My topper is actually a tire off of dale jrs car from the pocono race in 06 its actually hanging on the wall but looks good in my opinion. Ill post some more pics when I get home today. Glad you guys like what I did to the machine. Def don’t get much praise from the wife on stuff like that. You can’t beat the flow of nascar and I agree ripping the spinners is awesome especially 5 or 6 times in a row. The hardest shot for me is the dam drops they are tucked over on the side pretty tight.

Get good at em, super jackpot and mode jackpots app day over here with those 3 drops.

Yah actually the game looks nice (nicer now with that translite heh) u should share some pics on the work!

My fav shot was always nailing the drops on the right side. They're kinda tucked away and difficult to get at but great when you line them up and nail them down. Spinners were always a blast as well, and I quite enjoyed the hidden left flipper plunge trick to lock your ball and just the other little details you normally don't get with pins nowadays.

I mean you got spinners, pops, ramps, drops, racetrack oval, ramp through the backboard, newton ball, and a ruleset that's actually quite deep. Not to mention the garage mech. There's just a lot packed into this one.

Two wizard modes and a bunch of diverters to add!!

Yes every new game has a lot of modes and cooperative play but.. nascar is a hidden gem when it comes to straight forward gameplay and the modes are fun.

Dont get me started on the dmd, however.... the dots are well... forgettable at best.

OK here's my mod white Leg Lights Pincup light-up and beatmasters white shooter housing light up.

IMGA0546 (resized).JPG

IMGA0547 (resized).JPG

Wowzers!! Nice work MustangPaul

Does anyone know how to change some of the extra ball settings?
Somehow my game is set up for an extra ball at 21M and I light extra ball with two right ramp shots (hauler miles?)… I’ve looked through the manual/settings and changed the EB setting to 10% and the settings to hard, still didn’t fix!

Is the replay value set to extra ball instead of free game?

Nope, checked that.

Is there a way to adjust how many miles you need to get before an EB?

upgraded my Grand Prix to latest code 4.5. do I need to upgrade display rom ? the game code was previous on .400
can't find any display code on stern webpage.

Ur all fine no display update required

Great! Thanks for the feedback!

Just found these at a local flea market. Unfortunately it came a little too late as I just sold my NASCAR.
lmk if anyone interested. 1:43 scale. Same as test car.

20210801_112802 (resized).jpg

The test car is more like 1:50 scale. Fitting a 1:43 in there can be challenge, and usually involves removing a post. Many people do that, since 1:43 is a common size.

Ya know, I thought it was to good to be true.

Damn. I picked them up for others as I couldn't find when I had the game. $20 for all of em if anybody wants them.

After 10 years I've rejoined the Nascar club.

This game is doing something I don't remember my old game doing.

Whenever the game is powered up, or reset after going into the menu, the game will eject all 4 balls into the shooter lane and then auto plunge them. Once all 4 are back in the trough it will play just fine and never do it again. Until the next power up.

Game is running 4.5 code. I've checked all of the trough and upkicker switches/optos and all seem to be working in the switch test.

Is this normal behavior? I think not, but of course I could be wrong.

This is not normal behaviour.

That's what I thought.

I guess I have some digging to do. I noticed last night is also does another weird thing. Coils will randomly stop working with no apparent cause. If the game is rebooted they will start working again. I think a previous owner was trying to chase this problem down because the game has a rottendog power driver board in it. Or they replaced it with the RD board and then the problem started. Or something. I don't know. I'll have to try to figure this out. Wish I had a spare Whitestar MPU board I could use for testing.

Let us know what turns up?

I want to think its low 12v or 5v to the mpu... and causes the optos to lose signal intermittent or a bad capacitor that goes out of spec after the game warms up...

Well so far I have found either a cracked solder joint or poor through hole plating at U201 on the RD PDB. I noticed when all of the coils quit the watchdog LED on the PDB was out. If I pressed on U201 the light would flicker and come back on and then all the coils would work again. I resoldered both sides of U201, and also the cap and resistors around it, plus resoldered the big caps on the PDB just because. So far that problem appears to be solved.

Moving along I found that the game was not registering the balls in the trough VUK, and opto switch #48 is not working. Ordered some new trough boards and optos for #48. We'll see what happens once that stuff gets here.

Nice work!! Those u201 through hole would be a tough catch.

Well here is some motivation:

I got to the 2nd wizard mode and handed it over to my daughter so she can share in the excitement!

Ledocd on this one, wish i recorded it in 60fps.. but it looks great.

Having some trouble with the game not allowing the ball to exit the racetrack and enter the playfield, and it doesn't appear to be optos. Anyone have any ideas? Details here https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-grand-prix-not-entering-playfield#post-6477892

Just joined the club yesterday. Picked one up that hasn’t seen a lot of plays. The subway is almost spotless! Going to be great next to Mustang, Indy 500 and Grand Prix (EM)

Any recommendations for protectors (plastics, scoops, ramps,etc)

What do you recommend for GI LEDs? Warm vs cold?

Looking GREAT! Where did you get the apron cards? Love the "hold my beer" card.

If you put leds in the inserts the LED OCD board is a must. I cleaned the underside of the inserts with Windex on a cotton swab and put in clear dome white leds. The inserts just sparkle like a new Stern.

@mustangpaul, i just sent herg a msg on this, can u let me knoe what settings u are using jn your ledocd?

Ive noticed after a few games, the circular scrolling of the mode inserts dont work along with the CHAMP1 INSERTS. It comes back in gameplay, but for some reason (im guessing matrix scanning), the inserts do not light in attract mode.

20210906_113541 (resized).jpg

I've found that stock settings work good enough for me, try it first. I have no idea what would cause that.

Play a few games, does the attract mode appear correct in displaying the mode design light pattern.

Will someone do me a solid if they have a popped hood handy?

Need a pic of how the wires are connected on switches 36 (test car garage) as the white yellow wires have severed.

I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks.

I am working on a NASCAR for a customer. They stated that the coils would get weak after an hour. I have been testing it and it has been on all day long and playing with no issues. When I first got it, the optos were not working, turned out that the connector in the back box came off. I would have to believe that happened when he brought the game to me since I would assume the magnets and pit stop locks would never have worked for him if they were not working while in his house.

I did adjust the middle pit lock switch since it was staying down and confusing the game and causing two balls to consistently come out after the first ball was locked. The switch would eventually come back up but was stuck along the wood.

Tough 3 lock was flaky. I re-flowed the wires since there was a cold solder joint and that allowed the game to know that the ball fell into the trough in certain scenarios.

I just went to try burning in the game for a while to see what happens. When it gets to the right sling, it continues to engage while the burn in continues. I turned off the game and went into burn in again and it did it at the same exact time when the right sling fired. I cancelled the burn in with the buttons and did another burn in test. This time the music did not start up with burn in but sounds were working. I think music cut back in intermittently and got to the right sling and it would not stop firing.

Can anyone please test burn in on the game to help me verify that it should obviously not be doing this? Thanks!

When I play a game, the right sling works great.

Here is a video of the burn in.

Check the gap on the right slingshot's switches. Gap too small?

Do u still need this?

During game play they work perfectly.

During burn in , which should not be controlled by a switch, it machine guns.

I will make sure gap is bigger though thanks. I used a metal file and cleaned up the nibs on the leaf switches and widened the gap. I just ran another burn in and it worked. It looked like they were far enough away but now they are a bit further away.

Thanks. Hopefully this solves what my main problem was.

As I stated above, the customer stated the game flippers would get weak like the eruption mode in Dialed In! (if I have the right mode) and all the lights would flash on and off fast.

I had a friend play a game and I finally saw this. I was able to re-create it and put it on video. It seemed to go crazy after hitting the right sling (but the game was playing for 9 minutes before as well as a previous 10 minute game).

Since I just fixed this issue with the sling, I will see if this helps in some way to fix the issue with the game going crazy.

Thanks Michael

Here is the video of playing the game to try to see where the issue occurs. This is when the controlled lights flash fast and the flippers flutter.

This is a long video. But please move to about 9:30. At about 9:34 (or between 9:34 and 9:37) is when I believe that the game starts acting up. The lights start to flash very fast and the flippers start to flutter when the buttons are held in (kind of like the eruption mode in Dialed In!). I think this happens when the ball hits the right sling. I posted another video that showed the right sling machine gunning in burn in mode. As suggested on Pinside, I used a metal file to clean the leaf nibs and then moved the leafs further apart. I did this work after this video was made, so I have to go back and play more games to see if I can re-create this. But I am not sure why hitting a sling would cause the flippers and controlled lights to act up.

The flippers acted up while I was pressing them, the ball drained, the sound it was making was like a switch was being registered. Then it says "Operator Alert! #7 Track Exit Popper Coil Malfunction". Then the game tilted. All 4 balls were in the trough. But it looks for balls and I could not hit the black button to go to the menu. Then there is banging in the trough and it appears to clear. But in attract the mode, the lights are flashing really fast. In test mode switches looked good. All lights flashing fast. Then in coil mode the trough up kicker didn't work and then it did. Turned it off and on and it worked fine.

EDIT: I played a 25 minute two player game after this was posted and it worked. Then I played another two player game at at 13:25 it acted up on ball 3 of player one. The game ended and went to player two and worked fine without any issues.

Thanks for indulging me. Here is another game after I cleaned the nibs on the lead switches for the right sling and separated the leafs so it would not machine gun during Burn in.

I clipped the video.

This was a 2 player game that lasted about 15 minutes. I clipped the video so that the issue starts about about 20 seconds for player one. It seems to always occurs on the 3rd ball (currently have the game set to 3 balls). You will see the controlled lights start to flicker quickly and the flippers flutter. This time, when it changed to player two, the game corrected itself and I could continue and finish the second player's game. I cannot tell if I am hit something that causes this to happen. No coils are getting hot.

Check mpu 5v? This is a bit above me but disconnect one of the wires going to the machine gun sling switch, see if the flippers still act up?

I played the game for several hours with the backglass off and my phone recording the LEDs to see if anything happens. I was not able to reproduce the error today.

The LED for 5 volts is solid and I tested it and it was a bit above 5.

The game has a Rottendog driver board and Rottendog power board at the top left.

The left sling is not machine gunning any more so I did not disable it.

I checked everything under the play field and nothing is shorting.

It comes back to the game showing fluttering flippers, flickering controlled lights which should not be interacting with each other. I did send the videos and these comments to Stern Support and Pablo. I am hoping something rings a bell for someone.

Maybe I should also ask this on a generic SAM Stern post.

Thanks
Michael

Man, i hate intermittan errors...

Im also dealing with oddly missing light sequences with an ledocd board..

Timing or something seems to randomly miss certaib sequences but they also randomly reappear like normal so i dont know what setting in led causes the issue!

NEVER use a metal file on modern, low voltage switches. You just ruined that switch by filing off the switch contact plating. It will oxidize and stop working over time.

Good idea, the whole repair conversation should be in its own thread so you don't clutter up the club thread

The manual calls for 7 yellow #44 bulbs in the GI of the game: 4 are on the right side of the backboard, one on the caution sign on the left rear. Anyone know where the other 2 are supposed to go?

My very low play game which I believe has original rubbers has black rubbers everywhere. The manual calls for white. Which color is original?

White is right.

The guys at The Classic Pinball Podcast just did a review of Dale Jr that can be heard here:

Downloadable here:
http://pinballdoctor.com/the-classic-pinball-podcast/
https://podbay.fm/podcast/1469743456
Accessible to stream via any of the links below:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-classic-pinball-podcast/id1469743456
https://www.breaker.audio/the-classic-pinball-podcast
https://open.spotify.com/show/6JGvAzDFwCSJUwwWgBMCDd
https://radiopublic.com/the-classic-pinball-podcast-WR95kj
https://overcast.fm/itunes1469743456/the-classic-pinball-podcast

DC08A625-D671-4B11-AEA9-0BEAB5A4433B (resized).jpeg

Nice! I give it a listen now.

Thanks for the link ! Would have never known about it otherwise!

Dave sounds a lot like one of the guys from the, 'stuff you should know', podcast.

Actually they both sound like the 'stuff you should know'.

They really bashed the game lol

Not sure if i caught your rom version but see something here

Screenshot_20210928-174153_Chrome (resized).jpg

Looking to join the club for a re-theme project this winter, looking for a HUO or good condition Nascar

Thanks in advance

Wow cool!! Can u spill any deets?

My NASCAR is beautiful so I would never sell it to be re-themed.

Thanks. Turns out they were Pinball Life rubbers so definitely not stock.

Not really a re-theme but more of a 'add on'

For the last five years I have wanted to mod a Nascar into a Talladega Nights. Not sure how far I will take it but a fellow pinsider is helping with an alternate translight, and I want to do some custom call-outs, etc. Fortunately the Nascar title has not jumped in pricing like other titles and $3000 seems to be par for HUO and routed machines. Seems like the price has not changed for a decade? I figure why not let Ricky Bobby come home-'If your not first-your last!'

If anyone has a nice Nascar or can help with alternate cabinet art/plastics-please let me know

Shake N' Bake!

TN Die cast (resized).jpgTalladega Nights (resized).jpgthKDTJQ3H7 (resized).jpg