A Tale of Two Stories at Texas

Before I begin talking about this great series, I’d like to thank everyone at inRacingNews for giving me this opportunity to put a spotlight on the NASCAR iRacing Class B Series and the drivers that take part in it. I feel that finally, these sim racers  will receive the notoriety and the credit that they deserve. — MC

New build, old build -- the NiCBS competition at TMS was intense.

This past week, the NiCBS hit the track at Texas Motor Speedway to kick-off Season 4 of 2011. The bumpy, fast, 1.5 mile speedway seems to always pose a challenge to the drivers in this series, and for that matter any other online racing series that tackles this venue. Because of a delay in the new build, drivers knew the week would be pretty crazy as updates would be coming right smack dab in the middle of the week. At this point, none of the drivers knew how much their setups were going to be affected so come Thursday when the build came out, it was a surprise to everyone to see how much the cars had changed.  The week truly proved to be a tale of two stories and because of that, some fast drivers in the beginning of the week were thrown for a loop at the end which allowed some new, and old, faces to appear at the front.

The Racing
On Tuesday night, some of the big names in the series came out and put on a great show! Remember, this race took place before the updates came out, so many drivers who performed well at TMS last season figured to be at the top of the chart in this race. The likes of Brandon Schmidt, Matt Whitten, Tyler D Hudson, and Dustin Montgomery showed-up along with many other great drivers in the series as well. The 3112 Strength of Field (SoF) race was slowed by three caution for ten laps. From the get-go, it seemed that Schmitten Chassis Works had the cars to beat.  Whitten and Schmidt led a combined 92 out of 100 laps with Brent Kirby, Wendell James, and Randy Fayash poking their noses out front for the other eight laps. Schmidt rode behind Whitten for the majority of the last forty or so laps, but when it came time to go, he did, passing Whitten with 22 laps remaining and taking the checkered flag.  In addition to Schmidt and Whitten, the top five finishers included Brent Kirby, Jeff Dukehart and Hudson. Schmidt earned 195 points in that race, Whitten pocketed 186, and Brent Kirby took home 177.

The mid-week release of the new build caught a few drivers off-guard . . .

On Friday night, the second high SOF race of the week took place  and, as the contest took place “post-updates,” no one really knew how this one was going to turn out.  23 drivers took the track, making up a 3196 SOF race that was slowed by four cautions for a total of 15 laps. After a few laps, three guys looked to be the favorites to win: Montgomery (40 laps led), Sam Edwards (36 laps led) and Jason Karlavige (22 laps led). Montgomery ended up slipping down the order while Edwards just couldn’t get to the front when it mattered the most.  Karlavige thus took the win over David Cater by just under four seconds followed by Armando Vargas, Sam Edwards and Carson McClelland. Karlavige took home 203 points with Cater and Vargas pocketing 193 and 184 points respectively.

The Numbers
After the dust settled and the week was over, Schmidt came out as the points leader with Cater and Whitten following closely behind. The fastest qualifying time was by Thomas D Smith at a 29.270s, a full tenth and change faster than second placed Edwards.  Smith also won the Time Trial Challenge for the week with a time of 29.805s over Richard Webster who posted a time of 28.920s.

Looking Ahead
The NiCBS will move out the Lone Star State and travel west to Phoenix International Speedway. Will Schmitten Chassis Works regain the magic they had at Texas before the updates to be dominant at PIR?  Maybe Thomas D Smith will come into PIR with momentum from his success at Texas to grab some points. Or will the NiCBS see some new contenders come out of the woodwork for PIR? Stay tuned to the weekly recaps of the NiCBS to find out! Thanks for reading!

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