I’ll do some practice laps with current assists levels versus none as you suggest, see how it comes out. After about 6 laps, I’m slowly gaining ground.

Same pattern as before - at the start of each phase, the AI cars are as fast or faster than my 100/100/100 car. Upped the difficulty to “hard” just to see net effect. But all that effort only shaved a nudge (about 0.2 seconds) off my lap time.

The net result being a batter handling car with much better tire wear. Played around with different gear ratios, car height, etc. Got the wheel camber correct so that the front tires were actually heating evenly. Makes sense - last night I spent about 90 minutes working on my car setup for a particular track. Thank you for your reply, I appreciate the feedback. Trying to figure out how to normalize the “yo-yo” effect. Typically by the end that first part of each stage (where I transition from losing ground to at least holding position) I’ve fallen approximately 10 seconds behind the leader. I would have thought that going down a straight on an early lap in a 100/100/100 car that I wouldn’t have any issues keeping up with the top 5 cars. Is it that I’m playing with a controller and not a wheel? (Yes, I’ve calibrated my controller) But why is it that my 100/100/100 car is literally blown away in the first few laps by the AI cars? Is it necessary to grind through hours of setup to get a fast car? I would rate my driving skill as fairly good in that I seem to run nice clean laps. I’d love to turn off the increased tire wear on the AI cars, and bump up the difficulty. When I complete races, my “speed rating” is typically about 92 - I think my high is 97. Most of the field is lapped, many multiple times. Typically finish the race in 1st with about a half lap lead over second. During laps 3-8, I hold position, and then from that point through the end of the stage slowly move up the field. I spend the first few laps trying not to get ran into the wall by different “drafting buddies”. During the first 2 laps in stage 2, I fall back ~10 spots - the AI cars are much faster than me as soon as we exit the first turn. I move up the pack, typically I’m in 1st or 2nd when the first stage ends. As tire wear sets in, the AI cars slow down.

Race starts, and for the first 4-6 laps,I simply hold my position. In qualifying, I am unable to get better than mid to high teens. My car setup is the “suggested” setup with the slider halfway between “tight” and “loose”. I do have the AI set to lose tire traction faster than me. Driving aids is set to “custom” with slightly less assistance than the normal setting. I have 5 cars in my garage and most races I enter 100/100/100. I have 9 crew members, all +10 in their speciality. I’m running two teams this season - one in xfinity (farming cash) and one in Cup (spending cash). I’m at that point where I’ve completed dirt, truck and xfinity - working on the Cup series. I’m observing a pattern in my latest career.

Nascar heat 4 setups dirt