I Competed in the iRacing Coke 600

"bwp240" (bwp240) 05/26/2020 at 12:30 • Filed to: Sim Racing, iRacing, esports, NASCAR

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Every year during the NASCAR iRacing Series we compete in a few full length races. This week took us to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca Cola 600 . I compete in the fixed setup series as making a setup from scratch takes more time than I have in a week.

The flyover complete. It is time to start engines and get going for 600 miles of action.

Gridding up I did not have the most confidence for this race. Normally the fixed setup has far too much understeer and the right front tire degrades in 20 laps. D uring practice, I learned how to conserve my tires, t hough this meant I was not topping any speed charts. As those who drove the car hard wore out their tires and began to fall back, I would able to pick my way through the field.

Barney the flagman waves the green and the race is underway.

The race was pretty mundane. Contrary to what I expected, we went the first 114 laps under green. Usually we have 8 cautions by then. As expected, t ire management was key as lap time fall off was massive (usually go from 29.4 to 31.8 seconds per lap). I would lose a few positions at the beginning of a run to drivers that really wanted to get to the lead ; however, 30 laps later, I would pass them back as they had worn out there tires . The Team Oppo pit crew was on point and did an amazing job throughout the race.

The Team Oppo crew is on point with another perfectly executed pit stop.

The most exciting thing to happen during the race was just past the half way point. During a real NASCAR race, the driver sweat profusely thus reducing their need to use the bathroom. Since I am in my air conditioned house, I did not have such luxury. So during a pit stop under yellow the 1:10 second lap was perfect enough to pop off to the restroom for a quick pit stop.

Toward the end of the race, strategy really began coming into play. While I kept trying to figure out strategy during the race, every time it came to act on it a caution would come out and mess everything up. The final yellow came out with about 100 laps to go which meant we had 1.5 fuel loads left in the race. This left me with 3 options

P it with 65 laps to go, be good on gas, but have no tires by the checkered flag, but more time to recover from a miscue

Pit with 50-55 laps to go and split the difference

Pit with 35 laps to go, take about 60% tank, have fresher tires, but limited time to recover from a miscue.

Each strategy had its own benefits and weaknesses. I chose to split the difference , with a little pad toward the earlier in an attempt to gain some time on my nearby competitors . Short pitting enables me to run some quick laps while my competition is out on old tires. Even a couple laps could gain 1 to 2 seconds. I was running ~17 th position for most of the stint. After short pitting I was able to work my way up to 7th. However, the downfall of this strategy was that I ran the tires a little to hard and needed a yellow to really solidify my track position gain . That yellow never came. In the end, I came home after 600 miles in 15 th place .

Barney the flagman greets us as we cross the 600th mile.

The Coke 600 is one of the most grueling races in NASCAR, and in iRacing it is not much different. Sure the physical elements (such as G-forces and heat) of racing are not there, but the mental elements certainly are. Compared to the normal half distance races ran in the NASCAR iRacing S eries, the 600 required a different mindset. At the green flag, the end of the race seemed so far away. Drivers were more concerned about making it to the end and drove more conservatively giving plenty of room to each other. Drivers were not concerned about who could turn the fastest lap, it was about who could manage their stuff well enough to be competitive. It made the challenging 4.5 hour race much more fun than I anticipated.

Unfortunately, after my Indy 500 hardware failure, I could not stream the race. However, here is a nice time lapse of the race as it transitioned into night.

And if you want to feel particularly nauseous , here is a time lapse of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > bwp240 05/26/2020 at 12:36

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That does sound gruelling. I couldn't even watch the 14 minute time lapse for fear of getting sick. 15th is actually a good finishing position in such a competitive field, but too bad your strategy didn't quite work out how you had planned.

Grindintosecond > bwp240 05/26/2020 at 15:40

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I want to see a grand iracing triple crown invitational. Monaco, Indy, and the 600 one after another with an hour break between, straight through.

Would be, what, 10 hours actual driving? A massive test. Winner is highest aaverage finish and gets a nice check and a big one for their charity.