA practice races here: chaos in the first braking zone on the first lap or two, and having someone come out the pits and move almost instantly up the track right into me as I moved to the outside to pass them while they were getting up to speed (trying to get out of my way, as I sometimes use a tight inside line through the first corner.). The second one can be avoided easily enough, but I'm fairly sure that we'll see the first happen.

I may not walk away with this race, since only 3 of us have actually posted our pace in this thread. Everyone else is being secretive (though Drop told me his pace for HSR while we were testing my new Daytona setup).