Getting NASCAR RaceView Working with Internet Explorer 8

Update February 21, 2015: Thought I should mention that I cancelled my RaceView subscription a couple years ago so I don’t mess with it anymore.

(Update February 12, 2011: The information in this post is now obsolete with the 2011 NASCAR season as RaceView is now an Adobe Flash application and does not use Java or Octoshape.)


During the first 200 laps or so of the NASCAR race in Bristol, I finally got NASCAR.COM’s RaceView working on my system. Hallelujah brother! LOL. This post will probably get further tweaking after next race. Before I begin I should state that my system is as follows:

  • Running Windows XP Home w/ SP3 with all high priority updates applied. I use the Windows Classic theme which explains why the dialog boxes in the screenshots I have look the way they do. Old school, what can I say.
  • Have Windows Media Player 11 installed.
  • Have Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6.8 installed.
  • Running latest version of Java (build 1.6.0_21-b07)
  • Using an EVGA 6800GT with NVidia drivers version 178.13. I mention this because many of the newer 190+ drivers have caused RaceView to lock the system harder than a rock in the past when it was working before and re-installing the older video drivers cured it.
  • Running DirectX v9.0c

Now that all of that is out of the way. Much of what I cover here is also mentioned on NASCAR.COM’s TrackPass knowledge base. All I am going to include is what I did that, apparently, got it working, possibly in combination with what the NASCAR.COM webmasters did on their end after I told @NASCAR on Twitter my problems getting nothing but errors.

I decided I would try to get it working with Internet Explorer first. If it doesn’t work with it, it’s not going to work with anything else. Due to the length of this post with all the screenshots, I’m using the read more option here:

First, went to Internet Options in the Control Panel and deleted browsing history. I’d recommend at least Temporary Internet Files and Cookies:

IE Delete Browsing History

Then, went to the Control Panel -> Java -> General Tab -> Clicked “Settings” in Temporary Internet Files section -> Clicked “Delete Files” to clear the Java Cache.

Java Temporary Files Settings

You might want to click the “View” button in the first dialog just to make sure the Java Cache Viewer is empty. You can also delete the files from here as well:

Java Cache Viewer

Also on the General Tab, click “Network Settings” and choose “Direct Connection“:

Java Network Settings

For debugging purposes, go to the Java Control Panel -> Advanced Tab -> Click “+” by Java Console and select “Show console“. This way, as soon as anything Java starts, the console will appear and you can see any errors or other information. After you know everything is working you can set it back to “Hide console”. Be sure to click “Apply” for all the changes you make:

Java console setting

At this point, start Internet Explorer and go to NASCAR TrackPass. Log into the website by clicking “LOG IN” at the top-right. Now, launch RaceView by clicking the link down below and cross your fingers LOL.

You should get the window where it asks if you want to install the Octoshape plug-in or not to get the enhanced abilities. Even though it says optional, go ahead and say yes and let it install. It may just be coincidence, but until I installed it, I never got it working (more about this later).

This is the point where things get a little fuzzy on my part remembering exactly what occurred when. Right after the Octoshape plug-in got installed, it threw up a Windows Firewall dialog asking to give Octoshape an exception or to keep blocking. I gave Octoshape permission. I think I restarted Internet Explorer and RaceView at this point but I’m not positive. I noticed some positive information in the Java Console I had not seen before.

During this phase, I got a Window asking to disable DirectDraw for Java 2D apps for increased stability. I let it. I also got a window stating that it increased the amount of memory Java could use. After all this, RaceView completed loading and started working! For those curious, RaceView makes the following changes to the Java Runtime Parameters settings:

Java Runtime Environment Settings

Because I didn’t care so much for this Octoshape thing running, I closed IE and uninstalled the Octoshape program. I then restarted RaceView and told it Not to install Octoshape this time and it loaded fine and worked, minus the DVR type functionality.

I did manage to get it working with Firefox as well; however, I want to save that for another post as I want to get some more screenshots that I can’t really get until the next race. I also want to confirm what Windows appeared when and get images of those. I was just in a hurry to watch the race! Hopefully this information helps someone. ๐Ÿ™‚

6 thoughts on “Getting NASCAR RaceView Working with Internet Explorer 8

  1. Cathy Garner

    Thank you so much!! I spent the whole race last week trying to get raceview to work on my husband’s computer and was so stressed out that I didn’t even want to watch the race.

    Reply
  2. David

    Thank god for people smarter than me… I was getting a JAVA null pointer error and your instructions saved me. I just got my new computer and figured since I have so much trouble getting trackpass setup and to work that I’d try now instead of before the race. Anyway as expected trouble. Like previous times I found the answer from some smart blogs on the internet. Thanks so much. Know that there are some who really apprieciate your time.

    Reply
  3. Dave Norris

    Mark, great tute! I use Google Chrome for all of my browsing now, works great (esp. with google+). IE is just terrible in my opinion, the average person just wants to surf the net without issue, not learn how to configure their browser. Alot of times, if people are having issues with a webpage on IE, look for the torn paper icon (called compatibility mode) click it and refresh, see if it helps. But again, I really love Google Chrome. Very fast, no frills, great extensions, etc.

    Reply
  4. Mark Headrick Post author

    Thanks; although, the information in this post is more or less irrelevant now since RaceView has gone to a Flash based application. But, it’s still good for basic troubleshooting of any Java based application.

    Wonder if Google Chrome would let you block Google’s own ads, LOL? But my point was with this is that if I couldn’t get it to work even in IE, then there was really no point getting it to work in Firefox or whatever other browser.

    Reply