Pre-Season Race #1: Atlanta Motor Speedway (27Sept17)

[Hootius]

 
Race Length: 81 Laps (Seg 1: 25 Laps/ Seg 2: 56 Laps)
Race Name in Game: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

 

[Hootius]

**Pre-Race Interview**
1. How are you enjoying Heat 2 so far?

2. What are your expectations for this season?

3. Be realistic about the expectation, but from a league standpoint, what do you hope gets patched in next month in the first big update patch?

 

[TheNoahcat]

1. How are you enjoying Heat 2 so far?

I am really enjoying NH2, it's a fun game, and it's even better when you can play with people that like to race you back.

2. What are your expectations for this season?


Since it's my first actual season, I'm hoping at best for a top 5 in a race.

3. Be realistic about the expectation, but from a league standpoint, what do you hope gets patched in next month in the first big update patch?
I'm hoping that everyone drives to the best of their abilities and we have a good season, Better sounds

 

[Meattyloaf]

1. I am really impressed with the game overall. I have already put more playtime in on single player than I did all of the last game. I feel the cars run a whole lot better as well and the fact that it seems a lot of tracks have became multi-grooved is a plus.

2. I want a win. Going into my third season I definitely want to improve my stats and I feel I have a teammate that can help me. As for the win I feel my best shot comes at either Daytona or one of the 1.5 miles. However, with the improvement of the cars short tracks aren't off the menu. Honestly, I feel I can get my first PRL win at any track that isn't a road course.

3. The one thing I hope they fix is pit road adjustments. I hate that I have to press the direction buttons for each small change.

 

[Sassafrass_3]

1. How are you enjoying Heat 2 so far?
I'm having a lot of fun with it. There are several problems that are frustrating and keeping me from enjoying it more. Also still slightly struggling with the wheel settings. If anyone has any advise that'd be great.

2. What are your expectations for this season?
My hope are high and expectations are low. This will be my first real Nascar experience since around 1998, lol. I'll be racing around some of you guys that have already run in championships and have more knowledge. I hope to finish in the top 5 a few times and be competitive.

3. Be realistic about the expectation, but from a league standpoint, what do you hope gets patched in next month in the first big update patch?
Am I crazy or is there a severe weight transfer at times when contacting the side of the car with the wall or other drivers? Where the car starts an bouncing off the wall or cars bounce off each other over and over uncontrollably? Seems extreme to me at times. Braking for pit lane boarder line impossible. Apron being sure death is a little severe. Having to cycle through menus for delta, lap time, fuel is ridiculous. Clicking one tenth at a time for wedge adjustment is mind numbing.

 

[Hootius]

1. How are you enjoying Heat 2 so far?
I like it. Definite improvement over the 1st, but still has a big ways to go. Happy that they made the 3 series actually all drive a little differently. I had low exceptions of course, but it was nice seeing some improvement.

2. What are your expectations for this season?
Try to Top 5 my a$$ off like normal and sneak out at least 1 win. I've lost 2 championships now by a combined 11 points, so I will be hungry to make sure I try to stay in the mix again this season.

3. Be realistic about the expectation, but from a league standpoint, what do you hope gets patched in next month in the first big update patch?
The black flags w/o cautions being on and changing the pit adjustments so you can hold it down and not just click 1 small change at a time. Sad that they have to patch that in and it wasn't released like that.

And Sass, that crap was in the first game too. This game is actually an improvement with the apron and bouncing off other cars, so you can only imagine how bad the first game was with that.

 

[XSYSE]

1. I'm enjoying the better handle, thank God for that, but my real joy comes in our League races. Sure we will have some feeling out time and some cautions, but the car is more sturdy so we can race a little more.

2. I won't get a hat trick, but even one element either a Pole, Fastest Lap or Win would be great. I hope with last season's learning curve done I can try for Top 5 in points.

3. I would like pit adjustment to be selected on the track

 

[JacobEvenson]

[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1. How are you enjoying Heat 2 so far? [/font]
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I'm enjoying it for the most part. Xfinity cars and the Trucks feel really solid but the cup cars still feel like a slightly better version of NHE in my opinion.[/font]
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]2. What are your expectations for this season? [/font]
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I would really just like to figure out these damn cars in the game. Could never really drive the cars well in NHE and thought it was just that I wasn't that good at it in general, but after playing iRacing basically all summer then coming back to a NASCAR Heat game has showed me that its really just how I drive the game.[/font]
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]3. Be realistic about the expectation, but from a league standpoint, what do you hope gets patched in next month in the first big update patch?[/font]
[font=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I would say the best thing there would be is just being able to set your pit adjustments from on track, or having pit adjustments saved from before the session begins.[/font]

 

[Sassafrass_3]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but is there a procedure for pitting in this league? Enter on the back stretch, out of turn four, etc. I see the AI at Atlanta entering on the back stretch but every time I hit the brakes the car is on ice. I've gotten a little better at it but still super sketchy. Even if i hit the brakes going 80mph approaching the line the car turns sideways. I do have my brake sensitivity turned all the way down which seems to help.

 

[Hootius]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but is there a procedure for pitting in this league? Enter on the back stretch, out of turn four, etc. I see the AI at Atlanta entering on the back stretch but every time I hit the brakes the car is on ice. I've gotten a little better at it but still super sketchy. Even if i hit the brakes going 80mph approaching the line the car turns sideways. I do have my brake sensitivity turned all the way down which seems to help.

When it comes to green flag pitting, first off there is no speed rules on the entry until they fix the black flag issue. As for an entry rule, we try to call out our number in chat on the backstretch and then hug the inside line and try not to impede anyone when entering. On pit exit for green flag pits, the rule is you do have to the ride the apron until you get to the backstretch. It is a very tricky skill to learn, best advice I can give is don't rush to the point where you have to hit your brakes. I normally try to find a comfortable speed, and then coast until I get to the exit point. When we pit under caution, everyone can just merge right out of the pit.

 

[Hootius]

Well gents, I think we can all agree that last night had some good, and some bad to it. At the start and at the end, we had some solid green flag runs that were very competitive and a lot of fun! Not a shocker though, since it has been an issue in the past, cautions breed cautions for sure with this league. No one is perfect and we are not expected to be, but some of the behavior that lead to the unnecessary cautions can be cleaned up easily:
[ul]
[li]No lagging behind and trying to get a jump on the restarts. There is no passing the car in your lane before the start/finish line. If the oppisite lane gets a bad start and you get a spot or 2, gratz! But no Kyle Busch starting crap is allowed in this league.[/li]
[li]Forcing a 3-wide in before the backstretch really should not be tried until everyone is really comfortable around each other in this game. Several from last night were due to 3-wide going into Turn 1, and peeps not making it out of Turn 1.[/li]
[/ul]
Now while I don't want to threaten or call out any specific driver, we did have some guys last night with the wiggles and creating a lot of contact with other cars. Please please please, do not loosen your car beyond your control for the sake of speed. During the regular season, there is a tracker for all of our cautions and penalties for those who cause too many You can find that information here I hate tell people that they can't race and it's a very uncomfortable conversation, but I have done it in the past and will continue to due so for the betterment of the league.

The draft in this game is very strong. You can easily give up a tenth or two in solo speed for better handling, and be able to keep pace easily in the draft. My whole PRL Nascar career has been based on that, and I share the all-time lead in Top 5s, so the strategy works!! But with all of that said, Kentucky will be a very fun track next week. Keep an eye out in PSN chat for peeps wanting to run some practice lobbies over the weekend, and let's go have a hell of a race on Wednesday.

 

[Sean420cali]

I have a question Hootius. How do I know what spot I qualified in? I was confused during the pace laps what row I was suppose to be in?

 

[Hootius]

After the 4% qualifying race, it'll tell you what your fast lap was and where you ranked in the lobby next to it. That rank is the qualifying order. Things got a little jumbled having to remake the lobby. Normally we shouldn't have to do that. It is up to every driver to remember where they qualified at so we can reform quickly after the pit stops and get the race under green.

 

[XSYSE]

RECAP #4
Q: 8th  Too little draft
R: 5th  Some good racing in the back and up front,  I was very satisfied for no practice and a set-up that was untested as I didn't make the main event last season.

 

[ZeKe_h30]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRMseBJ_dcU