Editor’s note: This story posted on Dec. 10, 2019. Standing alongside Steve Myers, iRacing’s executive vice president and executive producer, Earnhardt watched as more than a dozen men took weed-eaters, shovels, leaf blowers and hoes and cleared the track of weeds that had overcome the dilapidated and abandoned facility located 82 miles north of downtown Charlotte. “My whole fear is …
Two weeks in, NASCAR and iRacing have toppled even the most optimistic expectations with their nationally televised virtual races, which have averaged more than a million viewers. Actual NASCAR Cup Series drivers themselves, using iRacing “sim rigs” from their homes to compete against real-life counterparts on a virtual track. Last week’s race, at Texas Motor Speedway, drew more than 1.3 …
William Byron led the most laps in NASCAR’s first two virtual races and had nothing to show for his gaming skills. Byron easily won the iRacing event Sunday at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR would have been really racing before the coronavirus outbreak caused sports to shut down. “It’s fun to have some pressure on iRacing; I usually just …
