Martinsville Shootout

It`s not often you get a clean run at Martinsville but I got one here. Car wasn`t fast enough, but it was stable all the way to the end and just missed the podium. Fun stuff. Of course in NASCAR there is no podium, You`re either first or you`re last. Shake and bake.

This was a lot of fun...something I never thought I'd say with almost 20 cars at the paperclip. Set wasn't terribly fast, but very stable (could drive around trouble) and very easy on tires. RS temps and pressure builds pretty well matched throughout run - would heat the RF up a bit if I had to really race underneath somebody, but could quickly cool it back down in just a few laps of open track. Spun it once by braking too hard on entry to miss trouble in front, but recovered OK. As always at Marty, traffic was a bear, but that's short-track racing. Look forward to the long version of this race.

heh...sweet :)

I have never lapped the whole field before and while it must be easier to do it on an oval with no cautions than it is on a road course, this race was no walk in the park.

Throughout the race, the car handled absolutely great. I switched things up a bit during practice and started shifting from 3rd to 4th out of corners to give me a boost, knowing the other fast guys were using it also. I know NASCAR has a gear rule now where its basically impossible to shift anymore, but that rule is a crock of shit, IMO, so I have no problem defying it :).

Got the pole during qualifying after running the allotted 6 laps. Others ran 4 or 5 but they weren't paying attention :).

The start of the race was rather calm. Got out to a 2 second lead over Tim and the rest of the field but that quickly broke down as I started hitting traffic. At one point, Tim was right on my bumper and ready to pass but cars got in the way and eventually, Tim got into a wreck soon afterwards and I was on my own. I just kept cruising around the whole race. Missing crashes, getting around lapped cars cleanly end efficiently, all of that helped me to the win. I did get into an incident with Bill Johnson after he backed up the track where I was but that was no biggie.

Good race all, cya next time :)

Sorry Conor, it is suppose to be only 4 laps in qual (2 warmup, 2 hot laps). The other 2 are there only to prevent those bogus DQs that the game sometimes gives in it's default mode. Trying to be fair to everyone on this and will make adjustments to the server to prevent it from being used as an advantage in the future.

My race... fun. I really enjoyed the feel of the car at marty this time. Minor tweak to some air pressures really balanced the car and I probably could have run a lot faster if I had been pushing (high 18's possible). The start went well and the top guys got sorted quickly and just ran a nice pace. Traffic started and it was getting very fun. Finally came up on a group of lapped cars and just took the wrong line and got bunched up with them causing at least 2 flats. Pitted and got back out well down the order but still really enjoyed the racing. Great work everyone, I saw some nice gentlemanly racing out there.

Conor two races here... two wins... Very nice! Congrats!

Congrats to all finishers, I know it was tough out there. I know I caused a couple of problems, for that I am sorry to those I affected.

My race was pretty much over before it really got going. A couple laps in a faster car was going around the outside coming off the corner, and i look down the straight and a car is laying sideways right in the middle, nowhere to go smashed into that car (sorry whoever that was). Flattened the left front tire, pitted for a new one. After that was just trying to survive, again sorry if i got in anyones way.

See you guys next time around.

Ahhhh....didn't know that Tim. Just tried to use what was available.

EDIT: Might as well give the track record to Matt, then. I don't want it if I had an advantage.

I'll just add a sorry for crashing and bashing in general to everyone!

Well,found my self in someones else's spin in the begining laps,was giving lots of room and around he went tryed to slow but under braking in the apex is NOT GOOD!hit the guy in the door with my nose l,lost left f.Had to pit and found my self almost last.got back to 12 till I thought I saw a blue flag in closing laps and let the driver bye,only to find it was for pos?Maybe the guy behinde you Tim was giving me flag?....Fun none the less...But i sure wish i had not got into that early crash..RRRRRRRRRRRRRR.Next time?

I never thought I'd say "I had fun racing at Martinsville". It was a blast. Qualifying near the front certainly helped me. A good brake and weight setting saved me when I was dodging parked cars. Nearly stopped on the track to idle through a hole in a group of turned cars around lap 30 or so. The tires were never the same. Hard to run on tires you just tore the rubber off. I gotta say, working through traffic was a joy. None of the lapped cars raced me just because there was a car beside them. Everyone gave plenty of room. This was absolutely the best night of racing I've had in a while. Thank you gentlemen for the terrific evening.

Another disappointment. Made a HUGE mistake of trusting someone who sent out a setup right before qual thinking it would be faster then mine. There is no way they drove that setup, on acceleration the rear end drug the ground and under braking the nose just dove right into the ground. I would not have had pole but at least I could have got in the top ten in q if I had used my set. Never again.

From last to 7th back to whatever it was. Only good was I avoided a DNF and now my dnf % is almost back to 10%.