The trick at 'dega was to spend the entire first (untimed) lap doing low speed (60-80 mph, as I recall) HARD left-right-left tire scrubbing to get them up to temp faster. Then the 2nd lap riding the wall to get up to speed, then the 3rd lap for time, down on the bottom. And yes, you ran as much pressure as the sim would allow IIRC.

Tried a lot of the 1/2 distance races, but gave up on them because (as you could well imagine) it was hard to stay online that long from Honolulu to... Boston was it?

For the life of me, I don't remember Dale Jr's screen name... I believe it was somewhat incognito.