Driving around this track (Texas Motor Speedway) is a whole lot more difficult than it looks, and evidence of that is that the 4 cars ahead of me, who were all faster through most of the race and are all presumably very good racers, all hit the wall and dropped out of contention. I ran more than 300 laps on this track in the last few days prior to the start of this race, and only got comfortable in the last 30 or so before the race. I could run around the track, but about 0.3 seconds per lap slower than what it takes to compete, which would put you almost half a lap behind by the end of this 35 lap race.
Notes on the video:
00:15 -- Video begins (it’s black before this) -- the link has "&t=15" to skip the first 15 seconds
00:37 -- The pace car pulls off the track, and the leader takes off and begins the race right away (this is unusual, normally the leader waits a bit to start)
03:00 -- The 4 car, who has been catching me, loses the back end and has to recover, so I get away from him a bit
03:15 -- The green and black car up high is going to hit the wall shortly
03:22 -- I just make it by, before…
03:24 -- … he comes off the wall and collects the cars right behind me in a wreck
03:37 -- Replay from the driver’s seat of car 4 behind me
04:43 -- The 18 (orange) and 21 (black) start a battle in front of me, the 18 passes the 21
04:50 -- The 21 gets a little unsettled trying not to hit the wall
04:51 -- I ding the wall myself with a rear fender, but no harm
04:56 -- I back off a little and don’t try to go by the 21, there’s too much race left to get eager
05:50 -- The 21 passes the 18 back
05:59 -- I’ve stayed with the 18 and 21 because they’re slowing down a bit to race each other, but you can see the two lead cars, the 1 (gray-green) and the 7 (black and bright green) are way ahead
06:33 -- We switch to watching the battle for the lead, between the 7 (leading) and 1 (chasing)
06:37 -- The 7 (leader) gets a little unsettled coming out of turn 2, and the 1 catches up
06:53 -- The 7 keeps getting wobbly pretty often, he’s having a hard time going this fast
07:08 -- The 7 nearly spins, but recovers, which slows him down a lot
07:11 -- The 1 has a huge run on the outside of the 7 …
07:12 -- … but the 7 moves up the track, and the 1 hits him in the back
07:17 -- The 21 (remember the 21? -- black) goes roaring by the 1, who on one hand has gotten a raw deal, but on the other hand is lucky to still be in the race
07:25 -- The 7 nearly loses it again
07:43 -- The 21 goes outside the 7, it looks like they almost touched
07:49 -- The 21 is in the lead now
08:27 -- The 7 spins at last, and we all go by, the 1 just misses him, no one is hurt
08:40 -- View switches back to my driver’s seat now
10:23 -- We go by a car that has spun out and is on the inside wall -- and it’s the 7, he got going after his spin from 2nd place, and has spun again
10:37 -- The 1 car, in 2nd place, hits the outside wall coming off turn 4
10:41 -- Now I’m in 3rd, since we’ve lost the 7 and 1 cars from the lead group
10:47 -- And look how high the 21 (in the lead) goes in turn 2, he’s having trouble too
11:29 -- The 18 goes inside the 21, trying for the lead
11:43 -- The 18 has the lead
11:58 -- The 21 either brushes the wall, or gets unstable trying not to
12:02 -- This time I’m not backing off, I have too much of a run on him, and we’re heading for turn 3-4 which I know I can go through strongly on any line, low or high
12:13 -- The 21 doesn’t want to give up the spot, he comes strong out of turn 4
12:21 -- But I have good position going into turn 1 and I don’t overdrive it
12:37 -- The 21 wants to try inside turn 3, but I know that I run very fast through 3 on the high line and then coming down the track heading into turn 4, so I think I can get in front of him
12:43 -- I make it to the low line in front of the 21
12:57 -- The 21 goes high in turn 1, which slows him down, and I get away from him
… So now I’m in 2nd, it’s just me and the 18 from here to the end …
[Around lap 30, I remember that when I ran a long stint in practice, as I got near 30 laps and the speeds were lower because the tires were worn, I could keep the throttle on the floor all the way through 3 and 4, and I decide I should try this to see if I can catch the 18. You can hear in the sound that at some point I stop backing out of the throttle so much entering turn 3.]
17:37 -- I get a lot closer to the 18 for a moment, which is important because it probably makes him push harder than he’s comfortable with, and as a result:
18:22 -- The 18 catches the wall coming off turn 2 ...
18:28 -- ... so I go by …
18:30 -- … and the 18 loses the back end going into turn 3
18:41 -- If you slow the video down to 25% speed (YouTube will let you do this if you click the Settings gear), you can see that the flagman is waving the white flag here -- I am in the lead for the start of the final lap!
19:10 -- We switch to a chase view because you can see the flag stand and the flagman waving the checkered flag
19:14 -- I win!!!