Round 8 - Texas Motorspeedway

The Lone Star state proved be a good place for me as I took the chequered flag first again.

Speedways seem to be my forte as I qualified on pole and led from start to finish.

This success put me on the championship podium (3rd) for the first time this season.

Round 7 - Dover

Round 7 of the series took place at the 'MONSTER MILE' in Dover, Delaware.

I qualified second, led until lap 28 when I, yet again got the dreaded black flag for danngerous driving while fighting for the lead.

I recovered to finish 21st, however this result pushed me back to 6th in the standings.

Round 6 - Lowes Motor Speedway (Charlotte)

Round 6 of the championship took place at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina.

My Experience points gained were now at a level where I could make my first improvements to the car. This I did for Speedways and Super-speedways only. 

Obviously the changes worked because I managed to qualify on the pole and also led from flag to flag to log my second win of the season.

The win elevated me to fourth in the championship standings.

Track Facts

Elevation: 675 feet

Latitude: 35.351466

Longitude: -80.683122

GPS: N 35 21.0879, W 80 40.9873

Round 5 - Kansas

I was the victim of the dreaded black flag again as the Craftsman Truck series moved to the Kansas Speedway. 

I qualified in 18th and by lap 20 I was in the lead. While under pressure for the lead I was adjudged to be guilty of dangerous driving and was shown the black flag. 

I did however recover to finish 11th.

Although still in the top 10, ninth was not where I expected to be at this stage of the season.

Track Facts

Length 2.4 km (1.5 mi)

Banking Turns - 15°

Front Straight - 10.4°

Back Straight - 5°

Round 4 - Martinsville

Round 4 of the series took place on the short half mile paper clip oval that is Martinsville.

Having qualified on pole I went on to lead the first 35 laps before a black flag sent me back to 36th place.

The were enough laps left to enable to me to recover to 11th place.

This left me after 4 rounds 6th in the standings.

Track Facts

Length: .526-mile or 2,777 feet

Distance of NASCAR Sprint Cup races: 500 laps = 263 miles.

Shape: "Paper-clip"-shaped oval with tight turns and 800- foot straight-aways. Turns are 588 feet long.

Track Width: 55-feet.

Track Elevation: 740 feet.

Banking: 11 degrees in turns and flat on straight-aways.

Pit Road: 46-feet wide with 43 pit stalls beginning in the third turn, wrapping around the frontstretch and exiting in turn two. Pit stalls are 14-feet wide and 28-feet in length.

Location: Located roughly one-hour south of Roanoke, VA, and one-hour north of Greensboro, NC, one mile north of the intersection of the U.S. 220/58 Bypass and U.S. 220 Business in Henry County, VA. Speedway property covers more 300 acres.

History: H. Clay Earles built Martinsville Speedway in 1947 as a dirt track before the formation of NASCAR. The first race was run on September 7, 1947 and Robert "Red" Bryon won $500 out of a $2,000 purse. The track hosted the sixth race in the NASCAR series (Strictly Stock) that eventually became the Sprint Cup Series. It also was won by Byron in a 1949 Oldsmobile on September 25, 1949. In 2004 the track was purchased by International Speedway Corporation

Round 3 - Atlanta

Round 3 of the Craftsman Truck series took place at the very fast Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia.

I qualified near the front in 6th. I finished 3rd having been in that position for most of the race. 

After three races, 7th in the championship was very satisifying.

Track Facts

Banking/Turns: 24
Distance: 1.54 miles
Shape: Oval

Round 2 - Auto Club Speedway (Fontana)

This was a good race for me following on from the disaster at Daytona.

I qualified on pole and led all the way to the chequered flag (20 laps).

The winning margin was 0.2s.

This raised me to 9th in the overall standings after 2 rounds.

Track Facts

Surface asphalt

Length 2.0 mi (3.23 km)

Banking Turns: 14 degrees

Frontstretch:11 degrees

Backstretch : 3 degrees

Lap record 241.426 miles per hour (Gil de Ferran, Penske Racing, October 28, 2000, CART

Round 1 - Daytona

The season started much as the last Nationwide race finshed - a poor result on a superspeedway.

I qualified 33rd out of the 36 starters which was the highlight of my race because I could only finish 34th.

On lap 6 I lost the draft so decided to pit for new tyres. I made up 15 seconds on the eventual race winner by the end.

The race was won by Casey Fletcher who I believe is a fantasy driver.

Season 1 - Craftsman Truck Series

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (formerly the NASCAR SuperTruck Series presented by Craftsman and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

It is the only series in all of NASCAR to race modified production pickup trucks and is one of the three national divisions of NASCAR, together with the Nationwide Series and the top level Sprint Cup.

On December 3, 2007, SEARS Holdings Corporation announced that, at the conclusion of the 2008 season, its Craftsman brand would no longer sponsor the series.

Craftsman had been the title sponsor since 1995, the year NASCAR founded the series.

On November 13, 2009, Ron Hornaday won his fourth championship with 1 race remaining in the season.

With thanks to WIKIPEDIA.

All Data Lost

Disaster has struck.

Somehow I managed to lose all my game data.

Not to worry I'll just have to start again.

Nascar 2009 - Playstation 3 - Introduction

This blog follows my progress through this game.

The game follows the drivers, venues and championships (Craftsman, Nationwide and Sprint Cup) from the Nascar 2008 season.

I initially set the opponent level to EASY and won 2 Craftsman and 1 Nationwide series by several hundred points. With the completion of each championship I upped the race length by 5%. I still haven't reached the point where pitstops are required.

For the fourth championship, the second Nationwide one, I decided to increase the level of the opponents ability from EASY to NORMAL.

Having won the previous 3 championships quite easily, this one is proving quite a challenge.

Current Progress Table

Here is the current progress table:


Note: The REP POINTS are awarded after each race and are determined by the success within the race. REP POINTS (Reputation) can go up and down.

The REP POINTS count towards which sponsorship deals you can do, the better the sponsorship the better the reward (REP POINTS).

Round 15 - Daytona

Round 15 of the championship took place at the famous Daytona International Raceway close to Daytona beach.

My poor qualifying on super speedways continued as I started in 41st.

I did manage to almost keep out of trouble but the relatively narrow track (no passing under the yellow line) coupled with a lack of confidence and the closeness of the racing meant that I only passed one car to eventually finish in 40th position.

I did learn though, that it is advantagous to pit under any yellow flag to repair any damage.

24th in the standings at this stage of the season did not look good for the championship.

Track Facts

..

Surface Asphalt
Length 2.5 mi (4 km)
Turns 4
Banking 31° Turns
18° Tri-oval
2° Back straightaway
Lap record 0:42.783 (Bill Elliott, Melling Racing, 1987, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)