Hello All. This is the first in an ongoing series of interviews we are planning for all future 3D3 Events. Dan was the choice this week because he won the NA race (I didn't run EU race or have a replay available so Wes was ruled out even though he won EU, but I have no doubt he'll get his chance soon). We'll rotate to a new driver every week and next week we will target the winner of the EU race (assuming it's not Dan) and then will rotate it moving forward accordingly so all regulars will eventually get a chance.
Next week we'll announce the interviewee right after the race and we'll give you guys a few hours to submit any questions of your own as well (submitted to me via PM). Primarily we're trying to focus on the race itself with these interviews and the driver's strategy, technique and thoughts about the race. But if you have anything you want to ask that may result in an "interesting" answer let us know. We will filter down the questions and add our own and of course the interviewee will ultimately decide which they want to answer and even add some of their own or just their own comments.
With no further ado...
Presents...
3D3 Post Race Interview Series
Episode I - Nascar (WRS Style)
Featuring GTP_dsgerbc (Dan)
Driving the Toyota Camry #20 Joey Logano '10 Home Depot
Hi Dan,
First off, congratz on your win in the 3D3 NA Event NASCAR (WRS Style).
Thanks!
Qualifying seemed to go pretty well for you. How did you feel about your qualification lap? How did it compare to your practice laps and your expected grid position?
Didn't have much time for practice/tuning this week. Second lap of qualifying was my best to date, I think. I was pretty happy with my first lap (which was on par with my personal best from practice), so I could afford to be a little more aggressive. As for expectations - with little practice I was projecting to be marginally better than mid-pack.
You had a great start off the line from the front row, but ended up 3rd after turn 1. What happened?
Probably a mistake on my part for not covering the inside of turn 1. Was fairly certain that somebody would be side-by-side with me whether I chose inside or outside and decided to shoot for the inside of turn 2. Left some space for Speedy, but not enough and he had nowhere to go.
It looked like you had a real hard time getting by gooners in the early laps (or rather entire first stint). Speedy seemed to be driving away a little and then Hydro with him with WRP applying pressure from behind. What were you thinking at this point in the race?
Given my expectations for the race - not much. At first I felt I could go a hair faster than gooners but didn't want to ruin tires by pushing too hard. Then he pulled a small gap on me, and I only caught up closer to the end of the tire run. And I missed the point where WRP pitted, which confused me later in the race. I thought that he must've had an off since he fell back on an odd lap for either pitstop strategy.
When gooners pitted after lap 11 you were 10 seconds behind Speedy and Hydro. What was your strategy and thinking at that point? Did you plan on pitting after lap 12 or were you waiting for gooners to make a move? If he had stayed out were you pitting after lap 11 or was your strategy fixed?
Wasn't really expecting to catch up w/o big mistakes on their part, and gooners was still ahead of me, so catching up to him was my #1 goal. I guess with cleaner air and no immediate pressure from behind I could go a bit faster than during the first stint. The fact that I was gaining on the leader after 5-6 laps on the tires was encouraging, though. I watched the EU race and it seemed like pitting early (lap 11 of the stint vs 12) was useful if one needed to catch-up to somebody few second ahead. Leaders were further so if I was alone I would've pitted on lap 12. Gooners pitting on lap 11 helped me in that sense, because if he would've stayed out I would've pitted on lap 11 to avoid crap that often happens in the pits when two cars go in close together (I think it's usually the car behind that ends up losing a couple of seconds).
Through the pit cycle it looked like you gained 2 seconds on Speedy and 4 seconds on Hydro. Do you have any idea how that happened? Did you get a really good out lap in or was it traffic related?
Not sure what happened. Probably pit-lane or regular traffic somewhere. I was pretty lucky to avoid being stuck behind somebody with a different pit strategy and on worn tires.
You came out about 4 seconds behind gooners after pitting but you were able to pass shortly after you caught him. How was the 2nd stint different from the first? Did you approach the pass differently?
I suppose being behind gooners for the first 11 laps I couldn't really settle into the rhythm, with all the dirty air leading to extra braking and understeer. Couple of laps in clean air helped, plus he had one extra lap on his tires. Not sure approach was any different, just got a really good run off the last turn into the SF straight, and even after that the pass took a few more corners to complete.
After clearing gooners for 3rd place you were still 6 seconds behind Hydro and Speedy, but it appears Hydro had an off and you took 2nd. Did you see what happened? Were you confident you could catch Speedy at that point in the race?
Don't remember exactly, I think he made some noise on the air before I saw him on the grass. Almost lost it myself looking at his off-roading. I think by that time I started seeing the gap shrink consistently so I was planning a pit-stop on lap 23 to catch their draft if I didn't get close enough before then.
How did you overtake Speedy on lap 21? When you took over first place what was your strategy for holding the lead?
I was 4 seconds behind at the last in-field split and next thing I know - there's a cloud of dust ahead and Speedy is there, going slowly. So that's how I passed him. From race commentary in the thread it would seem that this is a particularly popular way of passing him. There were still few laps left before final pit-stop, and since I was gaining on him before his incident I tried to build a bit of a gap. I think I got it to about 2-3 seconds.
When you came out of your 2nd pit stop and saw WRP was in the lead did you know he was on a 3 stop strategy and still had a pit stop remaining?
I saw him pit on lap 17 or 18, so I knew he was either on 1-stop or 3-stop strategy. If this was a 1-stop strategy, with 17-18 second gap and 11 laps to go, given the sharp drop-off in speed after 8-9 laps on the tires, I felt there was plenty of time to catch up if I stayed mistake-free.
After WRP pitted was Speedy able to challenge you in the final stint? It looked like your front tires were in better condition than Speedy's? Were you saving tires and/or do you think your setup helped tire wear?
In longer races where tire wear is important I usually try to brake a hair early and not at 100% in intense braking zones to avoid tire-squealing, and give up a bit in turns where tires 'go red'. Setup was pretty much a mix-n-match of different tunes that I haven't tested much. The only thing had time to adjust was tire brake balance, which I tried to set to get a reasonably even wear. Luckily, the tune I used wasn't producing too different of front/rear tire wear to begin with.
Since I seemed to have had a faster pace on worn tires than Speedy during the second stint, I wasn't trying to push harder than normal. Priority was still avoiding mistakes and not letting Speedy catch up too easily, hopefully costing him some tire wear. That almost failed somewhere around lap 28(?) when I clipped the tire wall in turn 1 and Speedy almost ended up on my bumper, but somehow right after that I restored the gap to about 2 seconds. Not sure what happened, maybe dirty air threw off Speedy's balance/rhythm for a bit. And I think by lap 33 Hydro caught up with Speedy, so he had to drive a bit more defensively and the gap stabilized.
What were your thoughts over the final couple laps? Hydro seemed to be gaining at times. Were you aware of the gap or just trying to drive easy and maintain your lead?
I saw him catching up to Speedy so I was hoping they would slow each other down. After Speedy caught some sand Hydro was 3 or 4 seconds behind with less than 2 laps to go, so I focused on a bit of extra safety.
What were your overall thoughts on the race, car and track? If you were to run the event over would your strategy and approach be the same or would you do anything different?
Not a fan of the car by itself, too much torque, too nose-heavy of a beast. I even had to run with TC on, which I almost never do. The track/car combo was pretty fun though, and the replays are cool-looking and sound nice.
That's your second 3D3/NA win in a row. Do you expect that streak to continue next week?
Fat chance. I was on the receiving end of a couple of mistakes by others this week and CSL's poor internet connection last week. I expect the universe to balance itself out pretty soon.
Finally, here's a video of Dan's fast lap of the race which was a 1'26.438 on Lap 26