You've got more horsepower and torque than before, along with a more tractable power band. More tractable power, but when 750 HP at the rear wheels gets turned to over 4400 ft-lb of wheel torque by the magic of gearing, you still have to stay on top of it all. If you think it's that hard to find trouble at low speed, just remember Michael Waltrip qualifying for the Winston last year.

Your qualifying setup will likely be tighter than your race setup. Cold tires still run a bit loose, and the effect of grille tape is bigger. So, to get a good balance for qualifying, more nose weight, stiffer front springs, and a bigger bar are likely to be in order, as it often is in real racing.

So, I wouldn't even try to do a set up import from NR2002. Even if such an import works, I doubt the on-track results will be to your liking. Don't get your underwear in a wad over it; if Papyrus is out of the NASCAR sim business after this release, there will be lots of time to work on your setups.

How does this affect driving? Hard to say exactly, but at the slow tracks, you need effective throttle management exiting the corners (as in real racing). You need to do it some at the big tracks, too, but minor rear end wiggle is easy to get under control. When the car is loose on cold tires, you can recover from quite large yaw angles and snap the rear back in line. You just have to swallow some pride and crack the throttle to do so. Just do it!! Don't be a Bodine about it!!!

Getting into the corners is good. At the right tracks, if you're well set up and very smooth on the wheel you can turn in and come off the wall a reasonable amount before you have to lift off. If anyone questions this, view a tape of the Texas race that Junior won - watch his and Bobby Labonte's in-car shots and view & listen to their lift-off and turn-in points.

I want to say here that the car model (a.k.a "physics"), setup, and driving are intertwined. They always have been. A different car model when set up to be balanced may give you a similar driving experience, but the proving of the model shows when you get crossed up. I've been hit from behind numerous times in my testing, I spin a lot less, but I still spin, and minor fish-tails are recoverable. I've also laid some chrome horn on the opposition, I've been able to loop them and keep digging myself. When I do hit a car in front of me and wreck myself, well, I probably should have wrecked. In one test, I raced some at Indy and bumped the same AI car three times light-to-medium, and we both kept driving. The fourth time, I over-reacted, caught some grass, and was rightly toast.

I sent some real setups to Papyrus for them to try out and they said that they were "perfect". I don't draw much personal flattery from that - the crew chief decides what we run, I provide input for him. This does suggest that real setups run well. In all of my testing so far, I've gone to my setup sheets and used them as my baseline. Sometimes some tweaking is necessary, but the resultant setups still bear a semblance to reality. The changes I make, I make based upon real-life criteria, and I get credible response to the changes.

As it is now, the "Fast" setup is going to be derived from real racing setups. "Derived" - I assure you they won't be EXACTLY what we run, but they will be close in many respects. No team runs as well as it wants to everywhere, including mine, I wouldn't be so arrogant as to suggest our stuff straight out of the box would be best for you, anyway.

Some changes to the setups that you may be driven to make might go against the conventional wisdom. The conventional wisdom is not always right, however, and the car model you will have in your hands in NR2003 should allow you deal with some of these contrary situations. Any real team that lives exclusively by the "conventional wisdom" is hurting itself.

The car model in NR2003 may place more demand on your driving talent/skills and discipline. That doesn't mean you need to be a pro to drive it. We are continuing to develop it so that a satisfying driving and tinkering experience remain accessible to the large body of gamers, while still rewarding superior setup and driving.