As we approach the Easter break where NASCAR traditionally doesn't have a race, I thought I'd give you an update on how my season in the officially-sanctioned NASCAR iRacing Series is going.
Week 1 - Daytona 500 @ Daytona International Speedway (200 laps, 500 miles)Qualified: 1
Race finish: 7
Got pole in the first and most prestigious race of the year. Led 70 laps including the first 50. Was on course for a top 5 and potentially even a win, but sadly I made a mess of my last pit stop, colliding with my teammate as we both went into the pits too hot. Ended up with a speeding penalty and had to settle for 7th.
Week 2 - Folds of Honor QuikTrip 250 @ Atlanta Motor Speedway (167 laps, 250 miles)Q: 13
R: 16
Struggled in qualifying, but made good progress throughout the race, despite becoming a car magnet for much of it. Luckily even though I wasn't able to avoid car contact for a lot of the race, I didn't really incur much damage. However, my luck ran out on the final restart in P6 with 3 laps to go when the outside line checked up and we all collided in a concertina effect. I was disqualified from the race for too many incident points and finished 16th.
Week 3 - Kobalt 200 @ Las Vegas Motor Speedway (134 laps, 200 miles)Q: 5
R: 15
Happy with qualifying 5th. Sadly I had early contact with someone on lap 5 and this put me down to 10th or so. Then on lap 48 my internet took a shit and I got disconnected from the server. Ended up 15th - a race to forget.
Week 4 - Camping World 250 @ Phoenix International Raceway (156 laps, 156 miles)Q: 2
R: 19
Despite my disappointing start to the season I went into the race at Phoenix in good spirits as it was the first short track of the season and I seem to favour those. Put the car on the front row and led 24 laps, avoiding the cautions up until 30 laps to go. Then a backmarker decides to stay out on old tyres, putting me back in 3rd for the restart. The outcome was predictable: he spun up his tyres on the restart, hooked left and dumped me into the inside wall. Engine blown and race over.
Week 5 - Auto Club 200 @ Auto Club Speedway (100 laps, 200 miles)Q: 20
R: 29
The nadir of my season so far. Not a track I'm particularly fond of, lots of car contact and cautions. Ended up trying to manage a car with damage for most of it, before going for a spin all by myself and destroying the engine. Basically my season up until this point has been quite shit.
Week 6 - STP 250 @ Martinsville Speedway (250 laps, 250 miles)Q: 19
R: 4
By this point I was starting to question whether I wanted to continue in this series. A combination of my own errors, plus poor driving standards of others and a bit of bad luck had put me into a position where I'd gained one top 10 finish in five races (and that race was disappointing in itself for not being a win!). However iRacing put out a patch which tweaked the car's physics and coupled with another short track this propelled me to a top 5 finish for the first time this season! I really felt the car was under me during this race. Maybe I've turned a corner here!
Week 7 - O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 @ Texas Motor Speedway (167 laps, 250 miles)Q: 5
R: 3
Ok, my season is back on track! I was provided a great setup by my team and it showed - we finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in this race. The winner was a teammate of NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series competitor Matt Bussa, so no shame finishing behind him. This is after being punted by a notoriously aggressive backmarker and dropping from 2nd to 16th! I went full tilt after this and got myself back up to 4th with ten laps to go. My spotter was getting a bit nervous by this point, and I don't blame him - I was pretty pissed off and being quite aggressive. To top the race off, I managed a last lap pass on my teammate to snatch 3rd - I got a better exit coming out of T4 and outdragged him to the line! My best result and performance of the season by far.
As for the standings, this currently leaves me 29th out of 438 drivers in Division 3 (272nd of 2077 overall). My aim is to finish top 10 in my division and in the top 100 overall, so I've got some work to do. Hopefully my last two finishes will become the norm and I can rise up the championship tables! Anyway, thanks for reading.