Story By: JOHN DOUGLAS / RPW – With the slew of sporting events in the US cancelling due to Coronavirus, one sport, auto racing, may still have a way to entertain fans during one of the most interesting, unique and historic times in the nation’s history.
iRacing, in conjunction with Podium eSports plan to run a special event in the iRacing computer racing simulation called ‘The Replacements 100.’ The event will feature racers from NASCAR’s top three series and beyond.
Drivers scheduled to appear are:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Former NASCAR Cup Series driver, 2x Daytona 500 champion
Justin Allgaier – XFINITY Series driver, 2018 XFINITY regular season champion
William Byron – Current Cup Series driver for Hendrick Motorsports
Alex Bowman – Current Cup Series driver for Hendrick Motorsports
Bubba Wallace – Current Cup Series driver for Richard Petty Motorsports
Harrison Burton – Current XFINITY Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing
Ben Rhodes – Current Truck Series driver for ThorSport Racing
Justin Haley – Current XFINITY Series driver for Kaulig Racing
Others scheduled to appear include:
T.J. Majors – Cup Series spotter for Joey Logano, former spotter for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Kyle Long – Former NFL Player
Tim Dugger – Musician
Chad Knaus – 7 Time Cup Series Champion Crew Chief with Jimmie Johnson
Kevin Hamlin – Crew Chief for Alex Bowman in the NASCAR Cup Series
Other top tier sim racers will also participate in the event to complete the field.
The race, scheduled for this Sunday afternoon at 3PM Eastern Time, will be broadcasted by Podium eSports for free on the Twitch streaming platform.
Those who wish to watch the event live can follow this link on Sunday to view the event: www.twitch.tv/podiumesports
iRacing is known to be the most immersive and accurate publicly available computer based racing simulation. Many real life drivers use their service in the off season or between races to keep their skills honed.
Last season iRacing brought simulation racing to a new historically important level as they broadcasted races for the first time with NBCSN. Now it looks to be the only form of motorsports that will be available to millions of fans across the country for the next few weeks.
