First, I come up with a schedule. My aim for the FNS Cup Series is to have 30 races every season, with only the first two being the exception as they were too short to stretch those results into 30 races.
I’ll use a variety of racetracks using the NR2003 Weebly site as a primary resource. Every track I use is credited on the credits page.
While coming up with the schedule, I will take the full standings page for the season in question on Racing Reference, take the earnings column, and combine them all to determine how much money can be paid out to drivers through the purse and individual awards. Some money is also left over for the points fund at the end of the season.
Second, I use Racing Reference’s standings page for the specific season to make a drivers spreadsheet. I’ll take note of how much the driver raced, which I use to determine how often a driver races in the NR2003 sim. Here is an example of this:
| Driver | Number | Manufactuer | Status |
| Lee Petty | 42 | Plymouth | 1 |
| Dick Passwater | 77 | Oldsmobile | 2 |
The status column determines how many races each driver is going to be racing in this year. 1 means full time driver, while 2 means only missing a few races or so. There are more tiers than these two, but you get the idea.
Drivers can share car numbers, but they can’t do so with a full-time driver or other part-time drivers in the same race. There’s also plenty of times where drivers go back and forth between teams and manufacturers. I have to make the call ultimately, because a driver can’t go back-and-forth using the Score4 program that I use.
Some drivers have fantasy numbers. I try to avoid this, especially with full-time drivers, but it’s needed sometimes because of those Score4 limitations.
I’ll take the schedule and for the non “crown jewel” races, I’ll give each race a letter. When I eventually make the full carset, I group the drivers into letter groups. The full-time drivers are in each letter group, while the part-time drivers go to letter groups depending on how many races they are running.
Let’s look at that above chart again, after getting through the status part of it.
| Driver | Number | Manufacturer | A (4) | B (6) | C (5) | D (3) |
| Lee Petty | 42 | Plymouth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dick Passwater | 77 | Oldsmobile | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
This tells me when I’m making the carset later on that both drivers should be on the A, C, and D lists, but Passwater should not be on the B list.
Right now, in the pre-modern era seasons, I’m kind of just winging it with who is driving when but making sure there are only DNQs for the big non-letter races. Once we get to the modern era seasons, I have plans for normal DNQs, but I need to have that result stability that 1972 and on brings to the table.
This step is the backbone of the entire sim, and the most time consuming. But it’s also the most rewarding, at least before the results are processed.
Third, I begin to make the carset, using a specific mod natural to the time period and then mashing all of the carsets available to ensure the maximum amount of options as far as numbered cars.
FNS is like real world NASCAR in which only the numbers 1-99 and 00-09 are available for use. As I type this, I am in the middle of simming the 1952 season, so there is a lot of just picking through the 1955 mod and deciding what to use.
Most of this step is done using NRatings. Once the full driver list is complete and names are changed on the car files to reflect this, I import all data from the season using rupe’s formulas (depending on length of the real season) to automatically generate driver ratings for every driver in the full carset. Then, as I outlined in step two, I sort the drivers into seperate carsets using the letter function, with big races sorted into their own individual lists.
Fourth, it’s time to go racing. Just turn on NR2003 and watch the race go. After the race is over, I export the raw results out of NR, then feed that into the Score4 program.
If I am simming a race that requires, as an example, Duel races, I have a handy save editor that I can use to save the race after qualifying, exit NR2003, then adjust the quallifying results manually before going back in for the race. This also allows me to have Duels or qualifying races in the first place.
Fifth, it’s time to use that Score4 program.
I’m not going to instruct you on how Score4 or NRatings work. Go to the credits page to get links to them and see for yourself. After manually inputting the drivers into Score4 and having them load properly into the scoring there, I get some HTML files the program spits out that are then posted on here.
Score4 also allocates the money and points based off of my own txt documents. Both systems can be found in the systems/rules section of this website.
And that’s basically it! It is a lot of work to start, but fairly easy once the season starts, and very fulfilling to watch the action unfold. The NR2003 AI is still excellent 22 years later, and there’s still no equal in the racing game space in my opinion.