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What you need to know about the eNASCAR Heat Pro League championship race

Steve Luvender
Wednesday night. The culmination of a season’s worth of work for the fastest console gamers will come down to a high-stakes, elimination-style championship event featuring three races in one historic evening. For the first time in Heat Pro League history, all 28 drivers — 14 from the Xbox One platform and 14 from PlayStation 4 — will race together in the same event simultaneously using the newly-released NASCAR Heat 5 game. ASUS, the official gaming hardware of eNASCAR, will provide each of the drivers with an ASUS ROG Strix G15CK PC, ASUS ROG Strix PG248 monitor and ASUS ROG Strix GO 2.4 headset for the championship event. Combined with Fanatec ClubSport steering wheels officially licensed by NASCAR, it’ll be a unique showing of what the gamers can do on equally-matched equipment. The Contenders All eyes, however, will be on the eight drivers competing for the title. These eight drivers separated themselves throughout the course of the regular Heat Pro League season, clinching their place in the championship by either winning a three-race segment throughout the year — or, in the cases of Tedeschi and Harbin, winning a wildcard race at Daytona following Segment 3. Race Format For the first time in Heat Pro League history, three races will be used to determine the series champion. The eight championship contenders enter on equal footing with two rounds of eliminations cutting two drivers each, whittling the field to a final four.  Drivers will need to showcase their skills across totally different types of race tracks, too. Who said it would be easy?  The first round takes place at Michigan International Speedway: a high-speed, 2-mile oval where working the draft is key to success. Eight championship finalists will enter this round, but only six will leave. (Well, technically, the entire field of 28 will leave and compete all night; just six will remain in title contention!) Phoenix Raceway plays host to the second round, and shares almost no characteristics with Michigan; it’s a flat 1-mile tri-oval. Handling, patience and race strategy will reign supreme. The field of six will become the final four following Phoenix. Finally, the championship race will take place at Bristol Motor Speedway — the high-banked, concrete short track that’s been the site of too many bump-and-run maneuvers to count in NASCAR. Really, anything can happen.   Big Money at Stake In addition to bringing home a championship trophy and a name etched in eNASCAR history, there’s quite a bit of cash at stake — $70,000 — but who’s counting? The champion will win a $30,000 slice for first place. Not a bad payday for an evening of virtual racing. There’s also a Team Championship at stake Wednesday. The team scoring the most points over the course of the entire season will wear the crown, combined from the entire season to date with the three championship races. Currently, Germain Gaming leads the JTG Daugherty Throttlers by 62 points — but it’s far from over, especially considering the fact that JTG’s Justin Brooks has won an insane seven times in 2020.   How to Watch Catch the eNASCAR Heat Pro League championship finale live Wed., Aug. 19, at 8:00 p.m. ET on: Or, tune in later on MAVTV in the USA or REV TV in Canada.