The Pits

THE NASCAR RACING FAQ

for NASCAR I & II

UPDATED 16 NOV 97

How do I get started? - To really do well at NASCAR, forget the keyboard driving. You really need to have, at the least, a decent joystick. Much better is a yoke or steering wheel with buttons on the grips. A joystick can be very hard to use, and will most probably give you inconsistent results. However, some people have used it with great success, so don't completely throw out a joystick. A wheel or yoke will give you the consistency you need to be able to tell what your car is doing. You don't really need an expensive one, the one I use is the G-Force yoke by Suncom Tech. It cost me about $50, and has given me great results...4 wins in '95 in the NASSCAR Racing Series. When you first start, you may want to set the competition down to about 80% and try to follow them through the corners. Don't overdrive the car...use easy braking, and try not to throw the car into the corners. Accellerate evenly out of the corners. You are going to crash, figure on it, because this takes practice. If you are having problems figuring out where to brake, pick an object, then practice hitting the brakes each time you pass it. If the object is too far or near where you should be braking, pick another one. You want to find a spot where you can brake into the corner, but not slow to much to be able to accellerate smoothly back out.

How do I learn the tracks? - If you are finding that you are having problems navigating certain tracks without remodeling your car, try setting the car damage to "off" (Options Menu, then Realism in N1, Quickrace menu in N2). That way you can do alot of practice laps, get the tires heated up, and get plenty of sticky tire track time without wasting time crashing and restarting. You'll find you progress alot faster this way. Then you can set car damage back to "on" after you've got a feel for the track.

How do I keep from breaking the pit road speed limit? - If you have a problem keeping below pit road speed, while your car is on the jacks, type "alt-b". This will enable auto-braking, and keep your car from going over the speed limit of pit road. Remember to type "alt-b" again before you start racing. Word of caution...some people have reported that they got a black flag at certain tracks anyway...you may want to test each track before you try it. Do not use auto-braking to race, as each time you let off the gas, the brakes are applied...can you say"slow as molasses"?

What's the best setting for the graphics? - Set options to "on" or "off", depending on how much your computer can handle. Setting graphics to "auto" can tie up computer time, losing you laps speeds. If you have too many options on, you can switch them off in the cockpit mode. You want to have a smooth graphics. However, make sure that you set skid marks to on, as you will need to see them if you want to learn the correct racing line for the track.

How do I set up my car? - Keep the setups that come with the game, (ace, qual, ect). Load whichever setting you want to use, make the necessary changes, then save it to another name; "racetall" for Talladega, ect. Some people even have a 2nd version saved, so then they can go out, make a change to the race car, save it, try it, and then update the main one if they like the changes. The MAIN thing to remember is to make ONLY ONE CHANGE AT A TIME! If you change several things at once, you may find that the car works better or worse, but you won't know which changes affected the car. Take special care of your tires, remember, the tire temp is the telltale clue as to how your car is set up, and how you are driving it. Attempt to make all tires as equal in temp as possible, and slightly over 200 when hot. This can vary alot, and is not always possible, but is a general rule of thumb. Use my Qwikfix Guide if you are having problems setting up the car.

How do I find the best line around the track? - Every driver has a different style...some push hard, some are very smooth, some back out at the first sign of trouble. How you drive is up to you...there is no wrong way. The Winston Cup drivers all have many different styles, but no matter what, they win! Here is some good solid advice, though...Beginners (and even pros) alot of times push the car too hard thru the corner. This usually results in a hot right front or rear tire, and a severe push or loose condition. Before you go adjusting away on your car, try slowing in the corner a bit more..you may be surprised to find your lap times actually pick up, not drop off! This is a result of your car actually going smoother and faster through the turns, because if you push it too hard, you actually lose more time trying to gather it up coming out of the corner than you gained going in. Follow the other cars...they will usually take the best line around the track. Follow the skid marks...same thing. On most corners, you want to roll in smooth, then pour on the power about halfway through the corner. On certain tracks, you may find it benificial to "trail-brake". This maneuver involves hitting the brakes while still keeping the accellerator down. It is benifical when you are losing too much speed while braking in the turns...you slow down, but not at near the rate you would if you just hit the brakes.

How do I get restarted? - Any time you have a problem during the race or qualifying, you can type "shift-r" to restart. It will throw you back in at the beginning of whatever session you are doing. If you have qualified, but don't like your speed, you don't have to restart the whole race session, just use "shift-r". Your previous time will still stand, until you can better it. Winston Cup drivers wish they could do this...

How do I keep from crashing? - NASCAR 1 doesn't have a spotter, so, while you are racing, you will see a "Pit Closed" flash in front of you if a wreck happens somewhere on the track. Hit "p"to pause the game, then from the race, go into the Replay menu, and look around the track by viewing the different cars on the track. When you find the car/s that are involved in the accident, you will know where on the track it is, and will be able to slow down in time to avoid hitting the wrecked cars. Go slowly. Try to stay to the inside and you may even be able to pass cars waiting for the wreckage to clear. NASCAR2, pay attention to your spotter, and take car when driving in heavy traffic. Sometimes it's much safer to wait another lap to pass then to end up on the hauler with a smashed up race car.

How do I pit? -This is an art in itself. You need to have a clear idea of what your car needs way before you enter pit road. Keep constantly abreast of how your car is doing during the race...are the tires getting worn? Does the spoiler need to be bumped up a bit? How far to the end of the race? How many laps can you run with the fuel left? Constant monitoring of these things makes the difference between a winner and a loser. Right prior to entering pit road, hit "p" to pause the game, then make sure you have all your adjustments in order...do you need to change only right side tires? Can you get by with only 4 gallons to finish the race? Does the air pressure need to be added to some tires? How about damage? Does your car run just fine with whatever damage it has now? Don't fix it then. The faster your pit stop, the better track position you have. Use pit stops to your full advantage. Practice pitting. Find out where you can slam on the brakes to slide right into your pit stall without having to back up or pull forwards. Try to get your nose pointed out so you don't have the car in front of you blocking you in.

What's the best way to save the game? - If you find that you want to practice racing at a track, first get the qualifying done, then go to the garage, get your race car, hit Next Session until "Warmup" is displayed, then exit and save the game. This way, you can come back in, do warmup laps if you need to, and start the race right away. If you save it with "Race" displayed, you won't get any warmup time if you have to come back later. That's for Nascar 1...for NASCAR 2, it will drop you right in the track, with only the race option available. However, in N2, if you hit "cancel", when it comes up to the "Do you want to run the previous race" menu, it will allow you to run on the track without overwriting your saved race. This will allow you to practice before racing. You can then get back out of the garage menu, reselect the race from the "Quick Race" menu, and then select "Yes" to restore the previous race.

How do I remove the restrictor plates? - If you want to go really fast, remove the restrictor plates. This is can only be done at Talladega. Go into the tracks/taladega directory, and use an editor to edit the taladega.txt file. Where it says "SPDWY 1 42 45", change the "1" to a "0". This tells the game that this is NOT a superspeedway, so allow full power. Also edit the "RELS" line so that the other cars will be able to keep up. Set this value somewhere near 115 to 120. Enjoy the results!

What does the drivers2.txt file do? (NASCAR1) - The drivers2.txt file changes the way the other drivers drive...here are the values for the drivers2.txt file... remember to make a backup! You can use any editor to change values. Here's what the editable lines look like:

DINFO 94 1 0 500 562 500 562 100 150 500 562 John_Smith John Somerville,_MA USA USA NASCAR_Team_USA
Here's what the values of the series of numbers after the "DINFO" mean...

The car number, chassis, style and tire numbers are self explanatory. The minimum/maximum numbers require a bit more explanation. Each number can be between 000 and 999. The higher the number, the more power, etc. the driver will have, except for drag...this must be low. Drivers names may also be changed in this file. Always remember to place an underscore (_) between the first and last name. You can also download a driver editor to make this easier!

How do I use Nascar multiplayer, over the internet or modem? - (NASCAR 1) Version 1.20 and later of Nascar1 has an undocumented feature which allows you to play another person over a Novell Network. To use this feature, both users need to be logged in and have NETBIOS loaded. Nascar should be loaded with the -N:UserId option. The UserId should be replaced with the login name of your opponent.
With this done, you should both select multiplayer game and switch to Direct Connect mode. You should see the words IPX and your oppnents name in the right hand box. The user which is to take the lead should switch to answer mode and the other user should select Dial.

(NASCAR2) This is pretty easy...go the the "multiplayer", then select network type. Click on "dial" if you want to join another race, "answer" if you want to host a race. Then hit "connect". Remember, you must have a "multi.lst" as a driver's list, with a full 39 cars in it. If you don't, it will give you and error. If you are running on NROS, you don't even have to do this, it will drop you straight into a race when you connect. When playing over the internet, make sure that you have a decent connection with your internet service provider, and have decent ping times. You must have 500 or below to have a decent race. 3-400 is preferrable. If you are running another background program that is using your internet connection (Netscape, Explorer, ICQ, ect.) you should close these programs before attempting to race. They will cause your pings to be much worse than they really are.

How do I get a screenshot? - NASCAR 1, hit the "Print screen" key, and it will drop a .pcx file into the /NASCAR directory. In N2, use the "\" key.

How do I edit the calendar? - Each line of the calendar file is a race...and here's what they look like.
2 25 0 0 DAYTONA (NASCAR 1)
3 3 10 0 0 ATLANTA Atlanta_500 Atlanta_ 500 (NASCAR 2)

On the N1 calendar, the first two numbers refer to the date of the race. (25th of February). The next number refers to the 2nd race parameter (which can be found in the "daytona.txt" file in the /tracks/daytona directory). If it's set to a "1", that means use the number of laps for the 2nd race, not the first race. Both of those numbers can be found on the line "LAPS" in the Daytona.txt file. Then word "DAYTONA" *MUST* refer to the same name that the track directory is called. If not, the race will not load.

On N2, the first number refers to the race number, as in which order it comes in the season. The next parameters are all identical to N1 (see above). The "Atlanta_500" refers to what the race will be called in the Quick Race and Season menus.

How do I edit the track files? - Here is the pertinent info on (trackname).txt files that can be found in the /tracks/(trackname) directory. Thanks to Corey Rueckheim for putting this together. Be aware that modifying some of these values can make your tracks illegal in some network races.

TNAME (Track Name)- This keyword has one parameter which is the name that is used to refer to the track within the game. It is displayed in the track selection window during track selection. The track selection window changes size to be just wide enough to contain the track name with the greatest width. The parameter may be left blank, in which case, the name will appear to be blank in the game, but can still be selected as normal. The name may be as long as you wish, although it will be truncated to a maximum of 50 characters in length. Keep in mind that since the track selection window grows with the width of the track name, keep it reasonably short or you'll cover up the track information display with the track selection window. Track names do not have to be unique, but it's a good idea if you don't want to confuse yourself.

PITSP (Pit Speed) - This keyword appears only in NASCAR Racing 2. It has one parameter which specifies the pit speed in miles-per-hour.

SPDWY (Speedway Attributes) - This keyword has three parameters. The first parameter specifies whether or not a restrictor plate is used on your car at this track. If the value is a '0', your car doesn't use a restrictor plate. If the value is '1', your car does use a restrictor plate. This will NOT affect the computer controlled cars in any way. The second and third parameters specify the beginning and end of the pit window. The pit window is the range in laps that the computer controlled cars will race before they will go in for a pit stop. I have not found the last two parameters in IndyCar Racing tracks, so I assume it is not used there. I also do not know if restrictor plates work in IndyCar Racing or in IndyCar Racing II. I also don't know what will happen if you specify anything other than '0' or '1' for this parameter.

LENGT (Track Length) - This keyword has one parameter, which specifies the distance of the track. It doesn't actually affect the size of the track, only what is displayed in the track information window that is displayed when you select the track from within the game. The value assumes three decimal places, for example 2500 would be a distance of 2.500 miles.

LAPS (Laps) - This keyword has two parameters. These two parameters play a major part in determining the number of laps for races held at this track. Each value represents a possible number of laps for a race at this track with a RACE LENGTH of 100% specified within the game. If the SINGLE RACE option is chosen within the game, the first parameter is the number of laps the race will be at 100%. If CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON is chosen, it is slightly more complicated. Each race in a CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON is specified by a line in the CALENDAR file in the game directory. Each line has a value that specifies which LAPS parameter to use to determine the number of laps for the race. If the value in the CALENDAR file is '0', the first parameter will be used, and if the value is '1', the second parameter will be used. If '0' is specified and no parameter is defined, if '1' is specified and a second parameter is not defined, or if any values other than '0' or '1' are used in the CALENDAR file, it will result in the same situation as described below for when the LAPS keyword is omitted entirely from the track.txt file. Useful values for each parameter range from '3' to '2147483647'. The actual number of laps for a race is determined by taking the RACE LENGTH percentage from within the game, times the value of the LAPS parameter used for this race as explained above. Each race automatically has a minimum of '3' laps. If the LAPS keyword is omitted, or if no parameters are specified, the race length value within the game remains unchanged from when it was last set. For example, let us pretend to remove the LAPS keyword line from the file BRISTOL.TXT. If you go to the track selection screen and have ATLANTA highlighted, and the number of laps at ATLANTA is '25', and then you hit the down arrow on the keyboard to highlight BRISTOL, which doesn't have LAPS specified, '25' will be the value used for the number of laps. This little tid-bit of knowledge is absolutely useless to the best of my knowledge, but I discovered it and thought it was amusing enough to share.

FNAME (Formal Name) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the formal name used for this track.

CITYN (City Name) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the name of the city closest to the track.

COUNT (Country Name) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the name of the country in which the track is located.

PACEA (Pace Alignment) - This keyword has a variable number of parameters. The first parameter specifies the number of columns the cars line up in for the pace lap. The second parameter indicates the position on the track where the pace lap begins. The next X parameters (with X being the value used for the first parameter) specify the distance each column of cars is from the center of the track, starting with the inside row, and ending with the outside row. Following these parameters is the last parameter which always seems to be a '0'. I am not sure what it is for.

QUAL (Qualifying) - This keyword has two parameters. The parameters depend on which type of track this is. For NASCAR Racing tracks, the first parameter should always be a '2'. Specifying '1' prevents the LAP INFO window (the pop-up window that you get when you hit F1) from showing any info. Specifying '0' prevents you from qualifying entirely. For IndyCar Racing II tracks, the first parameter determines whether the qualifying procedure will be a timed open session or a specific number of laps. A value of '0' means that it will be a timed open session, and a value of '1' means that it will be a specific number of laps. For NASCAR Racing tracks, the second parameter specifies how many qualifying laps each driver gets during qualifying. All laps must be completed for any one of the laps to be counted for qualifying, which means will be placed at the end of the race field if you exit qualifying at Talladega after the first lap, with this parameter set to '2'. For IndyCar Racing II tracks, if the qualifying procedure was specified as a timed open session, the second parameter specifies the number of minutes each driver gets to spend driving qualifying laps. If the qualifying procedure was specified as a specific number of laps, the second parameter works the same way that it works for NASCAR Racing tracks.

GFLAG (Green Flag) - This keyword has one parameter, which defines the location of the pole sitter when the green flag is to be dropped. Reports exist of this keyword not working for certain tracks (Talladega, Sears Point).

TTYPE (Track Type) - This keyword has one parameter, which specifies what type of track this is. The only known effect this has in the game is the speed of the pace lap.
VALUE TRACK TYPE PACE SPEED
----- ---------- ----------
'0' Short Oval 40 mph
'1' Mid Oval 55 mph
'2' Large Oval 70 mph
'3' Superspeedway 90 mph
'4' Road Course 70 mph
'5' Unknown Unknown

CARS (Number Of Cars) - This keyword has two parameters. The first parameter doesn't seem to do anything, so my best guess is that it specifies the number of cars allowed to to make qualifying attempts for each race at this track. The second parameter specifies how many cars are on the track for each race at this track, including the pace car, and your car. This number overrides the NUMBER OF OPPONENTS setting within the game, meaning you can't set NUMBER OF OPPONENTS to '38' and expect to race against 38 other cars at Bristol without changing the second parameter to the CARS keyword first.

BLAP (Best Lap) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the time (in seconds) it takes the fastest computer cars to make a lap during qualifying. Three decimal places are assumed so '23849' would mean 23.849 seconds.

RELS (Relative Strength) - This keyword has one parameter, which is the percent of the speeds defined in the LP files that the cars will attempt to achieve. This will increase the speed the cars attempt during pace laps and pit stop too, so increasing this may allow computer players to break the pit lane speed limit (which you cannot get away with).

TIRES (Tires - Goodyear) - This keyword has seven parameters. This keyword doesn't appear in IndyCar Racing tracks. This keyword is used to define the characteristics of Goodyear tires. The first parameter defines the grip for the left side tires. The second parameter describes the heat generated by the left side tires. The third parameter specifies the tread life of the left side tires. The fourth parameter defines the grip for the right side tires. The fifth parameter specifies the heat generated by the right side tires. The sixth parameter specifies the tread life of the right side tires. I have no idea what the seventh parameter is for. Increasing the grip values increases the grip of the tires. Increasing the heat values increases the heat generated by the tires. Increasing the the tread life values increases the life of the tires. Increasing grip increases heat and decreases tread life and decreasing grip decreases heat and increases tread life.

TIRES2 (Tires - Hoosier/Firestone) - This keyword has seven parameters. This keyword doesn't appear in IndyCar Racing or NASCAR Racing II tracks. This keyword is the same as the TIRES keyword, except TIRES2 refers to the characteristics of Hoosier tires in NASCAR Racing, and for Firestone tires in IndyCar Racing II.

How do I put new cars or drivers in the game? - In N1, just import a new car, or paint one, and change the driver's name in the info screen. Very simple. In N2, a bit harder. If you have a new .car file, this is easy...just drop it into the /cars directory, and add it to one of your driver's lists in the "driver info" menu. If it comes as a .pcx, a bit harder. The N2HQ program (found in our workshop) will allow you to edit a driver, and import any .pcx to another one. However, if you are not using that, it's a bit harder. Remember this format...(driver).car = X(driver).pcx. In another words, to import a new car body into the paintkit, the .pcx file must have the same name as the car you are importing to, with an "X" in front. So m_martin.car would need a Xm_marti.pcx to import. Remember, no more than 8 characters, and the .pcx file must be in the /nascar2 directory. If you want to import a new driver's picture, it must be a .pcx file, and be the same name as the car, and it must be in the /nascar2/cars directory. So the m_martin.car would need a m_martin.pcx file found in the /nascar2/cars directory to import the new driver's picture. The picture must be stuck to one of the blank.pcx files which can be found in the /nascar2/cars directory, otherwise the palatte will go awful.

How do I add new setups? - If downloaded as an .stg file from the web, all you have to do is drop the setu in the correct track directory that the setup is for, and it will show up in the 'setups' menu. If it is a .txt file, you will have to create a new setup, then type in the values by hand.

What are some of the in-car keys? - "Alt-b" is to turn "Auto-braking" on or off. "Alt-s" is for Auto-shift. In NASCAR 2, you also have "O", which will tell you your lap times as you come across the S/F line, and "L", which will tell you when the leader of the race crosses the S/F line.

How do I add new tracks? - Fairly easy. All you have to do is create a new directory under the /tracks directory, with the same name as the .dat file of the track you will be adding. Place all the files into that new directory, and then add that track to the calendar. Presto! New track...

How do I paint my own cars? - This will be a bit more detailed. I will not go into how to do it in the NASCAR Paintkit, that should be painfully obvious. However, here's how to paint a car using the outside sources. Paintshop Pro is one of the best tools, so go into the game, export the car you want to work on, and go to work. Make sure that you first create a palatte of the car you are painting (Colors menu, save palatte). Then begin work. First put on the base coat of the car color that you want to use, and any other main colors for the color schemes. Make sure that you do not convert the car from 256 color to anything else. Also, use the same colors from the NASCAR palatte, you can download Chris Frederick's Paintshop Assistant from the workshop area, it has a nice "dipping well" to get the proper colors from. If you want to stick on decals from outside sources, open them in Paintshop, crop off anything you don't want to stick on the car, then make sure they are the correct size. Now go to the "colors" menu, and "load palatte". This will convert the decal to the N2 palatte. Then do a "edit", "copy", then select the car, and "paste transparent". If something doesn't show up , use "paste as new selection". Move it to where you want it, and then "selections", "select none". Continue this. To "feather" the edges of stuff to make the car look more realistic, you MUST crop just the white part of the car picture, with the car body, off from the rest of the car picture. Save as a new file. Now go to "colors", "increase color depth", "16 million colors". Now you can use the "smoothing" tool to smooth rough edges. Before you paste the car back into the original car picture, you must convert it to the car palatte, using the steps above. If you had not cropped the car body from the original picture, you would have corrupted the palatte of the original car (found in the tiny color lines at the bottom of the picture). Now go back into the game, and import your newly painted car back into it's original spot.

What kind of hardware should I have? - We will have even more detailed stuff on this later, but suffice it to say, more money, better hardware = faster times. This is just like real racing, so get used to it. Get a decent video card (Rendition may be good, or some of the new 3dfx cards) with a decent amount of RAM. Get a 32-bit sound card, with onboard memory, you will thank me for this later. A P100 will run the sim decently (provided you didn't get a crappy motherboard or something), but really, you need P166 or better to start turning decent lap times. And of course, MMX will help. The more memory you have, the better it will run, and I would say a minimum of 24 for N2 is what you want. 16 Meg for N1 (minimum). Wheels? Your choice. While many use the Thrustmaster wheels, several others out on the market have gotten good reviews. You decide what you want. Always get a good set of pedals, if possible. Your lap times will improve with the smooth transition in corners, as opposed to the "on-off" of a joystick or just wheel.

How do I change cars or drivers? - In N1, basically, the first car in the set after the pace car is yours, so if you want to change it, either export a car, rename it, then import it back into the first slot - or - you can just repaint it. In N2 it's much easier, as to driver a car, all you have to do is move it to the first position in the current driver's list you are using. Several keys that aren't noted much are the "<" and ">" keys, which can be used to move a car up and down the list after it's been highlighted. As well, if you hit the "a" key, it will ask to sort the current driver's list by name, or, if you hit "s", it will ask to sort them by number. Pretty handy...

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