NASCAR Thunder 2004 (PlayStation 2, Xbox)

NASCAR Thunder 2004
Developer: EA Tiburon Publisher: EA Sports Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox Released in US: September 16, 2003 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused sounds. This game has a bugs page

NASCAR Thunder 2004 bids farewell to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series name, the Pontiacs, and the full-season championship points format with the Alliances and Grudges system, as well as various fantasy tracks making their debuts on the PS2/Xbox versions.

It's also notorious for a Lightning Challenge that is harder than any of the Gran Turismo license tests: the Johnny Benson 2002 Rockingham win reenactment, named "It's About Time".

To do: Verify directly if Brian Vickers has an unused starting grid voice clip (rather than rely on stuff from NASCAR SimRacing's unused sounds, though that does help with here), since the Ron Hornaday call is used instead. Unused Thunder Plates.

Sub-Pages

Bugs

NASCAR Thunder 2003 Leftovers Leftover calls from the previous season's game.

Cheat Codes

Several cheat codes are in the files that aren't documented anywhere else. These work like the cheat codes to unlock Dale Earnhardt and fantasy drivers in NASCAR Thunder 2003.

Create-A-Car Name (case sensitive)	Effect
theman inblack	Unlock Dale Earnhardt
new paintjob	Unlock all prefab schemes (for player-created cars)
race thebest	Unlock The All-Star
shoot itout	Unlock The Shootout
right track	Unlock all tracks and events except for The All-Star and The Shootout

Unused Drivers

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

To do: Figure out where these textures are located and how to restore them.

Car textures exist for four cut drivers: Tony Raines (#74 Staff America Chevrolet), Kasey Kahne (#38 Great Clips Ford, Busch Series driver), Hideo Fukuyama (#66 Kikkoman Ford), and Paul Menard (#33 Menards/Turtle Wax Chevrolet). Raines, in addition to appearing in some of the game's trailer and NASCAR 101 videos, also has a number texture and even a driver portrait, suggesting that he was a late removal from the game, while Fukuyama's and Menard's car textures only exist in rookie striped variants, as the game stores car textures with rookie stripes and without separately.

There are also blank placeholder schemes for #8 (two, one labeled "B-Primary 2003" and listed as "2003 Dale Jr. Busch Placeholder" on the scheme selector, and the other labeled "B-Alt 1 2003" on the hood and "2003 Dale Jr. Busch Alt. Placeholder" on the placeholder), #63, and #92 Chevrolets (both labeled "B-Primary 2003"), as well as a #54 Ford (labeled "Primary 2003"). The #92 Chevrolet and #54 Ford are likely for Todd Bodine's cars, while the #63 Chevrolet might be for Shane Hall. The #8 Chevrolets might have been alternate Dale Earnhardt Jr. Buschwacking paint schemes from that period, given the names in the livery selector. It is also worth noting that the #54 placeholder texture is only available as a rookie texture, much like Fukuyama's and Menard's schemes.

(Discovery: @RaddyCS999 (Raines/Kahne, Fukuyama/Menard, blank placeholders))

Some cut fantasy drivers can also be found, namely Troi Hayes (#125 Chevrolet; an update from the NASCAR Thunder 2003 version where Advance Auto Parts replaces Prestone as primary sponsor), Katrina Goode (#136 Pontiac; cut due to M&M's departing MB2 Motorsports, as that paint scheme refers to both MB2 cars in 2002; Goode's textures were not updated for the 2003-spec Grand Prix either), Jim Hannigan (#129 Dodge; a slight update from the NT2003 version as the sponsor has been updated to the current game from the previous one, Crissy Hillsworth (#113 Ford), and George Dennis (#112 Chevrolet).

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  Troi Hayes

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  Katrina Goode; cut due to M&M's departure from MB2 Motorsports, as that paint scheme refers to both 2002 MB2 cars. Also note that the texture was not updated for the 2003-spec Pontiac Grand Prix.

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  Jim Hannigan

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  Crissy Hillsworth

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  George Dennis

Cut Paint Scheme

Under CTID 14 is a cut paint scheme for Terry Labonte. The scheme is that of his 2002 Kellogg's Chevy, which was his primary for that season.

Unused Portraits

There are several placeholder driver portraits that are hidden in the files. Most of these are for drivers that appeared in NASCAR Thunder 2003, except for the late Dale Earnhardt and Jason Leffler. The NT2003 leftovers (but not NT2002 leftovers) also has placeholder text on them.

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  Dale Earnhardt (POID 6); from NT2002, which would have been used had he became a playable driver in that game.

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  Bobby Hamilton (POID 10)

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  Jason Leffler (POID 16); from NT2002.

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  Jimmy Spencer (POID 28)

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  Shawna Robinson (POID 36)

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  Todd Bodine (POID 39)

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  Casey Atwood (POID 42)

Note that John Andretti has no leftover portrait, as his portrait was overwritten with Christian Fittipaldi's due to the late nature of the driver change.

Unused Audio

To do: Convert the audio calls uploaded by Grand Prix to ogg. Get NASCAR.DB IDs for driver calls.

Pre-Race Driver Intros

Ron Hornaday has struggled so far in his NASCAR Winston Cup career, but as his past racing experience shows he could turn things around at any moment.

Ron Hornaday has a pre-race driver introduction by the radio commentators, despite being only a Busch Series driver in the game. This is actually a leftover from NASCAR Thunder 2003, where it also went unused. Interestingly enough, it was rerecorded with the PRN announcer.

It is worth noting that in all audio commentary, tobacco (Winston) and alcohol (Busch) series title sponsorships are always explicitly mentioned.

Driver Calls

The voice clips for the following cut drivers would have been used with generic pit lane intros in Season and Career modes.

Driver	Voice	Notes
A.J. Alsup
Butch Miller
Dwayne Leik		The PRN announcer mispronounces his last name both times.
Jaime Guerrero
Jeff Fultz
Jimmy Spencer		There are two audio files regarding Spencer, with the first file (labelled 00000296.avc in the files) being grouped with the Busch series drivers (which would have been used for his #1 Yellow Freight Dodge) and the second (labelled 000002eb.avc) being grouped with NT2003 leftover files, which given it would have been for his Cup version, would have been used for the #7 Sirius Dodge, a notable omission from the game due to his high-profile feud with Kurt Busch during the 2003 Winston Cup season.
John Andretti		Would have been drove the #43 Dodge, but he was released by Petty Enterprises after the June Michigan race. As it was too late in development to record a voice clip for his replacement, Christian Fittipaldi, the latter is only mentioned as "The Cheerios Dodge" (the car's primary sponsor) in generic season/career mode intros. Although the file is grouped with NT2003 leftovers, given that there is no call for Fittipaldi, this may have been intended to be a reused asset from NT2003.
Josh Richeson
Kasey Kahne		Has playable assets, as mentioned above. The PRN announcer mispronounces his last name in the first call. Grouped with NT2003 leftovers, as his call went unused in that game as well.
Kerry Earnhardt		Grouped with NT2003 leftovers, as he was cut in that game as well.
Larry Gunselman		No PRN call.
Mark Green
Mike McLaughlin		Grouped with NT2003 leftovers, as his call went unused in that game as well.
Mike Wallace		Grouped with NT2003 leftovers, as he was cut in that game as well.
P.J. Jones
Ron Young
Todd Bodine		Would have been used for his #54 National Guard Ford in Winston Cup and #92 unsponsored Chevrolet in Busch Series. Placeholder assets for his cars are in the game data, as mentioned above. No PRN call, and curiously only one audio file despite having Cup and Busch cars planned.
Tony Raines		Has playable assets, as mentioned above. Is also grouped with NT2003 leftovers.

Oddities

Infineon Night Pit Stalls

Some of the rearmost pit stalls in the night version of Infineon Raceway, for some reason, has pit stall logos from 2001 season, as used in NASCAR Thunder 2002 (it is worth noting that the track in question is different in that game, as it was reconfigured in 2002 to eliminate Gilligan's Island, the track's secondary pit road). In particular, in a case of a cross-game cut content leftover, one of the pit stalls has a McDonald's Drive-Thru logo and number #96, belonging to Andy Houston, a driver that does not appear in NASCAR Thunder 2002, while another stall has corrupted graphics. It is unknown to what driver the corrupted graphics would have belonged to.

It is worth noting this oddity did not occur in NASCAR Thunder 2003, where fantasy time-of-day variations of certain tracks (like this one) debuted.

Andy Houston	Corrupted Pit Stall

(Discovery: Mark Oliveras Enterprises/AutoRockinRacing94)

Talladega Night Map

The track selection map used for the night version of Talladega Superspeedway appears to be orientated the opposite of the regular, daytime version.

Uncensored Winston Cup Logo

Although the uncensored NASCAR Winston Cup Series logo in the Daytona Infield track was edited out in this game, there is another instance of uncensored Winston Cup logo in this game, found within the menu backgrounds that depict the Martinsville Speedway.

This can be easily seen by highlighting Kitt Paint while selecting a driver, as that car has no car number graphics.

Additionally, Jeremy Mayfield's 2003 Mountain Dew scheme has uncensored Winston Cup (and Bud Pole Award) contingency decals on the right-hand side of the car, but not on the left side.

Left side	Right side

Pontiac Branding

For the 2003 season, in what turned out to be their final season of participation in NASCAR, Pontiac introduced a new font in their branding. However, all Pontiac cars in the game (existing, fantasy, or custom) continue to use the previous season's Pontiac font for the manufacturer typoface and the Grand Prix model branding. The pace car (Buster Auton) does have updated Grand Prix model branding (but not Pontiac manufacturer branding) on it, however.

Kitt Paint

Despite being a fantasy driver lacking a driver portrait, Kitt Paint has the frame for driver portrait shown when required, such as when the car is being shown in driver selection screen.

Casey Mears

Casey Mears' menu car number graphics uses a different number font from what he actually uses in his car, an issue also present in NASCAR Thunder 2003 (when the #41 was driven by Jimmy Spencer). To boot, the car number font Mears uses in the game is actually the 2002 number font; Chip Ganassi Racing used a different font for the #41 in the 2003 season.

Tina Gordon

Tina Gordon, despite being a Busch Series driver, incorrectly uses Winston Cup Series contingency decals on her car.