Meet the NASCAR Fan Council Member of the Month for July 2021!
Name: Matthew Current City: Richmond, Virginia Member Since: 2017
GETTING TO KNOW MATTHEW:
Q. How did you first become interested in NASCAR?
“I became interested in NASCAR immediately when I started watching it when I was a month old in April of 2001. I have autism, so the repeating sound of the cars was so mesmerizing to me. I officially became a fan in 2005 when I was 4 years old as a fan of Tony Stewart. I told my mom that she was to be a Dale Jr. fan, and my dad was to be a Jimmie Johnson fan.”
Q. What is your favorite part about NASCAR?
“Due to my autism and other special needs, I just like the mesmerizing and repeating sound of the cars going around in an oval shape. I also enjoy the intense amount of fan access to the drivers and crews.”
Q: What is your favorite NASCAR memory?
“My favorite NASCAR memory was meeting my idol Tony Stewart for the first time at a local Home Depot. I can remember that I just had surgery on my legs, and they gave me a chair to sit in to wait for Tony. Instead of going to the table to sign autographs, he came right to me first, kneeled down at eye-level with me, and talked with me for a bit. He signed two items when he was supposed to sign one. The best part was I had my little Tony Stewart fire suit Halloween costume on, my Tony Stewart Home Depot hat, and my sunglasses on to look like Tony! It was an awesome experience!’
Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories?
Current Driver: “William Byron.”
Past Driver: “Tony Stewart.”
Up and Coming Driver: “Noah Gragson.”
Team: “Hendrick Motorsports.”
Track: “Richmond Raceway.”
Q. What do you like to do in your free time?
“Do my schoolwork with Liberty Online, participate in my Boy Scout Troop Committee (since I’m an Eagle Scout), and play sports with River City Buddy Ball, a sports league for people ages 5-30 with special needs like me.”
FROM ALL OF US AT NASCAR, WE THANK MATTHEW FOR HIS CONTINUED SUPPORT AND LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM HIM IN 2021!
Look for Matthew on the Official NASCAR Fan Council page on NASCAR.COM.
When Justin Marks announced the formation of the Trackhouse Racing Team in October of 2020, he promised to be a disruptive and courageous new force in NASCAR. That vision continued on Wednesday with the announcement that the Trackhouse Entertainment Group and Trackhouse Racing will expand its NASCAR Cup Series team by acquiring Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR operation.
Marks, along with Trackhouse team president Ty Norris and Chip Ganassi Racing CEO Chip Ganassi, revealed the move at the NASCAR Hall of Fame on a live stream on NASCAR.com. Trackhouse Racing will acquire all NASCAR equipment and the two charters from CGR, and the changes will go into effect after the 2021 Cup Series season.
“This process took several weeks and I want to thank Chip for being so open and candid with me every step of the journey,” Marks said. “Chip has built an iconic motorsports empire and the Ganassi brand is globally recognized as a winner in the auto racing industry.”
Trackhouse Racing currently has one Cup Series team with 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez as the driver of the No. 99 Chevrolet. It was revealed Wednesday that Suarez will continue with Trackhouse in 2022 with a second driver to be named later. The Monterrey, Mexico, native has three top-10 finishes this season and is ranked 18th in the driver standings. His most recent top 10 was a seventh-place run in NASCAR’s return to Nashville Superspeedway.
“This is a huge deal,” Suarez said in an appearance on FS1’s NASCAR Race Hub, where he also revealed he did not know about Trackhouse’s deal with Ganassi until yesterday. “It’s crazy how fast Trackhouse Racing is growing.” He also indicated that he expects to play some part in helping the team select his future teammate.
Suarez gave Trackhouse its first top-five finish at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race as NASCAR utilized the surface at the famed short track. This came on the heels of Trackhouse’s debut in the Daytona 500 and after a busy offseason that included the naming of entertainment superstar Pitbull as a co-owner of the team.
Bringing on Pitbull (Armando Perez) was a sign that the team wanted to do things differently and that it wanted to appeal to a broader NASCAR audience. The organization stated that Marks and Pitbull intended to collaborate with Trackhouse’s philanthropic efforts, which include NASCAR-themed STEM education initiatives within inner-city charter schools.
Chip Ganassi Racing has two drivers in the Cup Series in 2021, 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch in the No. 1 Chevrolet and rookie Ross Chastain in the No. 42 Chevrolet. Busch ranks 14th in points and is three points to the good on the playoff cutline. Chastain ranks 22nd in points.
“My NASCAR team was not for sale,” Ganassi said. “Justin simply came to me with a great offer and an even better vision. As everyone knows, I care deeply for my employees so selling to someone like Justin, who is part of the CGR family, made the reality of selling much easier.”
CGR also has teams in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, IndyCar and Extreme E, and those teams will continue to operate out of Ganassi’s Indianapolis location. The NASCAR operation was established in 1989 by Felix Sabates under the name SABCO Racing. In 2001, Ganassi purchased a majority stake in the team to form Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
In 2009, Ganassi partnered with Teresa Earnhardt to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, and that was the team name until 2014 when the Earnhardt name was dropped.
Marks said the new team will operate out of Ganassi’s current race shop in 2022.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR and BettorView, a leading in-venue sports betting marketing and technology platform, are partnering to deliver NASCAR content at venues located within legal online betting sales across the nation. This partnership marks BettorView’s first with a professional sports league and is designed to help drive engagement and strengthen NASCAR’s foothold in the growing sports betting landscape.
“This collaboration will allow us to deliver NASCAR-specific content to a massive number of people actively engaged with sports betting,” said Joe Solosky, Managing Director, Sports Betting. “NASCAR’s handle is increasing at a healthy rate and this partnership will deepen our connection with this growing audience on a national scale.”
BettorView is the only multichannel solution of its kind in the gaming space, providing on-screen touch technology, brand ambassador activations and digital content marketing to more than 1,000 in-venue screens nationwide. With the start of the NASCAR Playoffs on the horizon, BettorView will showcase customized NASCAR stats, analytics and odds alongside special sports betting promotions in restaurants, bars, stadiums, and NASCAR tracks located in states where betting is legal, reaching millions of highly engaged sports fans.
“Since its inception, the vision for BettorView has been to enhance and reimagine sports fans’ in-venue experiences with our technology and industry expertise. As a gaming and venue operator, it’s exciting to partner with NASCAR, whose long-term strategy in the gaming space is as innovative, as it is focused on serving its fans and sportsbook partners alike,” said Seth Schorr, CEO of BettorView.
BettorView created the first plug-and-play solution that brings sports betting content to hundreds of venues via its patented technology. The BettorView platform launched nation-wide in 2019, securing partnerships with top hospitality chains, independent bars, and professional sports teams. BettorView is optimized to make sure guests are engaged with the best sports and sports betting information, which increase dwell time and revenue.
“We’re excited to bring our marketing and technology solutions to NASCAR and its partners, as the only multichannel solution of its kind in iGaming,” said Javier Vargas, COO of BettorView. “BettorView is proud to assist NASCAR in its ability deliver measurable ROI to sportsbooks, with an emphasis on new user acquisition and increased betting activity.”
In the past two years, NASCAR entered into a series of partnerships with world-class brands to better position the sport in the sports betting space. Sportradar signed on as NASCAR’s integrity partner, BetGenius as its data provider, Penn National Gaming, BetMGM, and WynnBET as Authorized Gaming Operators, IMG Arena as its international streaming partner, and EquiLottery and LEAP in the lottery and virtual gaming spaces, respectively. To help fans become educated on sports betting, NASCAR recently launched NASCAR.com/betcenter and also works closely with The Action Network and VSiN.
This year’s Daytona 500 victory wasn’t the first long-awaited triumph in Michael McDowell’s career. Five years ago, the 36-year-old veteran landed another eagerly anticipated win at the site of this weekend’s Cup Series event — Road America.
That 2016 Xfinity Series breakthrough ended a drought of nearly 300 NASCAR national-series races for McDowell, who cashed in on a spot start with Richard Childress Racing. He’d come close before at the 4.048-mile road course, qualifying in the top five for each of his Xfinity starts there, but misfortune seemed to follow him. Nearly five years ago, all the pieces aligned.
“My fondest memory was just coming off the final corner there and knowing that I had it, just a relief,” McDowell says, noting strong performances in his previous efforts there with Joe Gibbs Racing. “Just so many things had gone wrong there where I’d led a lot of laps there, had some opportunities to close the deal there and just wasn’t able to do it. So to finally do it, it was just a big sense of relief and accomplishment.”
Wisconsin is a heck of a place for an Arizona native to have a homecoming, but no matter the geographical contrast, McDowell is ready for a reunion on friendly turf in America’s Dairyland. He’ll bring a heaping helping of experience into Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250 presented by Kwik Trip (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the first Cup Series event at the Elkhart Lake facility since 1956.
Jonathan Ferrey | Getty Images
McDowell’s winning ways at Road America extend beyond his handful of Xfinity Series starts. He also won there twice as he established his road-racing chops in the open-wheel Pro Mazda Series, prevailing for the first time in 2003 and again the following year on the way to the series championship in the Road to Indy program.
Advantage, McDowell? That might be the case in terms of experience at the long, high-speed circuit, but the Front Row Motorsports driver acknowledged that the rest of the Cup Series field is a quick study.
“I think it’s always an advantage to have experience, especially good experience where I’ve been in quality cars and had great runs,” McDowell says, “so I think that kind of experience is helpful, but … the drivers are so talented and the tools that we all have with simulation and videos and data, you have a fairly good idea of what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it before you ever get to the race track. The great guys are going to figure it out fast. I’d actually prefer it if there was no practice because I think when you give talented people that 50 minutes, they’re going to figure it out and you might lose some of that advantage you might have.
“At the same time, I wouldn’t give up the experience. I think it always helps.”
Another helpful asset: McDowell’s already banked season-opening win, which has virtually assured him a playoff berth and the highest finish in the Cup Series standings for his career. It’s been a handy insurance policy for the postseason, but winning the “Great American Race” has also magnified McDowell’s stature.
Since the start of the season, McDowell has appeared in national ad campaigns for CarParts.com, and just last weekend at Pocono, the team added sponsorship from new backer Horizon Hobby and its ARRMA RC brand for his No. 34 Ford. “I think that winning the 500 and just having a solid year in general has been so helpful with our relationships here at Front Row,” he said. “Anytime you run good and your partners are happy, it creates opportunity.”
It hasn’t hurt McDowell being introduced with “Daytona 500 winner” as a prefix to his name.
“I don’t know if you ever get used to it, but it’s nice,” McDowell said. “This sport is so challenging and it’s week to week, and you’re only as good as your last race. So when you have a struggle and a difficult weekend, and you come to the office to do autograph requests or sign pictures, when you keep signing that same picture of you in Victory Lane at the Daytona 500, it’s a good reminder that when you’re struggling, it’s worth it.”
The struggles have been less frequent this year, with McDowell already posting career-best numbers with five top-10 results and a 16.8 average finish. For McDowell, those stats and the win-column check mark haven’t spurred any thoughts about testing the free-agency market. While he says those positives haven’t necessarily accelerated any negotiations with Front Row in an already busy Silly Season, McDowell has indicated that he expects to stay put.
“It’s pretty early for us, but I’ve kind of said this before: I plan on being here. I enjoy the growth that we’ve had at Front Row and what we’ve been able to build,” McDowell says. “To go from when I got here, running high 20s to 30s every week to running low 20s to running in the teens, then winning a race and being in the playoffs and having more top 10s and top fives than we’ve ever had, it’s a fun time to be a part of Front Row. I’m enjoying being here and hopefully that’ll be an opportunity for years to come, but we haven’t really gotten to that point yet.”
Firming up plans for 2022 can become a priority later, but McDowell & Co. have work remaining for this season. Seven events remain before the 10-race playoffs begin, and McDowell says that FRM is striving to make gains on the more well-heeled teams in the Cup Series garage.
“We’re still a small team and we still have a budget, but we are able to build a few new cars and have some time to work on those cars and make them the best that we can before the playoffs start,” McDowell says, “but we also look at these next three or four weeks as big weeks for us, having three road courses coming up and knowing that those are races that we can contend in.
“You’ve got to balance your focus. Obviously, you don’t want to get too far ahead, but you also want to make sure you’re prepared for the playoffs. We’re doing everything that we can.”
See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250 presented by Kwik Trip (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
There are different schools of thought among sports bettors when it comes to futures wagering. Some avoid making futures bets, theorizing the opportunity cost of keeping their money tied up for months is too great. Others find value in futures and say that investing in these long-term markets allows them to get out of the day-to-day grind many gamblers endure.
To exemplify these philosophies in NASCAR, if a bettor with a $2,000 bankroll placed a $100 wager today on Chase Elliott to win the 2021 Cup Series Championship (7/1 odds at BetMGM), the upside is a nice $700 payday in November. The opportunity cost is that the $100 will be held by the sportsbook for the next five months, depriving the bettor of the chance to invest that 5% of his bankroll.
For many professional bettors, the money required for a meaningful futures bet could instead be turned over many times during the season, creating more opportunity for profit. If baseball or basketball are among the sports they bet, for example, they could wager the amount of their forgone futures bet on a daily basis. Even the sharpest bettors have very small edges against the market, so betting at a high volume is necessary for these pros to make a living.
“I generally stay away from futures markets, just for the opportunity costs, locking up money for a long period of time,” sharp bettor Blake Phillips told NASCAR.com.
Zack White, though, is one pro gambler who has had plenty of success playing futures. White and his partner Mark DeRosa famously made a big score on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win Super Bowl LV, and he stands to cash in again should Alex Bowman win this year’s Cup title at long odds (an outcome NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola gives a realistic chance). White, in fact, is currently cheering on his futures position on the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup.
Not only has futures betting been profitable for White, but it also allows him a more enjoyable lifestyle.
“I’ve done really, really well with futures over the past several years,” White said. “There was a time when I worked every single day of the week, betting all sorts of sports. Now, I’ve got (a family), and I’m not living in Vegas full time anymore. Honestly, futures are a way for me to get down a substantial amount of money at a big edge and only work a few days (laughs) and just wait until (the bets are) graded. So if I’m betting hockey futures and football futures and basketball futures, then I have stuff grading pretty regularly throughout the year, but I only spend a few days actually executing the bets instead of a whole season.
“I’d rather have a 30% edge on a futures bet that I don’t have to think about for a few months until they’re graded, because in a lot of those cases, it’s not like I would be using the money daily like some people would.”
We shouldn’t worry too much about not being able to wager a certain part of our bankroll and exploit our edge. That’s because there are very few instances where we actually have an edge.
For recreational gamblers, the value in futures betting comes in the form of entertainment. A $100 bet on your favorite driver to win the Cup championship, for example, lasts all season. The value of a $100 bet on the same driver to win Sunday afternoon’s race is likely zero by Sunday evening.
So go ahead and make a futures bet or three. You’ll get a season’s worth of excitement for a relatively small amount of money.
Marcus DiNitto is a writer and editor living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been covering sports for nearly two-and-a-half decades and sports betting for more than 10 years. His first NASCAR betting experience was in 1995 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he went 0-for-3 on his matchup picks. Read his articles and follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.
Similar to how Jeff Gordon and seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty became forever intertwined as the former began his premier series career in the latter’s final race in 1992 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott and Gordon will be linked in perpetuity.
Gordon, the four-time champ, hung up the fire suit after “going to Homestead” to complete a Hall of Fame career (minus a brief stint filling in for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. the next year). He then handed off the proverbial keys to a fresh-faced 20-year-old Xfinity Series champion with a famous last name, allowing Elliott to become the first full-time driver of the 24 car since Gordon grabbed the wheel in ’92 — three years prior to Elliot’s birth.
Arguably the most famous driver in arguably the most famous car for the majority of his career, Gordon guided Elliott through the transition phase while shifting gears to pick up a microphone in the NASCAR on FOX booth.
Though Elliott was winless his rookie and sophomore years, now with three Most Popular Driver awards and a Cup championship in the trophy case, it’s safe to say Gordon mentored his young ward successfully.
“I feel like Jeff’s kind of always had that about him and he’s always just been helpful to me,” Elliott said. “I feel like the most engagement and the largest interactions that I’ve had with him have been just car-related, especially when I first came in. Obviously, he was stepping away and I was stepping in. There was a transition period he really helped me through. I was going to work with a team that he had a lot of experience with and working with, around. Guys he wanted and helped kind of assemble.
“I feel like that transition, when I look at how he helped me through that, it was very professional.”
Things are about to get even more professional, as Gordon will shift from the broadcast booth to his upcoming 2022 role as vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports.
For a team that’s already setting the world on fire with a series-best nine race victories in the season’s first 19 races on top of housing the defending champ and current 2021 title favorite, what could having the 2019 Hall of Famer in-house possibly add to the dynamic?
Quite a bit, actually.
“He has a good feel and a good mindset for all the things that it takes to make racing and make a race team work,” said Elliott, favorite to win Sunday’s Cup return to Road America (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC). “He has fought the battles on the driver’s side, on and off the race track, and he has a good understanding of the business aspect of it, the NASCAR aspect of it and just how all these puzzle pieces that come together to make it work.”
Above all else, however, is one thing. Gordon is already a big part of what keeps the Hendrick machine humming. And happy.
“I would say one of his biggest strengths is understanding all the different areas of how it works and how to make everybody as happy as they can (be),” Elliott said. “I feel like he has a really good understanding of how to do that.”
NASCAR officials penalized four Cup Series teams and two Xfinity Series teams Tuesday for lug-nut violations during last weekend’s events at Pocono Raceway.
On the Cup Series side, each infraction occurred in Saturday’s Pocono Organics CBD 325, the opening race in a weekend doubleheader for the tour. Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 was all clear in post-race inspection.
Each of the four Cup Series teams was found with one unsecured lug nut in Saturday’s post-race check, resulting in a $10,000 fine for each of the following teams/crew chiefs:
• No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford (crew chief Rodney Childers; driver Kevin Harvick) • No. 12 Team Penske Ford (crew chief Todd Gordon; driver Ryan Blaney) • No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (crew chief Ben Beshore; driver Kyle Busch) • No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota (crew chief Mike Wheeler; driver Bubba Wallace)
In the Xfinity Series, two teams were also found with a single unsecured lug nut after Sunday’s Pocono Green 225, resulting in $5,000 fines for each crew chief. The offending teams were the race-winning No. 22 Team Penske Ford (crew chief Brian Wilson; driver Austin Cindric) and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (crew chief Dave Rogers; driver Daniel Hemric).
Additionally, JGR crew member Micah Horton was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR for violating Rule Book Sections 12.1, 12.8.a and 12.8.g — all of which relate to member conduct. Horton was listed on NASCAR team rosters as a mechanic for the No. 18 team for the Xfinity Series’ last three events; he was listed as the No. 18 team’s car chief for the first 11 races of the Xfinity Series season.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is set to take on one of its most storied settings yet.
For the first time in series history, the trucks will race at Knoxville Raceway, the Sprint Car Capital of the World. The Corn Belt 150 will be held at the historic Iowa half-mile July 9 with live TV coverage on FS1.
Knoxville’s status in the world of dirt racing is nothing short of legendary, starting as a horse track built in 1878 that found its purpose as an auto-racing facility not long after the turn of the 20th century.
After a years-long racing hiatus during World War II, stock cars became the vehicle of choice to work around the dark Iowa clay. That choice evolved to super modifieds and eventually sprint cars in a short amount of time.
But to have stock-car racing back in the heart of Iowa’s home for dirt racing? That’s as full circle as it gets.
“It’s going to be quite significant,” said Bob Wilson, the track historian at Knoxville. “It’s going to be the first time (the trucks visit) and it’s going to be a different sort of race than our regular people are used to seeing. However, I think the stands will be filled with NASCAR people who are really interested in this.”
Wilson is right — this will be a new endeavor for all parties involved.
Chris Dunkin has been Knoxville’s lead track prep director since 1995, but this role dates back far longer than that. He began helping his father prep the track as far back as 1977, and his father began working on the racing surface shortly after returning from serving the country in WWII.
Yet for all the experience Dunkin has, he knows this will be new territory for both him and the competitors.
On a typical dry summer week, Dunkin said the track will go through 100,000 to 150,000 gallons of water to prepare for a regular sprint-car show. Because those vehicles are less than half the weight of a Truck Series vehicle, there will be significantly less water involved.
“What I want to see when the trucks hit the race track is a surface that has some moisture in it,” Dunkin said, “but not to the point to where it’s definitely not standing water but almost to the point where it’s just starting to discolor.”
The hype around Knoxville is growing with each passing day. In the backyard of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum, Knoxville legend Donny Schatz will make his series debut in one of NASCAR’s national touring series.
Schatz is a 10-time winner of the Knoxville Nationals, one of the highest honors in sprint-car racing around the world.
“Donny Schatz is one of the premier drivers to ever race on Knoxville dirt,” Wilson said. “He has just been a phenomenal sprint car driver. And so for him to take the time to go to the Truck Series and try it out (says a lot).”
Also joining Schatz around the half-mile in a series debut will be hometown hero Brian Brown. Brown has been finding every way possible to ready himself for his stock-car racing debut, including participating in the inaugural Superstar Racing Experience event held at Knoxville on June 19.
“He is one of Knoxville’s favorites,” Wilson said. “This is his home track for winged sprint-car racing. He’s from Missouri. He comes here basically weekly, and he’s a multi-time track champion. Just set a brand-new track record for one lap last year, 14.3 seconds on the half-mile.”
Wilson and Dunkin have both spent their lives around the facility. And while the track’s reputation has exploded over the past several decades, both acknowledged the significance of this event.
The importance goes both ways. In one aspect, heading to Knoxville legitimizes the Truck Series’ venture to dirt. While the series circuited Eldora Speedway for seven consecutive years from 2013-19 and put on great displays of racing, Eldora was the only dirt venue at which the series competed. To go to such a storied location this year after a successful trip to Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt-covered banks only bolsters the series’ reputation.
Likewise, a nationally-televised live broadcast of a NASCAR-sanctioned national series event further cements Knoxville’s status in the world of racing, proving its facilities are built to host an event of this magnitude.
“Understanding that the trucks were going to come to Knoxville, you get that sense of excitement,” said Dunkin, who also noted he was in “disbelief” when he learned this event was happening. “It’s a privilege to have an organization like NASCAR come to a local track in Iowa.”
Wilson admitted he was a bit jealous of Eldora when he went for the 2019 iteration of the Eldora Dirt Derby, wishing Knoxville would one day have its chance. That opportunity is finally here.
“I was a 9-year-old kid sitting in the grandstand in the ’50s, and to think that these races are going to be nationally live is just crazy,” Wilson said. “I never would have guessed it. Never. And I think Knoxville Raceway was already on the sprint-car map. And I think with these new races that more and more people are going to know about Knoxville.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR and iRacing.com today announced a new partnership agreement that will grant the Massachusetts-based developer of PC-based racing simulations the title of “official simulation partner of NASCAR.”
The deal will serve to elevate a decade-plus licensing relationship to official partner status, as the two organizations work closer than ever before to promote the various eNASCAR series which live on the iRacing platform, while also collaborating around a number of innovation initiatives which have far-reaching implications on the future of NASCAR — including the design of new and proposed NASCAR race tracks, collaboration and technical support on the NASCAR NextGen race car project, the creation of sim racing-oriented content for NASCAR Digital Media channels, and the use of iRacing as a training tool for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity class.
iRacing has been a NASCAR licensee since 2010, and since that time has been a key driver behind the sport’s fast-growing efforts in the esports space. iRacing has provided the platform for NASCAR’s first-ever officially sanctioned professional virtual racing series — what is now known as the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series — since 2010, and also played a central role in the formation of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series in 2020, which bridged the gap between events for real-world stars during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The seven-race series set records for the most viewed esports events in United States television history, earned both Sports Emmy Outstanding Esports Coverage and Sports Business Awards Breakthrough of the Year nominations, and was renewed for 2021.
Beyond esports, iRacing has also grown to be a key technical partner to the sport, as the company is currently assisting the sanctioning body around multiple race track and facility development projects. iRacing first collaborated with NASCAR on the reconfiguration of Auto Club Speedway into a half-mile short track in 2020, and later scanned the streets of Chicago in the fall to create a proposed street circuit that debuted during an eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series event that aired live on FS1 this June. In addition to track development, iRacing assisted NASCAR in developing the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series NextGen car, which was revealed to the public earlier this year and made its racing debut during the Pro Invitational events.
“NASCAR fans know and love iRacing for their accomplishments in the development of virtual racing series, but what many may not realize is that the company is so much more than just an esports partner,” said Tim Clark, senior vice president and chief digital officer, NASCAR. “iRacing is a full-on technology partner in every sense of the word, and their best-in-class simulation and engineering capabilities are helping us innovate across multiple layers of our business — whether that be in designing new race tracks, developing new race cars, creating compelling digital content, or providing a virtual training ground for the next generation of NASCAR stars.”
“NASCAR has been immensely supportive of iRacing over the past decade, and a huge contributing factor in our growth as an organization,” said iRacing president Tony Gardner. “From their world-class support of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for more than a decade, to the explosion of new initiatives like Pro Invitational events and track development projects, NASCAR’s assistance has helped iRacing remain at the forefront of the esports industry while also taking our organization to exciting new places. We’re incredibly excited to extend our partnership, and look forward to continuing to evolve these efforts for years to come.”
To learn more about how iRacing is leveraging its engineering expertise to create compelling simulated auto racing experiences for both NASCAR and other motorsports properties, visit www.iRacing.com. For more information on NASCAR’s esports initiatives, visit eNASCAR.com.
