Getting to ride/drive racecars around Daytona has got to be one of the greatest jobs in the world. I would wake up everyday with a huge smile on my face.
ATTENTION: Anyone looking to do this, they no longer do it this way with an instructor. The current "NASCAR experience" bought all the driving experiences including Petty and completely destroyed them. You go out alone with a spotter in your ear. All the cars are very limited now and they give you certificates for 150mph when they are rev limited to 120 (5k RPM) because they are using 450hp crate motors now. I waited my whole life to do this and apparently I waited too long.
II have always bracket raced/drag raced and wondered what it would be like to drive on a nascar track. This morning I did (3) 8 minute sessions at LVMS. Each time I was allowed to run at a higher RPM. The tri-oval track, Banking and natural left steering of the car was “new territory” for me. The first 8 minutes, I sucked and quickly realized I needed to concentrate more. The second 8 minutes I ran at a higher rpm than session 1. I found that I was a little more familiar with the track and the car handled better going faster. Also, I could understand the spotter better through the headset. The last 8 minute session I was allowed to run at a higher rpm. It was night & day different from session 1 & 2 as the car really performed around the track and I could hold the lines better. I was looking for an experience and truthfully got just that. I also realized that the professionals must be in terrific shape to go 400 to 500 miles. Although I enjoyed the experience, I prefer bracket racing, however I would recommend that anyone interested in NASCAR should try this at least once. If you go into it with an open mind, I hope and think you may finish the day respecting the sport’s drivers way more-I do! Just my humble opinion, take it or leave it.
Not sure who told you 171mph but they lied,60 sec lap around Daytona = 150 mph I had your last lap at 55.97 which calculates to 161.082 mph but even at that speed you did do a good job, I have about 2 million miles around that track...
Do they read off lap times at all while you are driving? Or, do you get a summary of each lap and it's speed once you have completed your number of laps?
What people don't understand is that during this time they were going a lot faster than they do now even though it's false advertising now. The RP experience allowed the rev limiter to go higher since you had an instructor in the car. So everyone who is saying "sorry to burst your bubble but you aren't going that fast" shouldn't be saying that since the nascar experience and the RP experience were two different types. Nascar experience is a worse version of this version. Even if you aren't going 170+ it's still closer than what'd you get in today's experience
Nice Job! You Killed this out of the Gate. Have you ever driven anything comparable to Cup Car? Have you raced in any competitive series. I'm going to do it in September.