Richard Petty Motorsports put out the message: “Calling all Mario Kart racers!” And it wasn’t joking around.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pause all on-track action within the NASCAR industry, the No. 43 team of Bubba Wallace has opted to host what it dubs the 43 Crew Challenge presented by the U.S. Air Force. It’s a tournament-style Mario Kart 8 competition in which Wallace and five of his crew members compete against fans on the Nintendo Switch online game. The shtick started on Twitter.
“We have been playing religiously just about every weekend,” Wallace said on a teleconference Tuesday. “We’ve actually gotten super competitive, almost unhealthy the way we play, but we decided to make it fun. We’ve always kind of had this idea in the back of our head, but it’s always kind of tough throughout the regular work week before all this coronavirus stuff happened. It’s something to get fans involved.”
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Brackets read: 43 Crew vs. Team Fans. The first tournament was last Thursday, and the 43 Crew won.
“We feel like we’re pretty good,” Wallace said. “We definitely give each other a run for our money, so it’s tough for us to become teammates because all we want to do is just talk crap to each other.”
The event was available to watch on Twitch. Wallace later reported the live stream drew in more than 1,700 viewers last week. Round 2 will be this Thursday, and Wallace hopes to get the competing fans in on the chat rooms so their voices can also be heard.
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In addition to the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, this Mario Kart gig is just another type of virtual racing Wallace has gotten involved in to keep his mental driving skills fresh since NASCAR won’t return to actual racing until after May 3, which is subject to change as the scope of the outbreak develops.
“You definitely learn a lot,” Wallace said. “It’s funny. It’s like OK, who are we racing against this week? And you’ll see them take a shortcut that’s like whoa-whoa-whoa, where did that come from? Or they’ll somehow get to that corner better than you. So, for me, I’m always analyzing people that I’m racing around: How are they doing this, how are they doing that? Where are they drifting? When are they using their mushrooms or red shells? You’re always analyzing.
“It’s almost unhealthy how much we’re taking a game like Mario Kart into consideration of how to be better at. But hey, I’m a competitor. I want to win at everything. I don’t care if it’s Mario Kart, iRacing or real life. It’s a racing game I have a huge passion for.”