The latest from iRacing in the form of updates was implemented on Wednesday on the heels of the longest race of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The patch itself doesn’t have a whole lot to say, but one particular piece that’s getting remedied could explain a lot of things that have occurred in the last 24 hours.
During and after the eNASCAR event, there were unconfirmed reports from Tuesday night that the NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was at a disadvantage in comparison to the Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry.
Looking through the stats from Tuesday night, on top of iRacing’s release notes for Season 2, Patch 7, that sentiment is seemingly accurate, but still unconfirmed as there has been no official statement from iRacing on the matter.
Looking at the results, Nick Ottinger was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver, coming in 12th after spending a good portion of the race around mid-pack. Isaac Gann was the top of the class for the majority of the race before he wrecked out with just over 25 laps remaining. After his incident, Gann made comment in an interview during the race that “there’s a lot of people out there that already have opinions on what is going on, so I’m just not going to say anything.”
Was the drafting performance that was adjusted on Wednesday a topic that was known for the Chevrolet drivers before the race? Again, it really can’t be confirmed without acknowledgement from iRacing on the matter, but there was likely some worry that bringing up the possibility might postpone the event, which could have been a huge detriment to the series as a whole.
No Chevrolet in the field led a lap on Tuesday night, even through the entire green flag pit cycle. It is worth mentioning that regular Chevy driver for McLaren Shadow Blake Reynolds led a lap last night while driving a Ford.
Both Reynolds and his teammate Allen Boes, along with Bobby Zalenski from LETARTE Esports opted to join as Mustangs as opposed to Camaros, and that could signal that the issue was known, at least by the drivers, before the race.
We know that the NASCAR Cup Series cars were updated in the previous patch, mainly for road racing, but there was no notice in the release notes of any drafting performance changes. With the latest patch seemingly fixing that possible problem, as well as providing updates to the future NASCAR Cup Series cars, hopefully there are no further discrepancies, if there even were any.
Check out the patch notes below and let us know what you think about Tuesday night’s eNASCAR race and the updates that followed.
2021 Season 2 Patch 7 – Release Notes [2021.05.25.03]
This patch contains some updates and fixes for the 2021 Season 2 Release.
CARS:
NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
- Multi-car drafting performance for this car has been adjusted on oval tracks.
NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
- The low downforce package is now used at Darlington Raceway.
NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang
- The low downforce package is now used at Darlington Raceway.
NASCAR Next Gen Toyota Camry
- The low downforce package is now used at Darlington Raceway.
