Remember how wrong NTG2011 got Watkins Glen?

One of the funniest signs NASCAR 2011 was going to be a shit show was how lazy they were when reconstructing Watkins Glen. It is one of only two road courses on the Cup schedule, and the only track where the pit stalls are on the right hand side. Instead of animating a right-side pit stop, they hilariously chose to put the pit crews on a weird little island in the middle of the track. Were it not for the invisible island, this would be the least-safe situation in racing history.

Hope nobody needs to leave.

I think I'll fire up the game again to get a few more pics. Little did we know this was a sign of the laziness to come.

NASCAR 15 Glitch: Flying Into Invisble Walls

I took another crack at racing with my trophy truck setup. Things got weird.

It did result in some fun pics.

Trying to leapfrog Gillilans

I'm my own spotter

This is fine.

Be a HERO.

I hope my car isn't too aero dependent

I love the cartoonish puff of smoke

The photo booth function seemed to alternate between what happened, and a firm belief my car would have immediately burst into flames. When the game doesn't believe its own damage models, things get weird.

Trophy Truck Status at Sonoma

So I was throwing back a few and got to thinking about my newly formed awesome stock car. I was also watching some awesome Stadium Supertruck racing.

And I got it in my head I should replicate their setup style and see how it would handle at Sonoma. The results were... interesting

With such a setup, I figured you could jump the hills and completely ignore the limits of the track. So I put it to the test.

I made a stock car (again)

Back in the NASCAR '11 days, I messed around by making a paint scheme to match my real life car - a boring old gold/beige 2004 Ford Taurus. I liked the funny reactions it got racing online, so I decided to take another crack at it in NASCAR '15 (Victory Edition.)

I started out by setting up the basics of the nose and door lines. I also tries to shade the sides with gradients to give it a more curved street-car look.

Afterwards, I refined the nose, adding similar gradients to give it a more rounded look. I also added minor details like door handles, and a license plate.

Kinda works

Check out my drifting skills

Oops. 

I've still got a bit of work to do, but I think it can work. One weird thing is I had to use the Chevy SS body style, because it was closer to those old mid-2000 Fords were than the current Fusion body style.

Ally Bank Original Paint Scheme - Part 2 (Brian Vickers Hendrick Motorsports Edition)

(Part 1)

With the custom Ally logo brush in the paint booth, I decided to start from scratch and start experimenting. As I noted in the previous post, Ally Bank used to be the financing wing for General Motors, known then as GMAC. As was the deal back in the early 00's, GM decided to provide roundabout support to their top team (Hendrick Motorsports) without jeopardizing their GM Goodwrench deal with Richard Childress Racing after the loss of Dale Earnhardt. I believe the word "synergy" was thrown around a bunch.

Either way, everything went to hell with that giant crash in '08, and GMAC got "bailed out" under some fairly brutal terms. The unions pitched in to become actual stakeholders, and the government covered a hefty chunk, gaining most of the shares. They've finally righted the ship, and offered a new IPO to sell the company back to private shareholders in 2014, putting itself forward as a new lean online-only digital banking/auto loan service.

GMAC is now Ally, so I figured a #25 Hendrick style Chevy was the more fitting than the custom Fords I had been working on.

I decided to go with a mashup between MWR and Hendrick styles, since they were both major teams Vickers drover for and have had some similar styles in the recent past.

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Some more shots: