Last May, iRacing.com announced one of its most spectacular partnerships yet as an official NASCAR-sanctioned online racing series was unveiled.
Alongside with new seasons of all major NASCAR divisions starting off next month, the virtual NASCAR iRacing Drivers World Championship will be kicking off on February 9th.
The schedule consists of 18 races spread out over 39 weeks, the 50 top-rated drivers of iRacing’s Pro Series will be eligible to compete in the new championship, getting the chance to prove themselves against a real NASCAR legend as Dale Earnhardt Jr. will join the series, giving the sim racers a real benchmark to compete with.
Select races of the series will be broadcasted live on the iRacing website. Furthermore, the new series will be getting some high-profile media coverage such as this article recently published on the official NASCAR website.
While the World Championship is only open for the top 50 drivers to compete in, iRacing will also be hosting NASCAR-sanctioned amateur series open to all iRacing subscribers.
Jack B
January 22nd, 2010 at 18:04
It will be interesting to see how much iRacing’s affiliation with NASCAR will help in 2010. I can definitely see the 15 person Hall of Fame iRacing simulator will help once it’s opened in May with 1,000’s of visitors a day seeing or trying iRacing as the official simulation. Not sure of all the details on what NASCAR.COM will do to help promote iRacing. So far, so good though. :-)
hoboracer
January 22nd, 2010 at 18:07
I realize this was their plan all along, but Nascar is so old. It’s Nascar 2003 again with the same old tracks. I’m sure it will bring in tons of new rookie oval heads ready to bump draft, but we need more road courses on the menu. Hopefully this will bring in enough money to go scan some good roadies overseas.
Jack B
January 22nd, 2010 at 20:21
It seems like they’re focusing on Europe with the new Euro/Intl tracks that are in the works and the Williams F1 announcemnt, but I agree more Euro/Intl content is very important on the Road side.
Hawk
January 23rd, 2010 at 00:05
If there was an Official F1 sanctioned series at iRacing the same forum trolls would find something to bitch about then.
Some losers can never be happy.
UncleChuckle
January 23rd, 2010 at 06:17
Yes, because anyone who holds a differing opinion from you is a “loser”.
KastaRules
January 23rd, 2010 at 18:17
There is no need to be bitter, I see a good point in the posts above.
Jack B
January 23rd, 2010 at 21:10
iRacing just set a record for new subscribers in a single day since launch 18 months ago with 109 on Friday. The previous record was 102 this past Xmas day. My guess is this announcement had something to do with it.
EDIT: That record didn’t last long. 119 on Saturday. :-)
To put in perspective, iRacing keeps growing every month, but even the record month in December averaged 50 per day, so breaking 100 is a lot.
jcchaconjr
January 24th, 2010 at 10:17
This is a great step in the evolution of iRacing, just as the various World Tour events planned throughout the year will be, however, I was hoping that official sanctioning by NASCAR would have helped expedite the licensing of all of NASCAR’s participating manufacturers. It’s no fun driving a Chevy if you’re a fan of one of the other manufacturers. They may as well have called it the NASCAR Chevy challenge, because it’s not REAL NASCAR to me if all participants aren’t equally represented. :(
I think that iRacing is taking little steps in the right direction, but if multi-manufacturer, Class-based series comes out sooner rather than later, then I think iRacing will truly dominate the market.
EmptyBox
January 24th, 2010 at 23:14
Who cares about the stickers on the cars when they are still basically the same as the Toyota / Ford / Dodge right next to it.
I’m interested to know how this series is going to work – not that I plan on participating (Ovals are boring), but it certainly seems interesting.
hoboracer
January 25th, 2010 at 16:41
I don’t like F1 either.