iRacing: All Good Things Must Come to an End, NASTRACK Won the Battle, More Wins the War
The season finale was finally upon us this past Monday evening as the driver from the NASTRACK & More league took to the banks of Daytona International to settle the “ole score.” Nothing about this night of racing said “let’s go out there and conserve. Both the team and driver championships were up for grabs, oh and its Daytona so anyone could come from tenth to first in the final lap to steal the win.
Time to break some scenarios down for you; More went into the race leading the team points, NASTRACK would need to sweep the top ten to be able to steal the title. Steven Burnett & Kieth Maiato were tied for the driver points and with each position on the track being one point it came down much like how the 2014 Sprint Cup title did, finish ahead of the other guy and the championship is yours.
The garage opened for practice promptly at 6:45 EDT and drivers from both teams wasted no time putting laps into the books. Things were shaping up to be a barn burner too with the top ten split dead even in times during practice. Back for just his second race of the season, #92 Guy Driggers Red Six Camaro set the fastest time of the entire night with a 45.825 (196.4 MPH).
Moving ahead to qualifying it was the #40 car of Andrew Burton capturing the pole for NASTRACK. Posting a time of 48.770 seconds, which comes out to about 184 mph, which is pretty sporty for the Xfinity style cars here on iRacing. What made things really fun was the fact the top 22 cars were only separated by a tenth of a second! The remainder of your starting five were, #27 Chris Simard (48.775), #92 Guy Driggers (48.776), #37 Parker Traves (48.779), #30 Steven Burnett (48.781). On the flip side to that, there were a few cars who either missed qualifying or decided not to lay a lap down, those drivers were Keith Maiato, Bruce Boyer, Jesse Call, Gary Maiato, Kevin Cornelius, Laurie Meson and Michael Almand.
With the field set and the cars finally on track we were all but ready to get things underway for the fifth and “final” round of the NASTRACK –vs- More Challenge. However, the electronic world thought other wise as the #07 of Billy Howard just takes a hard right into the wall just past the start finish line and jolts back down the track causing a train reaction of carnage. “I don’t know what happened,” Howard said on his way back to the garage. “It’s the second week where when we get the restart it feels like as if I have a flat tire.” He was able to drive his car around to the attention of his crew and use is one and only free reset of the evening and rejoin the field.