May 7, 2020

For decades people in southern Virginia and beyond knew Ray Lee Wood for the beautiful flowers growing in front of his home in the community of Buffalo Ridge and for the sourwood honey that he collected from his beehives. 

They knew of his prized Persian cats and Siberian Huskies, and the goldfish he raised in ponds on his family property.

Others were amazed at his knowledge of the Bible and his loyalty to the Pentecostal Holiness Church.

And there were some that knew the rest of the story, about how Wood was an integral part of some of the grandest triumphs in motor racing history – among them victories in the 1963 Daytona 500, the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and the inaugural American 500 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in 1965.

Ray Lee Wood, who died May 5 at the age of 92, was the third son of J. Walter and Ada Wood. In the early 1950s, he and his brothers Glenn, Clay, Delano and Leonard, took on the world of automobile racing with the same passion and determination that they applied to every task they ever took on.

Early in the Wood Brothers’ career, they worked on their race cars under a giant beech tree, its limbs serving as support for pulling engines with a chain hoist. Ray Lee Wood spent the last half of his life serving as caretaker of the famous tree, one that attracted visitors including Edsel Ford II.

As the team began competing in the series now known as Cup, Ray Lee changed front tires and helped prepare the Fords initially driven by his brother Glenn but later driven by some of the biggest names in motorsports. 

Leonard Wood said his brother could have added his name to that list had he chosen to do so.

“Ray Lee could have been a race driver as well as Glenn,” he said. In 1958, on the sands of Daytona Beach, Ray Lee hit 142 miles per hour on the measured mile in a hopped-up street car, topping the speed chart for that day.

When the Wood Brothers won the Car Owner’s Championship in 1963 using multiple drivers, Ray Lee Wood was the car owner of record and the Championship trophy bears his name. 

When the Woods scored the first of their five Daytona 500 victories, with Tiny Lund filling in for a badly burned Marvin Panch, Ray Lee played a key role in the team’s winning pit strategy.

After the first 10 laps of the 500 were run under the yellow flag because of rain, the Woods saw an opportunity to play a pit strategy similar to those used in road-course races today. They began making their pit stops with the intention of making one fewer stop than their competitors. 

They also were hoping to run the race on a single set of tires.

Firestone representative John Laux and Ray Lee were in charge of checking the tires. Both agreed on each early stop that the tires were good to go.

On the final stop, Laux wasn’t so certain. Ray Lee said the tires were good for another 100 miles. His brothers took his advice, and Lund drove on to the checkered flag.

Wood played a similar role in the Indianapolis 500, as he and his brothers pitted the Lotus Ford driven by Jim Clark. Again, Wood checked tires on each stop, and again the call was made to continue. The result was another major win for the Stuart, Va.-based team.

That trip to Indianapolis was a life-changer for Wood.

“When we were up there in Indiana, I felt the calling of the Lord,” Wood said in a 2010 interview. “He had something else for me to do.”

It was the same calling his brother Delano, the family jack man, would feel at the end of the 1983 season.

Not wanting to leave his brothers in mid-season, in an era when good tire changers were hard to find, Ray Lee decided to stay on through the end of that year.

His racing career ended in storybook fashion, with his old friend Curtis Turner driving the Woods’ Ford to victory at Rockingham.

Wood and Turner had become close over the years, and Wood often flew back from races with Turner, so he could be back at work with his grading business on Monday morning.

That race, Turner’s 17th and final Cup win, also was the final NASCAR appearance for Ray Lee Wood, who began spending his Sunday’s at his beloved church, located near his home in Buffalo Ridge.

In the years after that, he never attended another NASCAR race, although he did participate in a Fan Appreciation event at the Wood Brothers Museum in 2011.

His nephew Eddie Wood said that in a family of cool brothers, Ray Lee stood out.

“He had the coolest cars,” Eddie Wood said. “He had lots of girlfriends. He had one of the first color TVs in our county. He was just a happy-go-lucky guy.”

Like his brothers, Ray Lee didn’t do things halfway.

“He started a rose garden, and the next thing you know he had 500 of them, and then a thousand,” Wood said. “He bought two expensive Persian cats, Sam and George, and kept getting more until he had 50 show cats.

“He got into Siberian Huskies and had giant goldfish… Whatever he did, he went at it 100 percent.”

Ray Lee Wood lived in the same house where he grew up, and in his latter years was content with a simple life, far removed from the cheering crowds and checkered flags of his early years.

“He was just laid back, in no hurry,” his nephew Len Wood said. “Nothing ruffled his feathers.”

With his racing career behind him, Ray Lee was close to his sister Crystal and his church family, and remained supportive of the racing side of his family.

“Ray never went back to the track after 1965, but he supported us all the way and always followed our races on the radio or TV,” Leonard Wood said. “He was a great brother and a great all-around person.

“I can’t say enough good words about him.”

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Inside Line Promotions – FRESNO, Calif. (May 6, 2020) – Giovanni Scelzi is anticipating his return to Knoxville Raceway this Friday during his first race since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March.

Scelzi will pilot a family owned sprint car at the half-mile oval in Knoxville, Iowa, with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

“It’s definitely one of my favorite tracks and I wouldn’t want to restart the season anywhere else,” he said. “It’s a fun track that usually gives different grooves to race. We’ve had success there so that is a confidence boost going into the race.”

Scelzi became the youngest 410ci winged sprint car driver in the history of the track last year when he captured an Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions triumph. He then finished third out of 77 drivers during the 8^th annual Bell Helmets Capitani Classic presented by Great Southern Bank and 10^th at the 59^th annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores. Scelzi also won the Knoxville Raceway season finale two weeks later.

Following the event in Iowa Scelzi will shift to 360ci winged sprint car action next Tuesday and Wednesday during the West Texas Crude Nationals at West Texas Raceway in Lubbock, Texas.

“There will be a lot of great drivers at Knoxville and at West Texas so it will be important to start each night strong,” he said. “We’re grateful to resume racing and hopefully we can put together consistent nights that result in us running up front.”

Professional sim driver Lance Fenderson joins all-star lineup

Live coverage starts at 7:10 p.m. ET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV22mgJ77VU

LEEDS, ALABAMA (April 14, 2020)- Following three successful rounds with thousands of viewers cheering on the action from the best seat in the house, their couches, the Formula Regional Americas iRacing Invitational Championship drivers return to battle on Tuesday (April 14) with this week’s match set on the scenic Barber Motorsports Park.

Nearly four dozen drivers, the largest field since the start of the seven-round iRacing championship, from different racing disciplines across the world are slated to participate in Round 4 of the simulation championship tonight with live coverage presented by PitFit Training starting at 7:10 p.m. Eastern on the series’ YouTube and Twitch channels.

In the first three rounds of competition, three different drivers (Ben Waddell, Dario Cangialosi and Phillippe Denes) claimed victories driving the retired F3 International chassis with identical setups, but as the competitions increases with more professional simulation drivers like paraplegic athlete Lance Fenderson joining the roster, the chance to take multiple victories in the championship becomes even harder.

Fenderson competed in the Formula Race Promotion F1600 Championship before sustaining a spinal cord injury while playing lacrosse. As the North Carolina-based teenager worked through extensive rehabilitation, his passion to be behind the wheel of single-seater race car never fizzled. Now equipped with a self-designed modified simulator that is completely controlled by his hands, Fenderson races professionally online until he can once again return to on-track competition. 

“At first, I thought my love for the sport would be overwhelmed by the difficulties associated with my injury, but then I realized that I need to focus on my capabilities,” explained Fenderson. “I set up my simulator by putting a tri-pin on the steering wheel. I then bought a flight simulator joystick. I set up forward as brake, back as throttle, right as up shift and left as downshift. It’s a challenging task, having no use in my fingers, but of course possible.”

Round 4 live coverage by Apex Racing TV starts at 7:10pm Eastern with a swift 10-minute qualifying followed by a 30-minute race and featuring “podium” interviews with the top drivers. Following the race, FR Americas iRacing Invitational Championship drivers will host a LIVE question and answer session with fans on the FR Americas Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/framericas/)

Simon Pagenaud wins first oval race of NTT INDYCAR SERIES IRacing ChallengeDale Earnhardt Jr. places third in IndyCar iRacing debut
DETROIT (April 11, 2020) – Fuel strategy paid dividends for Simon Pagenaud as the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion led a Chevrolet sweep of the podium in the Chevrolet 275 INDYCAR iRacing Challenge at Michigan International Speedway.
Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin finished second and two-time Daytona 500 winner and NBC Sports motorsports analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. placed third in his INDYCAR iRacing Challenge debut. Team Chevy has won all three races in the six-race virtual series that runs through May 2.
Pagenaud, driving the No. 22 DXC Chevrolet, took the lead for good on Lap 82 of 85.
“I cannot believe this just happened,” said Pagenaud, who competed in the virtual race on the 2-mile oval in his full race suit and celebrated the victory with a champagne toast. “We worked hard to understand this kind of racing, fuel consumption and strategies. It’s a pleasure to bring the DXC Chevrolet into Victory Lane this year.”
After qualifying toward the rear of the 31-car field and avoiding a first-lap crash involving midfield cars, Pagenaud went to Option B, which was to save fuel and conserve the Firestone tires.
“The goal was to stay out of trouble. We avoided the crash and I thought I’ll just stay back there and see what we can do,” he said. “Then, when I started doing that, we started saving a lot of fuel and realized there was that strategy lurking. But we had some good pace as well saving fuel.”
McLaughlin, a two-time champion in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship for Team Penske, won the second INDYCAR iRacing Challenge at Barber Motorsports Park last week.
Earnhardt started 18th in the No. 3 Nationwide JR Motorsports Chevrolet and pitted on Lap 3, which also set up the career Chevrolet driver to employ a fuel-saving strategy. With 15 laps left, Earnhardt was running 10th and gained positions when competitors were forced to pit for a splash of fuel.
“We got a little damage on that wreck at the start of the race. I had a really bad push in the car so I couldn’t really run with the lead pack, but it was fun,” said Earnhardt, who was a two-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at Michigan International Speedway.
Earnhardt said driving in a virtual race against NTT IndyCar Series regulars will “be as close as I get to the real thing.”
“That’s why I like it; I can do it from the comfort of my own home. I don’t know if (wife) Amy would want me to get back in a race car much less an IndyCar. I had fun racing all those guys. A lot of those guys were ticked off about how the strategy worked out for them. That wreck on the front straightaway at the start sort of took a bunch of guys down pit road and put a bunch of in fuel-mileage mode. So, the fastest cars didn’t’ win.”
The next race in the series will be drivers’ choice. If it’s an oval, Earnhardt said he’s in.
“I really appreciated the invite and I think I need to do a better account of myself as far as just showing pure speed. I just wasn’t able to show it today, but we had a pretty good car in practice and had good speed in all the practices. I felt really confident going into the race, but just wasn’t able to show what we could do. Just maybe it might be Daytona, it might be Indy. I never imagined racing against the real drivers in IndyCar at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What a great trip that would be for me.”
Team Penske’s Will Power, who traded the lead with Sage Karam through the first half of the race, finished fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Both Power and Karam, driving the No. 24 DRR Wix Filters Chevrolet, were among the competitors who had to roll down pit lane for fuel late with 15 laps left. Ed Carpenter, driving the No. 21 SONAX Chevrolet, finished ninth.
Karam won the series opener on the Watkins Glen International road course. Drivers in the six-round virtual series use identical car setups provided by iRacing.
DRIVER QUOTESSCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 2 SNAP-ON TEAM PENSKE: “probably for me the biggest thing to get used to was the spotter with T.J. I actually have T.J.’s spotter pack in iRacing, now it’s a computer generated call. It’s not quite accurate. This is the first time where I’ve actually had a human genuinely telling me where the cars were, the runs. Getting used to that, the constant talk, how much chatter I wanted was interesting, I really enjoyed it all week. I’m glad I did it a few practice races to get used to oval stuff, how hard some people race, how hard some people didn’t. In the end, obviously been on my roof, on my lid on the first start wasn’t good, but thankfully had a fast repair, we were all granted one of those. I was able to repair my car and get back out. Became a strategy to the end in saving fuel. I think me and Dale did very similar strategies all the way to the end, as well as Simon.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DRR WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET: “We had a great day. Led a bunch of laps. It was fun. We knew it was going to be a crap shoot with fuel strategy. For the 2nd straight race, it was fuel affair. It’s all good. This is all about having fun for the drivers and fans. They knew we were here today. I was racing with Will (Power) late in the race in a effort to get to the front. And traffic got up with us and I spun. We kind of knew it would be a wild race on an oval. That first crash helping some guys with pit stops and it hurt us. But our pit stops were fast today. We picked up time over the other guys.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET: “I had a lot of fun in my first iRacing event of the INDYCAR Challenge. I’ve spent the last four days working really hard with our engineers and Felipe (Nasr) getting up to speed and I felt like I was getting pretty quick at it. We had a decent qualifying and were ready to go on the green, but annoyingly there was a massive pile up before the green that we got collected in. In iRacing you thankfully can repair the damages to your car, but apparently we had some damage to the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet that couldn’t be repaired and we ended up having to spend the entire race with a car that was never 100%. It’s amazing what can be done with these types of games and I thought the graphics were great and we put on a really nice show for the fans. We’ll be putting in more time this week and will be even more prepared for next weekend’s race.”
FELIPE NASR, NO. 31 CARLIN CHEVROLET: “Today was so much fun; I had a great time on my first oval. Unfortunately our result today was completely on me. We qualified really well and got a spot on the second row (third) and we spent most of the race battling with Power and Karam for the lead, but I just came into the pit lane a little too hot on the pit entry and I think the grip level was quite a bit lower than what we were practicing with and I just lost it on pit lane. I think a lot of drivers got caught off guard by that to be honest. The first 40 laps were great and I had such a good time battling up in front, but it’s such a shame that my pit lane mistake took the No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet out of contention for a win or even a podium finish. I think we put on a good show for the fans and I want to thank everyone from the Carlin team for the effort they’ve put into the INDYCAR Challenge the last few weeks. The guys in the UK and the US were on it and I want to especially thank my engineer Steve who also spotted for me this weekend and did an incredible job. We did a lot of preparation heading into the weekend and I felt like we had a really good car that had a good shot, but it was completely my bad and I want to apologize to everyone on the team for that. Thankfully we have another race next weekend to prepare for and hopefully we’ll keep moving up and get a good result for Carlin.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Big crash on the first lap and that put us behind right away. We couldn’t save fuel, I ran on my own the entire time. We finished this time and I’m glad we got to do the whole race. Good day for us, despite the results. I think we entertained the fans a lot.”
DALTON KELLETT, NO. 41 K-LINE INSULATORS AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “We knew this race was going to be wild but I honestly didn’t expect it to start before the green flag. I am happy that I was able to weave the K-Line Insulators USA No. 41 Chevrolet through that chaos. In the end, running a two-stop strategy hurt us, we needed a splash with six to go and came out 16th. Thanks to everyone who tuned in on the broadcast and live streams. See you all next week.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “We were a casualty of the software. We were told to pit just before the green flag, we did, got serviced and the pits were open but we got held for 40 seconds. So we were almost a lap down as the race was starting which we never really recovered from because there was never a yellow flag. Pretty disappointed for the whole team but we were running strong after that. Got another penalty for 15 seconds on the last fuel stop and not quite sure about why that happened. Tried to play the fuel game but never got that lucky yellow so we’ll keep trying and see you next weekend.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 XPEL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “ “Not the way we wanted to end the day in XPEL No. 1, but I had a ton of fun running at Michigan and I’m happy Team Penske could bring home the win. Congrats to Simon and the 22 team! I still have a lot to learn about this whole sim racing program but I’m excited to get back to work and figure it all out!” WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ““P4 today for the Verizon Chevy. We qualified at the front and led most of the race going back-and-forth with Sage Karam which was a lot of fun. All the guys who crashed at the start got to fuel up and Simon (Pagenaud) and others saved that won them the race. I guess I won being the first on my strategy which is two weeks in-a-row I’ve been beaten on strategy, but that means we are going to have a win here soon. But I’m having a lot of fun with this and see what happens next week.” 
An interview with podium finishers Simon Pagenaud, Scott McLaughlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.:THE MODERATOR: Wasn’t that refreshing to see IndyCars back at Michigan International Speedway after a long wait. I think as Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy mentioned on the broadcast, after viewing some of the practice race, we were expecting a pretty entertaining race. It was an unfortunate start, but a terrific finish.There was so much happening in the race that made it very entertaining for the first oval in this iRacing INDYCAR Challenge. It was a Chevrolet that won the race. It was a very good day for Team Penske.We’re going to start with the driver of the No. 2 Snap-on Tools Dallara, Scott McLaughlin. If there was an official points tally, he would be the leader. We know, Scott, that your experience level in iRacing, you’re showing that whether it be on road courses or now on an oval. I know you’re getting used to having a spotter as well. Tell us about your day, your successful day.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, probably for me the biggest thing for me to get used to was the spotter with T.J. I actually have T.J.’s spotter pack in iRacing, now it’s a computer generated call. It’s not quite accurate.This is the first time where I’ve actually had a human genuinely telling me where the cars were, the runs. Getting used to that, the constant talk, how much chatter I wanted was interesting, I really enjoyed it all week.I’m glad I did it a few practice races to get used to oval stuff, how hard some people race, how hard some people didn’t. In the end, obviously been on my roof, on my lid on the first start wasn’t good, but thankfully had a fast repair, we were all granted one of those. I was able to repair my car and get back out. Became a strategy to the end in saving fuel. I think me and Dale did very similar strategies all the way to the end, as well as Simon.THE MODERATOR: There was a lot of prerace discussions about ‘the big one’. We weren’t expecting that to come coming to green. How was the general conduct of your peers? Everyone racing pretty sensibly?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: It’s funny, in the practice races everyone is crashing, stuff going on everywhere. When you get into the real thing, unbelievable, everyone was really good. I was in really clean air most of the race. I only raced sort of four or five cars, most of it with the strategy, how it all worked out.In the end, we were all trying to save a little bit of fuel there. The conduct was really good. I think everyone is getting use to the Internet racing side of things because it’s not exactly the same in regards to how close you can touch people, all that sort of stuff, pinch people down. It’s all getting used to that. It gives you a really good feel, I’m sure, of what it’s like in the real life thing.THE MODERATOR: To the third-place finisher, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the Nationwide Chevrolet under an INDYCAR entry, your first INDYCAR iRacing Challenge, Junior. You got on your first INDYCAR podium. How about that?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: There was a lot of luck involved. The start of the race was a little bit odd. We’d been starting much quicker much earlier off of turn four in our practice races. I think the rest of the field behind the leaders were anticipating going around that same area.The leaders chose to roll a little closer to the start/finish line. Everybody kind of got banged up there, accordion-ed into each other. Someone ran into the back of me. We wanted to save our quick fix that would repair all the damage on the car because I was anticipating a lot more yellows. With the damage we had, the car would burn the right front tire really quickly, so we didn’t have the pace that we had in the practices to run with the leaders.We did pit. I didn’t even know that we had fell into the strategy on fuel that we had. That kind of became apparent as we started to think about taking our first pit stop. I was like, Let’s split the race in half. We ended up running out the gas as we crossed the finish line, getting the checkered. Ended up frustrating some guys because their strategy didn’t work out well in the fastest car, the best sim racers didn’t finish where they should have.I had a good time. I was really thankful to be invited. Really appreciated the opportunity to be a part of this. I really became a huge fan of the series, even more of a fan of the series last year when I went to the Indy 500.The guys, it’s fun to get to know them. They all have such wild personalities, different personalities. So much complexity to the stars in that series. It’s kind of fun getting to know who they really are.I think in sim racing, much like any kind of console gaming, PC gaming, whatever, that’s going to bring out your real personality, the good and the bad (laughter). It’s kind of fun to see some of those guys really kind of come out of their shell.THE MODERATOR: We have a lot of people on the line who will be keen to ask questions. We’re waiting for the race winner, Simon Pagenaud.Dale, a lot of guys who ran up front today were avid iRacers and sim racers. Do you think this really displays a new car for this platform when you try a different race like this?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I mean, if you were to put the best guys in the service in that race, they would destroy all of us. If you were to put some of the best customers or best drivers on the service in the NASCAR events, they would destroy all the NASCAR drivers. You can’t hold a candle to them because of their experience and the time they put into it.But you can see there is a wide variety of skill sets when it comes to the real world drivers. When you group them together, you see the guys have a lot of time on the sim that are smart and clever about how the sim reacts, how the tires fall off, how you can counter that. There’s other guys that have no idea what is about to happen. They just drive the car as hard as they can, burn it up.But the funny thing about it is, with all that said, I’ve seen this on the NASCAR side, I certainly think it’s got to be true on the INDYCAR side, is they adapt super fast. The guys that have never used the service, never drove the sim, not even gamers, really adapt so quickly because of how realistic I believe the platform is, the iRacing platform is. They pick up on it really quick.I mean, I kind of hate to step outside of the INDYCAR world, but we’ve been spending so much time with our Cup cars, all the Cup regulars. Kyle Busch, what a great example of a guy who had no clue of what he was doing, and now he’s guaranteed a top-10 finish, maybe top-five, and it shouldn’t be that way. It’s much more challenging than he makes it look. He puts so much time in.I can say the same thing with the INDYCAR guys. We’ve had a lot of time together this weekend, a lot of laps, a lot of practice, a lot of little test races and so forth, more so than I even see on the NASCAR side. There’s a lot more commitment for the drivers to put the laps in, put the time in, to be as good as they can so they can make the show as good as they can make it.There was a lot of people on social media that would love to see you try a real INDYCAR race at some point. Would you even consider a road course or a road course test in an INDYCAR?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: No, I probably wouldn’t. For the most part my driving days are over. I have a few events left in me. I don’t know how many of those Xfinity races I’ll be running beyond this year.For me, I mean, I guess it’s okay to be honest. This is a dream come true, to have all the real world guys on the computer. That’s where I’ve been for two decades. This is awesome to have all these guys, whether they all 100% really loved and wanted to be there, it’s awesome that they’re all competing and we’re having these races broadcast on network television in front of so many people.The reaction generally from the population and public is, Man, I’d love to have the real thing, but this is pretty good. I’ll watch this till we get the real thing back.I’m loving it. This is awesome. Dream come true. I never would have imagined this would happen in a million years, for there to be legitimate, in my mind, as far as sim racing goes, in that community and that bubble, legitimate racing with real world drivers. It’s pretty impressive.
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our race winner, Simon Pagenaud.SIMON PAGENAUD: It was an awesome day. I’m just as excited as I would be for a race win. Winning is everything.Simon and Scott, you experienced racing with Dale Jr., what does it say that you are competing not just with your fellow INDYCAR base but also drivers from different disciplines?SIMON PAGENAUD: I was just talking to Dale earlier. First of all it’s really awesome to see him join us because he’s such a big name in racing. He can reach to so many more people than we do because he’s been racing for so many years at such high level. It’s pretty amazing to see the humility he has to come and race a series he doesn’t know, a car he doesn’t know.I know he’s been doing a lot of iRacing, but still what he did today is pretty amazing. I just really like him. I’m a big fan of him and his dad. I was of his dad. I’m just very happy that he joined us. I hope he can do more in the future because I think he’s having fun. I’m personally having a lot of fun racing him. It’s amazing to get to race your heroes.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: For me it was the same thing as what Simon just said. I think it’s really cool to race people like Dale, like Jimmie Johnson, like people I’ve watched for many years in Australia. For me it’s really cool. For me to race against the INDYCAR guys is even a better treat for me, to learn how everyone races, who is aggressive, who is not aggressive, it’s quite interesting.Dale, in the Cup Series you had a couple wins that snapped some stretches where you weren’t doing too well. Were you drawing on what you were able to do in NASCAR in today’s INDYCAR event even though it’s sim racing?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: My approach to the race today was, like Simon said, even though I’ve been on the service a lot, all the cars have such unique characteristics, I didn’t have much time in the INDYCAR. I was trying to find the challenges with the car and understand them as fast as I could, how the car works, how it likes to be driven for tire degradation and all those things. The sim is so realistic, sometimes too realistic.Also there tended to be some pack racing. Practices were pretty wild. Like Simon said about being excited for the win, they had the same emotions as they would in the real car. They get as angered as easily, they get a thrill out of sim racing if it goes well. I’ve had that same experience on the oval side.You know all those guys are there to do well. They got partners, cars that they want to put toward the front of the field so their sponsors are happy because this is really all the sponsors can attain right now when it comes to exposure, engagement. A lot of pressure on these drivers.I was just trying to ease in there and not ruin anybody’s day but also have a reasonable finish that I could be proud of.Scott, being so successful in sim racing in multiple series, talk about what you’ve been able to do. If you had to pinpoint one thing that’s made you successful in this, what has exactly that been?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Probably for me a lot of hard work. In some ways I’ve really worked hard on my setup and my understanding of the setup in the Supercar and the tracks. Certainly haven’t driven a Supercar in Monza before, so that was good to learn.Obviously this week I’ve got up twice now, this is my third time getting up at 4, 5 a.m. in the morning for the practice races to learn the draft, what it was like with group practices.With the fixed setup races, I enjoy it because everybody is in the same boat. You can’t do much about it. It’s all about how you understand the tire, how it heats up, how it goes across the run. I guess just a little bit of effort, yeah, sacrificing my sleep, getting around it.Simon, you talked about how hectic it was having so many people in your ear. Was it more difficult to win today or winning the Indy 500?SIMON PAGENAUD: Very different feeling, for sure. Very different situation. At the 500 we went all out and tried to take control. We had the fastest car, so we just wanted to control the race. I ended up being in the same situation with fuel on the other side, we were a bit short on fuel and we had to save.But today the strategy, we didn’t qualify so well. I didn’t understand how to run the best line to get speed out of the car. Maybe I didn’t practice enough qualifying runs.But I knew in race pace I was going to be good. Like Dale said, it was so hectic throughout the week in practices that I decided to just actually hang with Dale because he has so much experience in this kind of racing in general. We figured out that we were actually saving fuel and tires really well. It helped us to do only one stop.At the end I was a bit stressed out, I must say. I was very stressed because I don’t feel as much in control. My engineer, Ben Bretzman, who is my usual engineer, was telling me the fuel code, the fuel level, how much to save fuel, that I was fine. He was telling me basically not to race people around me, which is very difficult. It’s a very different space awareness. That’s what I’m struggling with the most.But, yeah, today was a very stressful day, very intense, very intense.Dale, you said you ran out of fuel, crossed the line. Did you know how low that fuel was? Were you planning that the last few laps? Is that how it worked out?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: That’s how it worked out. I was playing with the fuel in the last run. If I ran any harder than I was running, I was going to be short. Even as we got the white, I couldn’t change what I was doing with the throttle to be able to get back to the checkered.There was no point, I wasn’t going to catch Scott. His car was working pretty good. He did a great job not only saving his fuel but keeping his tires good, keeping the right front on his car.When he took off, I might have tried for a corner or two to see if I could keep up with him, but I was going to run out of fuel so there was no point.You said you were trying to save your fast repair in case something else came up. Was that hurting you on the speed or the handling of your car?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I think a little bit of both, but mainly the right front. The car was real tight. The back end was broke. When we had the crash on the front straightaway, I slowed down and I kind of stopped. But somebody came from behind and slid into the back of the car. We had some damage there.It would just push the right front off real easy. I don’t know if it was hurting the speed, the power, but definitely as the car got deeper and deeper into the run, it started to kind of act like a chair that had a short leg. It was very funky how it was driving.I was waiting on that quick fix. I was expecting to have multiple yellows. The way the practice sessions had been going, we were all on top of each other, having a lot of accidents. Turned out to be a fuel mileage race.Dale, what were you first impressions with your first INDYCAR race? What do you think your dad would think that you decided to do INDYCAR racing?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I think he’d certainly have a hard time with this, just the sim racing part of it I guess. That’s what we’re all watching on television, and everyone is enjoying it. You never know, he might have came around to be a big fan of it.For me driving the INDYCAR is just an opportunity to hang out with those guys, get to know Simon, Scott, all the rest of those guys better. It’s just fun for me to have the opportunity.As a fan you can only get so much access, the drivers do a great job of giving a lot. There’s only so far that you can really push that to get to know these guys. This is a bit behind closed doors, get to kind of see what their world is like.Being a driver in the NASCAR series, I got a real good idea how those guys are, their lifestyles, how they interact with each other. Certainly some similarities in the INDYCAR world.The fact that they’re from all over the world, where NASCAR it’s just basically guys from the United States, it’s a little smaller of a bubble, the INDYCAR personalities are just so complex and so different from each other. Really contrasting. That’s a lot of fun to hear them interact with each other.With the world and the country going through this crisis, how helpful is it or relieving to set time aside, have a routine to sim race for fans?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: It’s great. Just for a moment you get to forget about everything that’s going on out there. I promise you, during those laps, thinking about fuel, trying to figure out where we’re going to end up, you’re not thinking about all the sadness and frustration and troubles going on in the world around you.Hopefully that’s the same feeling that a lot of people get when they tune in and watch or races on NBCSN. For a minute things feel good. When it’s over you snap back into reality and have to start trying to stay healthy and keep up the regimen that you have to say healthy, wait for this thing to play itself out.Dale, obviously Amy, they would never find your remains if you said you were going to go INDYCAR racing full-time. What about next week? If you get the invite, are you going to go around next week?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: She just ended the first trimester for our second child. She has her good days and bad days. But I’m kind of committed to running the NASCAR stuff. There’s NASCAR stuff on both networks happening on the weekend and throughout the week.I believe I’m pushing my luck to add more racing to my schedule. As much as I would love to sit on the sim rig every single day, compete and Twitch stream and do all those things, I need to be a dad and help her at this particular time especially.I do badly want to race again with Scott and Simon and all the guys, even if it’s a road course, get out there and give it a go. Hopefully there will be opportunities for me to do that if not next weekend. I might need to take a little bit of a break. If not next weekend, I’d love to get another invite if they’re open to having me back.Simon, I have to know something. I heard this was your first full iRace.SIMON PAGENAUD: No, I’ve been on iRacing since 2008. I took a big break, maybe too long of a break. I’m certainly readjusting a lot.When was your first race back after the break?SIMON PAGENAUD: Watkins Glen was my first race back in a while. Especially at this level, it’s taking me time to train. I’m training five hours minimum a day right now. I want to be competitive. That’s my nature. I want to win races. When INDYCAR announced this official racing, I wanted to be myself and I wanted to go out there and do the best I could.Winning is the most satisfying thing that I know. Being able to do what we did today to me is why I train so hard, it’s why I do this.Scott, you were all set to make your INDYCAR debut with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in May. With that being changed, I imagine everything is up in the air. How much is your participation in this really increasing your desire and hope to get back in an IndyCar and possibly come over full-time?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, I just appreciate Team Penske allowing me to jump in an INDYCAR, jump in the INDYCAR Challenge. It’s been fun. I’m taking it onboard and learning. I’m learning some tracks I’ve never been to before in real life. For instance, Barber last week, Michigan as a speedway, learning the oval side.Look, for me right now it’s a wait-and-see type thing. Obviously the Indy GP is put off. It’s a matter of waiting and seeing what goes on with border controls and travel restrictions, all that sort of stuff.It’s all good. Just have to keep doing what I can do. I’m focused on keeping myself fit, like Simon said, making sure I’m ready whenever the call comes. We’ll see how we go.Simon, it’s obvious you’re all in on this deal, wearing your driver’s suit. When will we see a virtual Norman package?SIMON PAGENAUD: Norman comes at the end of every race to give me kisses. He was very excited today like he can be when I win a race.The biggest thing about the race suit is my fellow drivers, they think I sleep in my race suit. I just wanted to show that I do sleep in my race suit.I also wanted to give some love to DXC. In these tough times, our sponsors are there for us. DXC Technology has been a phenomenal partner. We transitioned from HPE to DXE. I’ve had lot of good luck with that car. I love these guys. End of the day it’s a relationship and we work really hard on it with Team Penske. I just felt like wearing the race suit was probably the best way to represent them. 

NTT IndyCar Series News ConferenceSage KaramNo. 24 Wix Filters ChevroletConor DalyNo. 20 U.S. Air Force ChevroletDale Earnhardt Jr.No. 3 Nationwide JR Motorsports Chevrolet THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everyone, to today’s INDYCAR iRacing Challenge videoconference. My name is Kate Davis. I work at INDYCAR. I’m the director of communications. Today we’re joined by three athletes competing in this weekend’s Chevrolet 275 from virtual Michigan International Speedway: Sage Karam, driver of the No. 24 Wix Filters Chevrolet; Conor Daly, driver of the No. 20 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet; and Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 3 Nationwide JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us today. I’ll kick it off with a question for each of you and then we’ll open it up to the media on the line. Sage is our resident INDYCAR iRacing expert. You won our week 1 race, but you’re too young to have raced at Michigan, but you did race at Auto Club Speedway, which is quite similar. What should fans expect this weekend? SAGE KARAM: I think from yesterday’s race running we did, I think it’s going to be a pack race kind of feel, kind of like Fontana was in 2015. But it’s going to be exciting, that’s for sure. I just think we need to stay off of each other, and we should be all right. I think once it comes race time, I think it’ll be a bit better. I think the guys will then know that the race is on the line and stuff like that. It’s just kind of the same thing that’s happened the last couple events. I think when we’re doing these practice runs and stuff, we just kind of go out there, have a little bit more fun, and then when the race comes we turn it down 5 percent or whatever we need to to get through it all. But no, it’ll be cool. I think you’ll see like in the beginning of stints when the tires are fresh and good, you’ll see a lot of like three-wide action, and then as the stint goes on, the tires will start to wear a bit, guys will start battling some understeer, and I think you’ll see guys more single file and it spread out a little bit. But we’re going to do another practice race with everybody today to see if we can work with some new weather settings and stuff to maybe make it a bit easier for us to race and stay off each other a little bit. THE MODERATOR: Conor, we know you’re a big gamer, but up until recently you had not been a big iRacing guy. But in the NTT INDYCAR Series you typically have success at ovals. How has practice been going this week for you, and what should we expect from you this weekend? CONOR DALY: Thank you. It’s been fun, honestly. Michigan was actually the first track that we got on when this whole iRacing INDYCAR challenge was set up. They had Michigan and Watkins Glen as two practice sessions because we didn’t really know what our first race was at the time. And we got on there, and it’s been a lot of fun, honestly. Like the racing there, the track being so wide, so many different lanes you can use, and just yesterday the practice race, honestly I was really impressed with all of us. I thought it was going to be a lot more chaotic than it was, and the racing is crazy. Like it’s very close. There was a lot of overtaking, but there was also — it thinned out a little bit at times. Pitting for tires was super important. And you know, I don’t know, I thought it was a lot of fun. We ended up fighting up at the front for once. I know everyone is probably really surprised about that, but battling with Scott McLachlan for the lead, a lot of fun. So we hope to do that again. But even if we’re 28th, I’m still probably going to have a great time. That’s what Michigan is all about, I think, and that’s what this weekend is going to be all about. THE MODERATOR: All right, last but certainly not least, let’s welcome Dale Jr. who’s joining us. You’re the only driver here that has actually raced at Michigan International Speedway, obviously not in an INDYCAR but in a NASCAR. You have two wins in both the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series. How is practice going for you? I know you were a late entry this week. How excited are you to be participating this weekend? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Practice was a lot of fun, and I don’t have any time in the car on the simulator. I’ve been on iRacing for a couple decades, but I haven’t put much time on the INDYCAR, and obviously have no real-world experience, so there’s a lot of learning and trying to understand why the car reacts the way it does and what creates those issues because some of them are realistic and some of them may be because of the sim or the tire model of the sim. Just trying to understand how to stay out of trouble. Keep yourself out of trouble was what yesterday’s practice was about, and I’m looking forward to today, practicing some more with these guys. I had such a great time when I went to the Indy 500 last year and I have so much respect for the guys that are in the field and the guys that we’ll be practicing with and racing with this weekend. It’s kind of fun for me to get to know their personalities a little bit and how they interact with each other was really fun yesterday during practice. I was just kind of sitting there listening to everybody go back and forth with each other, and it’s kind of funny. I kind of understand that camaraderie and the back and forth that they have is really similar to what we have in the Cup Series, and they’re all racers, you know, so it was — you know, I just hope that I can stay out of trouble, and that’s going to be the main thing early. There’s two kind of trains of thought there, that you can go real hard and try to keep yourself toward the front if you can because there’ll hopefully not be a lot of trouble up there, or if you’re not able to do that, you’ve got to hope that you don’t get caught up in anything going on in the middle or back of the back which is definitely probably going to have some action. That’s what iRacing is all about, just trying to know when to stay out of trouble and then when to push. The tires are going to fall off a little bit. The car gets real, real tight in some circumstances that’s real challenging for everybody in the pack, and just knowing how to keep yourself out of trouble is the main thing. Q. Conor and Sage, what, if any, attention has this brought you? Can this platform raise your visibility, and has it led to sponsorship either for iRacing or start of discussions on real-world opportunities?CONOR DALY: Well, I guess I’ll start. We didn’t really know what to expect from it at first. Obviously we have this incredible looking U.S. Air Force car, and we want to put it out on the internet because they’ve committed to us in real life and they’re willing to invest in me and our sport, and obviously in this difficult time in the world right now, we’ve got to give them as much as possible for being willing to commit to us in the first place. I think we are honestly still in the early stages of figuring out how to make this work as good as we can. The Twitch stuff is really kind of funny for me. I just did it two years ago just for fun because I play a lot of Call of Duty, and I play games, and I think sometimes we might say hilarious things, and I know Colton Herta and I play a lot, and some of the other guys, we’ve played a lot. We’ve played some Forza Motorsport, as well. It just gives you something — it’s all about building your brand, and if you have four different areas where your brand can build, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, that’s more than, I guess, you’re used to with just the Facebook or Twitter or even Instagram. To add a fourth element to that, maybe I continue to develop a YouTube channel, as well, who knows. There’s stuff that I think you’ll end up doing during this time that will no matter what help you in the long run, and that’s just what we’re trying to do is when we do go back to racing. Maybe we’ve built a bigger fan base, we’ve built a bigger brand for our sponsors and the people that do support us. SAGE KARAM: Yeah, I agree with Conor. Just another point about the Twitch thing, the fans can see our reactions to certain events that take place, where before when we’re inside the cars and stuff, they don’t really get to see those things and hear what we say, and whether it’s good or bad things, I think the fans like to make that first-person connection with us and seeing how we go about it. It’s pretty interesting, you see different drivers, how they’re handling these situations and stuff, and it’s pretty cool. I mean, I’ll be the first to admit, I watch Conor’s stream all the time because it’s pretty funny when he’s streaming these races, he gets on it pretty good with some jokes and stuff and he’s always entertaining to watch. It’s cool to see the personalities of some of these guys while they’re racing. Q. Dale, greetings from another neighbor in Mooresville. You never had a chance to drive an INDYCAR in your career, so in a lot of ways this is a little bit new. You were a master of the draft in a stock car. How is drafting different in these cars at Michigan in the virtual world than maybe the way the car is handled in your world in NASCAR?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, there’s one thing, where two wide was pretty common all day long at Daytona and Talladega in a Cup car, three wide seems to be real common in the INDYCAR. Not only are you worried about the guy beside you, whichever side he’s on, and the run you’re trying to create off the car in front of him, the run the guys have behind you, but most of the time you might have two guys beside you, you get boxed in real easy, and then when the car produces the runs, you don’t have something to do with it, you don’t have a place to go, and you have to make that decision for yourself to not take it, and that’s the hard thing to do but probably the best thing to do in a lot of situations is just to wait for another opportunity, another lap, another run. Hopefully I have enough patience to do that. I definitely don’t want to be the one to start any crashes. I’m the new guy. It definitely is — I’m a fish out of water, and just being able to shift gears and have gear selection while you’re drafting and trying to understand how to produce opportunities using that is really foreign to me, so I’m learning on the fly. All these guys have been really helpful, the ones I’ve reached out to have been very supportive, and it’s a good group. Q. And also when Harding Racing started a couple years ago, they chose No. 88 as a tribute to you. How excited or impressed were you when you heard that? And also Conor Daly is an alumni of a guy that’s driven that No. 88 in INDYCAR.DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I wasn’t sure if that was really a tribute to me or they just liked the font. Either way, I know the guy over the team or owns the team was a fan, I suppose, but I loved it. I thought it was beautiful. It’s a good-looking number and looks good on that race car. Looks good on their race car, and they’ve been able to develop that team and improve that team and it’s great to see the success that they’ve been able to have. I love seeing it out there. Q. And finally, bringing some more of your fans maybe to tune in tomorrow to maybe see INDYCAR for the first time, how important is that?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well I think these guys have such great personalities, and they’re even more diverse than what we have in NASCAR because they’re from all over the world. I think that that’s the real value in the series is the drivers and their personalities and who they are, and so I’m “fan boying” myself just being out there hearing them talk, hearing them interact with each other, getting to know them better. I’ve got a few friends in the series but certainly want to know the other guys and get to know the rest of them really well, so this is such a great opportunity for me to do that, and I think the fans are really going to appreciate getting the opportunity to see them on the racetrack, on the virtual racetrack throughout this break, to get to know them even more. Q. Dale, you mentioned you have a handful of friends in the INDYCAR Series. I’d be interested to know who are some of the guys you’ve looked to for some help getting adjusted to the car this week, whether it was Jimmie who I know has raced the last two weeks and isn’t going to be racing this week?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, I reached out to Jimmie just to get temperature, get an understanding of his experience so far. But I have some guys in the iRacing service, customers that use the car a little bit to offer some advice. Rahal is a good buddy of mine. We’ve interacted over the last several years on a pretty regular basis. And Marco and me became pals over the last couple years. Simon — you know, when I went — Simon was on the podcast. Mr. Penske is going to be on the podcast Monday. I don’t even know if we’ve announced that yet. I just had such a great opportunity, like I said, when I went there to the Indy 500, being in a NASCAR, being a NASCAR driver for all these years, there’s just no opportunities to go to these races. To actually be at the Indy 500 for the first time, my first INDYCAR race, to meet and interact with some of the drivers was a real treat for me and really got to see the series and the value in it and enjoy it. I’ve met Conor a few times, great guy, going to ask him for some twitch advice here because I’m starting to try to figure out how to get Twitch going on my end, overlays and all that good stuff. So you know, it’s an opportunity to sort of connect with some of these people and create some friendships. Q. You talked a little bit already about some of the intricacies with drafting, running three wide through some of the practicing that you’ve done thus far. Is there any one thing for you that’s been the hardest thing to adjust to or get the feel to jumping over from a Cup car sim to an INDYCAR this week?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, the way they had the aero modeled in the INDYCAR on iRacing, it’s tough for me to understand what of that is realistic and what of that is exaggerated or whatever because the car will get real tight sometimes and I’m not quite — I haven’t quite really figured out why that happens and how to try to prevent that the best I can, whether it’s how I’m positioned behind the car in front of me, if I need to offset my car to that car some way, somehow, but sometimes the car just takes off, gets real tight off of Turn 2 particularly, and trying to — I think that’s really going to be the thing I’m most worried about right now is trying to understand that and trying to avoid that. Sometimes the car gets runs, gets — you’re able to just take off and get a run in the draft, and again, I’m not sure — I want to know why. I want to know why, what produced that run and created that car to take off like that, because I want to be able to do it every time all the time. Just trying to figure out what’s going on there. I have zero real-world experience in the car, so I don’t know what’s real and what’s not, what’s real and what’s iRacing. So I’m just trying to learn as fast as I can. THE MODERATOR: Conor, Sage, you want to tell him? CONOR DALY: No, because I have no idea. DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I don’t know if he’s telling me the truth. Q. Conor, you talked about having fun and talked about building a bigger brand through this on Twitch, and yet it’s been seen on the NASCAR side that interactions in iRacing can still have business and sponsor implications. How much fun can you have when knowing everything can still be dissected by sponsors, and how much of this is business versus fun?CONOR DALY: That’s a great point. I think that was really interesting obviously after the NASCAR race with what happened with Bubba. I mean, it’s not like we’re getting on the internet and going into like crazy mode. Yes, we’re getting emotional and we’re shouting at people sometimes, but only Will Power is the only one really insulting people, so I don’t really know what else is going on. We’re just all kind of having a great time. But it’s just one of those things where, yes, is it a business? Absolutely. Like we’re still — we are still wearing our sponsors, we’re still — we can’t necessarily go out there and go super crazy. But yeah, you are going to get more emotional drivers or let’s say emotionally reactive drivers on the internet when you don’t — like certainly Alex Rossi and Colton Herta in my discord, you can’t see their faces. They don’t know they’re on camera or being recorded or whatever, so it’s harder to kind of police yourself in that sense. But you know, I think in the end, if you don’t understand that, again, this is — we are trying to entertain people, like this isn’t something that — I don’t think anyone is going to get a job in a real race car after the iRacing INDYCAR Challenge, and I don’t think for sure anyone is going to lose their job because of what they do on the iRacing INDYCAR Challenge, so you’ve just got to remember that, hey, like — even me, I’m guilty — like I said literally yesterday in the practice race, I’m trying to have a great time, I’m having fun. I got so angry that I got wrecked on the last lap. I was curious. I left the discord, I haven’t talked to Colton Herta in 24 hours, I’ve been so mad at him, and honestly, I don’t know why. Like I shouldn’t be angry. But it was fun because you’re racing for the lead and we are competitors. We want to win this stuff. You’ve got to just compartmentalize a few different emotions when the camera is rolling, and then yeah, hopefully come out the other side still with your job and all your sponsors. Q. What does this do for maybe your brand if you think about that like compared to maybe running the Chili Bowl?CONOR DALY: Well, the Chili Bowl, I think that’s, again, diversifying your portfolio. You’re going to do something different, something out of your comfort zone. Simulator racing is out of my comfort zone, as well. But here we are. And I don’t really mind. I think I’m happy enough with what I can do in an INDYCAR and what we have the potential opportunity to do this year with Ed Carpenter Racing and Carlin this year to where I can go and do that and enjoy it and also might it go well? No. Might it go like — might it go great at some point? Yeah, that would be awesome. But yeah, just trying to learn different things and just trying to do as much as I can because you’re only young — I’m going to still call myself young, but you’re only young once, so I’m going to try and live it up a little bit. Q. Dale, I’m just kind of curious, INDYCAR is kind of its own little community, and NASCAR is kind of also its own little community. How much curiosity is there amongst the NASCAR drivers, what’s going on in INDYCAR and vice versa? Obviously we’ve seen Jimmie try the iRacing a little bit, you’re going to be a part of this. There’s got to be some I would think.DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Oh, yeah, absolutely. There’s a ton. I think if you’re a race car driver, you certainly — you’re watching other forms of motorsport and you’re obviously curious as to how those cars drive and what they feel like and what the drivers are dealing with, are the cars comfortable, uncomfortable, how are they reacting to air and so forth. I’m certain that all of the NASCAR drivers would really love to get that opportunity to understand everything there is about driving the INDYCAR, and I’m sure that the INDYCAR guys feel the same way about driving a stock car. You see that curiosity — I’m going to tell you right now, doing the double is not easy. People talk about doing the double and how cool that is. It is cool, but it is really, really hard because you’re committing yourself to the entire month at INDYCAR and then you’ve got the — you’ve got all the month of racing on the weekend in stock car and you’re back and forth to meetings and trying to switch between profiles of how you approach the INDYCAR versus you driving the Cup car, and the fact that guys still do it with as much challenge as there is logistically and just trying to run well, the fact that guys are still trying to do that shows you that the curiosity is certainly there and people are trying to make it reality. Q. For you, there’s no other way for you to be a part of anything INDYCAR when it comes to being in the cockpit than the circumstances we all are dealing with right now, so in a weird kind of way, it’s kind of cool — maybe that’s not the right word —DALE EARNHARDT JR.: No, it is. It’s cool. I love it. I might have been crazy enough to take up an offer to run INDYCAR in my 20s or maybe my early 30s, but I didn’t have the guts for it. As I got toward my 40s I certainly don’t have the balls for it today, but when I was — when I heard that there might be an opportunity for me to get out there on a simulator — I mean, I’m comfortable in the sim. I’ve spent a lot of time racing online, so I feel like I can hold my own with most of the customer base on there, and these are real-world guys. It’s just such an honor, I guess, to be out there and on the track with them. I never would interact with them any other way, you know. I probably hardly know any of them, so it’s really cool to be able to be out there and just having fun. This is all really a lot of fun. There are some implications, and there are some business components to it, but for me it’s a great opportunity to showcase Nationwide as a partner of mine that they’ve been a partner for a really long time, but it is also an opportunity to kind of wade in this pool and have some fun with these guys. Q. Dale, once racing returns to normal, do you think sim racing will kind of be a way for retired drivers such as yourself to keep racing competitively and then maybe even current drivers to keep racing during the off-season?DALE EARNHARDT JR.: You know, I don’t know what will happen once everybody goes back to racing in real life. Drivers are going to be so busy with that job that they’re not going to have a lot of time to devote to any kind of a schedule on sim racing. Sim racing is, for everyone, for the most part, sim racing is just a way to go in there and blow off some steam and have some fun at any time you want. When it starts to become something that’s a bit scheduled, it loses a little bit of that sort of fun in the instance of just jumping in there and having fun and jumping on the surface and going at it. But you know, so I think when these guys go back to their real jobs, they’re going to be so focused on that. A lot of them are going to park the simulator, probably never use it again, but some of them are avid users of the service and will continue just to have some fun on there and enjoy it the way they always did. I don’t know that we’ll ever see — and we might, I could be wrong. I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t know that we’ll ever see an official series with real-world racers that continues. That’s managed by the organization bodies like INDYCAR or NASCAR. Q. Sage, you obviously have a ton of experience on the sim; what makes iRacing better than other games such as rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa, stuff like that?SAGE KARAM: I guess I just never really drove them all that much. I’ve been on iRacing since 2007, so like when it was in beta mode. So I’ve been a part of it for a long time. It’s just kind of always been the one I feel like when you go talk about major sim programs, like it’s always the top one people talk about. I have all the other ones, but I’ve probably done like 10 laps on rFactor 2 and five laps on Assetto Corsa or whatever — I don’t even know what it’s called. So yeah, I don’t know. I’ve just been a part of iRacing for a while, and it’s cool to see the progression of it, just from even just a few years back when you’d have world championship races that iRacing had put together and everybody would be running those, and now like the amount of money that’s coming into sim racing, you look at the NASCAR world championship series presented by Coca-Cola, it’s a $300,000 prize pool, which is like pretty incredible for sim racers, and Porsche just put together a $250,000 or $200,000 prize pool for their championship, so the money is starting to get pretty huge in sim racing, and people are starting to make a living more so than honestly a lot of real race car drivers are getting paid. It’s pretty insane, the top guys. Conor is — I agree with Conor that no one is ever going to lose their drive by their performances on here. That’s 100 percent true. But I don’t agree with the fact that I think it can help you get in a ride because it can only help you running well and running up front, and I’ve already gotten calls from sponsors that have been past sponsors of mine, new sponsors that are wanting to get on board with this and are already talking to the team about what’s after this and how do we get on the real car and stuff because they’ve seen how exciting this is. So it can only happen. But like Conor said, it’s not going to hurt you. It’s just for a fun thing. But it’s been really cool to see how the racing world has embraced it, and like I said, it’s really cool to see how it’s growing. That’s why I’m so into it because I’m not a full time race car driver right now, I’m part time in the real thing, so it keeps me busy, and it’s something fun to — it’s something fun, but I also take it serious just because now it is starting to become — you can kind of make a living off of it now. I’m trying to get to that level, and it’s been a challenge, but it’s been fun. THE MODERATOR: All right, that’s going to conclude our video conference today. Thanks to Sage, Conor and Dale for joining us, and good luck in tomorrow’s Chevrolet 275. Please make sure that join us on NBCSN at 2:30 p.m. eastern. Thanks, everybody, and have a great rest of your Friday.

DELAWARE, Ohio (April 10) — Adjustments to the NHRA drag racing schedule yielded a big present for Super Comp dragster pilot Paige Coughlin, who earned the right to represent Division 3 at the next JEGS Allstars event, scheduled July 9-11 at Route 66 Dragway near Chicago. Coughlin, the daughter of three-time Pro Mod champion Troy Coughlin and granddaughter of Hall of Fame member Jeg Coughlin Sr., turned in an impressive streak of late-round finishes last season to earn the most points in her class in the North Central Division. With the Covid-19 pandemic erasing any early-season chances for anyone to make gains on her comfortable 21-point lead, Paige secured her place. “It’s an amazing opportunity for me to represent Division 3 at this year’s JEGS Allstars,” Paige said. “Having our family business as the title sponsor of the event and knowing the history my dad, uncles and brother have had in the past makes it really special for me to be involved. I’m going to do everything I can to help our division win the event. “I had a very consistent racecar last year and we were able to go deep at just about every race. It’s a real credit to my crew chief Justin Beaver, as well as Tony Collier, Greg Cody and everyone else from Team JEGS, who helped put this car together every weekend.” Paige will certainly be in elite company at the JEGS Allstars event, which takes place during the annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals. To be invited, participants must lead the points in one of 10 different Sportsman categories in each of the NHRA’s seven geographic regions. In all, close to 100 racers will be involved. She will compete for a portion of the $124,000 purse both as an individual racer and as part of the Division 3 squad. If she wins the Super Comp trophy in the JEGS Allstar race, Paige would pocket $4,500. A runner-up result would be worth $2,000. If her team outscores all the others, she’d share part of a $20,000 prize. If she wins both the JEGS Allstars race and the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, she’d be awarded a double-up bonus from JEGS High Performance. “You know you’re racing the absolute best of the best so every round will be intense,” Paige said. “I’m really excited. It’s just so cool to be involved, especially this early in my racing career. The support and love I get from my family made it happen, for sure. “I just can’t wait to go racing again. I go and look at my poor racecar sitting in the shop and it just doesn’t feel right. It’s like ‘Why aren’t we out there winning rounds,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ It’s going to feel so good to get back in the seat when all this is over. We were running so well before and I had such a blast last season. We’re more ready than we’ve ever been to start up again.” After learning the ropes in the Junior Dragster class, Paige started racing Super Comp in 2017 when she was still in high school. Now a sophomore at Miami University of Ohio, Paige schedules her races around a busy college schedule as she studies public relations and communications.

DELAWARE, Ohio (April 9) — When Jeg Coughlin Jr. clinched his fourth Pro Stock championship with a victory in the fall of 2008 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his most memorable reward was a thrilling flight with the United States Air Force Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron. “That was maybe the wildest thing I’ve ever done,” said Coughlin, who took the flight just two days after locking up the Pro Stock title. “Certainly, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and something most people can only dream of, but I must admit it was more than a little intimidating.  “When you see a fighter jet zoom by overhead, which happens every few minutes at the Vegas track with Nellis Air Force Base just across the way, it always makes you wonder what it would be like to be in the plane itself. It’s like, ‘Man I’d do anything to take that ride.’ But when the situation actually presents itself, it’s a different story.” Coughlin’s special day was orchestrated by Lt. Col. Brian “Bear” Lihani (USAF, Ret.), a longtime drag racing friend who for more than 20 years handled Air Defense Operations at NORAD.  “Our buddy Bear presented us with the opportunity earlier in the year and my initial reaction was, ‘Heck yeah, I’ll do that.'” Coughlin said. “About two months later I received a host of paperwork where you are basically signing your life away. That’s when reality sets in that this isn’t going to be without risk. It’s not the same as an amusement park ride where 99.999% of the people get off without any issues. “I put a lot of thought into it at that point. I mean, you know you’ll be flying with one of the best pilots in the world on a perfectly maintained airplane, but at the same time it’s a tad more risky than say a ride at Universal Studios. Ultimately, I couldn’t pass it up and I signed all the releases.” With the stress of the championship occupying most of his thoughts, Coughlin didn’t spend much time worrying about the ‘what-if’s’ until the Vegas race was over and the championship was in hand. “We celebrated a little bit Sunday night but knowing my flight was early Tuesday morning I had to quickly shift into the recommended preflight ritual they had suggested,” Coughlin said. “They want you to eat the right things, sufficiently hydrate and get a good night’s rest, as best as that can happen when you know you’re going for a ride with the Thunderbirds. “We needed to be at Nellis at 0600 Tuesday morning and I can tell you the nerves hit me pretty hard when we pulled in the gates. There was no backing out at that point.” Like other celebrities and select dignitaries who have flown with the world-renowned squadron, Coughlin had lots of preflight meetings and briefings to prepare him for the experience ahead. Jeg Coughlin and Major Tony “Split” Mulhare of the USAF Thunderbirds “The first stop was with an Air Force doctor who checked me out physically and had me sign my life away a few more times,” Coughlin said. “I then met with the incredible pilot I was paired with, Major Tony ‘Split’ Mulhare, who took me through the flight plan and what we were going to attempt. As you might expect, he was a great guy, very professional and confident. He eased my concerns. “You are then outfitted with a flight suit/G-suit and you practice the breathing techniques you need when the jet is pulling Gs. That gets you worried again. I didn’t want to be the guy that passed out or got sick but you just don’t know how you’ll handle it. There’s no way to prepare for those kind of G-forces.” After a last-minute bathroom break and some more fluid intake, it was time to roll and the full military precision of the entire Thunderbirds flight crew was soon on full display. “Everything they do is perfect,” Coughlin said. “Every movement is choreographed to the inch and you feel really special walking out to the taxiway with all those professionals doing their jobs so precisely. Of course, Tony just had this little stick ladder to climb into the cockpit and I had this big ol’ ladder but we were quickly strapped in and given a thumbs-up to go. “The first thing I noticed as I was getting situated was how small the jet seemed. I mean, you could barely see the wingtips. You’re used to being in commercial planes where there’s lots of space but those fighter jets are built differently, for sure.” In a flash, the plane was revved up and Major Mulhare pointed it to the runway. “You get that final thumbs-up from the ground crew and you’re off,” Coughlin said. “Brandon Bernstein had flown with the Thunderbirds and he told me the pilot was likely to go straight up as soon as we were airborne. He said remember to look over my shoulder and watch the city of Las Vegas shrinking to the size where it could fit into a glass. He was right. It happened very quickly. “We reached 10,000 feet in just a few seconds then leveled off and headed to the training grounds out in the desert. We did a full series of acrobatic maneuvers, smooth rollovers, eight-point rollovers, backflips, you name it. Then we got down on the deck, just a few feet off the ground, and buzzed this staged old pickup truck they had placed out there at 400-plus mph, blowing up dust the whole way. “At one point we did the big G-pull where you just know they’re trying to get you to pass out or lose your lunch but the pressurized G-suit and the breathing exercises I’d learned kept me alert and conscious. We maxed out at 9.3 Gs. It was quite a deal.” Burning up fuel, the duo were soon headed back to Nellis. “On the way in ‘Split’ took me right over The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway upside down and made note of our championship, congratulating the team,” Coughlin said. “It was a very cool moment. In hindsight, I probably got myself too worked up ahead of time and didn’t enjoy everything as much as I could have. Even so, it was a very special day, something I’ll never forget. “When we landed we taxied right into a hanger and they had set up our JEGS.com racecar right next to the lead Thunderbird jet and I think that might have been the most patriotic moment of my lifetime. It was incredible. The whole thing was incredible.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTAPRIL 9, 2020 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE spoke with media via teleconference and discussed the pause in the actual racing series, SIM racing in both NASCAR Cup and IndyCar, what his life has been like recently, home schooling, and more. Full Transcript: THE INDUSTRY HAD A REALLY FUN DAY YESTERDAY (4/8 JIMMIE JOHNSON DAY) OF REFLECTING ON YOUR CAREER IN SOME OF OUR FAVORITE MOMENTS. DID YOU HAVE ANY THAT REALLY BROUGHT BACK SOME GREAT MEMORIES?“There were so many amazing memories that came about yesterday, it would be impossible to pick just one. The range from drivers that I’ve built friendships and relationships with, use Tony Stewart as an example there, my teammates and the influence I’ve had on guys like William Byron and Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola when we were on baby watch and the doors that opened for him. The crew guys, the bicycle rides that we do on Saturdays, and really across the gamut, even moments I’ve had at tracks, it really was special for me and my family yesterday to click through on various social media platforms and see these experiences and memories and what people had to say, it was a special day.”
YOU HAVE A LOT OF IDLE TIME DURING THIS UNPLANNED BREAK. YOU ARE PRACTICING A LOT OF SIM RACING. HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY THOUGHT TO NEXT YEAR AND MAYBE DOING MORE NASCAR RACING OR POSTPONING YOUR RETIREMENT FROM CUP RACING BECAUSE YOU’VE HAD ALL THIS EXTRA TIME OFF?“I really don’t have any answer just yet because I don’t know what’s going to happen in the coming months and if we’ll be able to run the full season or not. I feel like I set out to make 2020 my last full time year, but I’ve always left the door open for other racing and NASCAR and abroad for the future and I feel like I’m still pretty much on that path. I am hopeful that we get our full year in and we can get that going here in a month or so or whatever the latest projected number possibly could be and I that can run the season in its entirety. I really don’t have an answer. It’s up in the air just as so much is in the world right now.”
IN THE MEANTIME, HOW ARE YOU LIKING HOME SCHOOLING, NASCAR SIM RACING AND INDYCAR SIM RACING?‘I thought I would have much more free time being at home with the world changing as it has, but at least the first couple of weeks where things tightened up and locked-down, have been so busy with work in the various businesses I’m involved with and the impact that this has had on all; and home schooling was thrown in the mix. Chandra has her gallery and the demands and workload that comes with that is another thing for us to focus on, especially for her to focus on, but more stress in the house and less free time around to help with home schooling. So, home schooling rocked our world but we’re a few weeks in now and have a much better flow going on and understand it all. It’s been a nice week this week, honestly. We’ve been able to balance things pretty well.”
WHEN RACING RESUMES, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE WEEK NIGHT RACING OR EVEN MAYBE MULTIPLE RACING AT ONE PARTICULAR TRACK JUST TO GET THE RACES OUT THERE? WHEN IT GETS BACK, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?“I really haven’t. I can only imagine the balancing act that NASCAR, TV, and these tracks will need to do. Every weekend that goes by just complicates that situation more and more. I feel like many of our contracts and much of the structure that exists revolves around 36 races. And I would assume that’s the highest priority is to have those 36 points-paying events. How that happens for me, I’m totally fluid. I’m totally open. I know we’re in unchartered territory here and I’ll do my part and whatever I can to certainly support whatever decisions are made to try to get in all 36 races.”
ARE YOU STILL INTO 48 NUMEROLOGY ON YOUR CLOCK? HAVE YOU EVER HAD A TIME LIKE THIS IN YOUR CAREER WHERE YOU’VE HAD THIS MUCH TIME TO THINK? HAVE YOU EVER HAD THAT?“Off-season would be similar in length. I guess we’re not quite through what that length of time would be. But, to have it be a beautiful Spring day and the opportunity to be in the yard with my kids and go on walks or bike rides like we’ve done to stay active; that is totally new and different. In my adult life, I don’t recall having Spring days on end at home with nothing to do (laughs) in a sense. It’s been plenty crazy. But it is different on that front. But, the length of time hasn’t exceeded what an off-season would be yet.”
WE SAW BUBBA WALLACE LOSE HIS SPONSOR THE OTHER DAY AND WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE IRACE. WE SAW FORD NOT ALLOW ITS DRIVERS TO DO A RACE BECAUSE IRACING’S ARCA CARS ARE ALL CHEVROLET BODIES. HOW MUCH OF THIS IS BUSINESS AND HOW MUCH BUSINESS WORK DO YOU AND YOUR TEAM NEED TO GET DONE BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN DO THESE THINGS?“I think the first race that was done in Atlanta was much less about the business. And then when the TV component came in, it switched to business, absolutely. There’s maybe not pressure from the sponsors, and it’s hard to say what every situation is like, but I can tell you what I feel in my own head is how do I show value for our partners and how to show value for our team and our company and everybody involved in this tricky time. So, I just feel like there is a pressure we’re all feeling if it’s self-inflicted or if its coming from the outside in, but we’re trying to figure out how to create value and how to deliver for our partners. It’s the environment and everybody handles it a bit differently.”
IS IT DIFFICULT FOR YOU IF YOU’RE AT YOUR HOME LIKE OH MY GOSH, THERE’S THIS OR THAT IN THE BACKGROUND THAT COULD CONFLICT. HOW MUCH OF THAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD AT A TIME WHEN IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE SOMETHING FUN?“From my entry point to it was the first race that was on television and I knew then and there that I had to treat it, just instinctively, that I had to treat it a certain way and I have. So, in my head, it’s been pretty straightforward, especially since it’s been on television, how things would go. And, ironically I find that I’m trying to find ways to make sure that I’m on the broadcast. I’m not fast enough in iRacing yet to run up front for the TV time (laughs), so trying to be an in-race reporter or a part of spectacular crashes seems to be the only way I find myself on television right now (laughs).
ON THE NASCAR HALL OF FAME LIST THAT CAME OUT EARLIER THIS WEEK AND IN PARTICULAR THE THREE NOMINEES THAT WERE ON THE MODERN ERA SIDE, DALE JR., CARL EDWARDS, AND JEFF BURTON. YOU COMPETED AGAINST ALL OF THEM. HOW DO YOU RATE THEIR CHANCES FOR INDUCTION, ESPECIALLY WITH THE NEW PROCESS THAT HAS NARROWED THE FIELD DOWN?“Honestly, I need a little schooling on the new process. I haven’t paid that close of attention to it. Are those the only three names on the New Era side?”
THOSE ARE THE THREE ADDED TO A LIST OF 10 MODERN ERA CANDIDATES. VOTERS PICK TWO FROM THAT LIST OF 10.“Okay, I see. I don’t know who the other seven are so it’s tough to rank them, but my experiences with them have been very intense. They’re all amazing drivers, and certainly have contributed tremendously to the sport. Without knowing those other seven, I’m out to lunch. Sorry.”
YOU STARTED WITH HERZOG MOTORSPORTS AS YOUR FIRST NASCAR TEAM IN THE BUSCH SERIES CAR. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANT TO YOUR CAREER AND THE IMPACT IT HAD ON GETTING YOU WHERE YOU ARE TODAY? AND, YOU WON THREE TIMES AT KANSAS. KNOW THAT’S THEIR BACKYARD, WHAT DID THE HERZOGS AND THAT EXPERIENCE MEAN TO YOU?“Yeah, for sure. I, without a doubt, would not be a NASCAR driver if I didn’t meet the Herzogs and we didn’t form our friendship and relationship and move forward. I was able to help bring Chevrolet to the mix. They were looking for somewhere to put me, and I knew that they ran an amazing off-road program, and their racing in the desert series, and also a series in the Midwest, and they lacked manufacturer support. So, I felt like if I could bring that to the table, I could get us together. In our early conversations, that certainly was the goal and objective, but we quickly realized and understood that Bill Herzog, the father, and his two sons, Randy and Stan, that all three had desires of going stock car racing and wanted to end up in NASCAR some day. So, once we all that that common vision, we were able to lay out a plan of attack, and how we could hopefully get to the NASCAR Cup Series. We ran a few years of off-road together and they helped me transition into stock car racing in the ASA Series, and then they purchased the Busch Grand National team that I drove. And we were moving down the pathway and I had offers and discussions with other teams to potentially leave. When the Hendrick opportunity came along, I approached them and shared with them this opportunity. And like the great men they were, because sadly, Stan and Bill are no longer, but all three of them were very excited for me and insisted that I take this chance of a lifetime with Hendrick Motorsports. So, we got close. We made it to the Busch Series and almost made it to the Cup Series like that original vision it was that we shared.”
YOU’VE WON EVERYWHERE, BUT TO WIN AT KANSAS THREE TIMES IN THEIR BACKYARD, DID THAT HAVE A LITTLE EXTRA MEANING?“Oh, for sure. Without a doubt I spent a lot of time in St. Joseph over the years; mainly in the winter and I couldn’t believe how hard the wind would blow and how cold it could be. Went to a few Chiefs games with them. It being in that area, every time I go there, I just recall being a teenage kid, landing at KCI and freezing my tail off and trying to find my way to St. Joe to have meetings or visit with them. I definitely have that sense that the Kansas area equals Herzog for me. Even racing out at the track, I’ve always had that sense of being nearby and being a par of all that.”
YOU ARE DOING BOTH THE NASCAR AND INDYCAR IRACING. CAN YOU COMPARE THEM? IS IT GOING TO BE COOL TO HAVE DALE EARNHARDT JR AT THE SATURDAY RACE IN MICHIGAN?“I think he’s going to have a blast doing it. His experience in iRacing I think will help him enter at a higher level than I have so far (laughs). But, the thing I’ve really struggled with on the IndyCar-side, is I’m learning new tracks and a new car. For the NASCAR-side, it’s much more familiar and it’s just learning the game component of it all. There are different challenges that come with it. And on the IndyCar-side, especially running the Barber track, that’s where I had planned to test, and the reason I purchased my IndyCar SIM in the first place, was to learn that trace for the test session I had coming up on April 6^th. I feel like in some ways that If I’m able to find an opportunity in the IndyCar world in the future, I’m getting some reps on track so that’s a little rewarding and makes me feel good about the time that I’m putting in. I’m learning these drivers. It’s hard to say that our driving characteristics in SIM will cross over to the real world, but there is some kind of foundation or groundwork being laid on that side if a door does open there for me some day. And then on the NASCAR-side, the ovals are much easier to drive on the SIM. It is interesting to see the personalities kind of emerge there that are similar to the real world. And I’m not sure if you guys can hear the in-race stuff that’s going on, but it’s pretty comical. I’m learning more about my competitors there (laughs) and how they deal with emotions from time to time.”
THERE ARE THREE RACES LEFT AFTER SATURDAY’S INDYCAR IRACE AND TWO OF THEM ARE YET TO BE CHOSEN IN TERMS OF THE TRACKS. SOME DRIVERS HAVE SUGGESTED IN INDYCAR THAT TALLADEGA SHOULD BE AMONG THEM. ARE THERE ANY OVALS YOU MIGHT HAVE MORE OF AN EDGE THAN THE INDYCAR GUYS? ANY OTHER TRACKS YOU’D LIKE TO SEE?“I feel like Michigan is going to be the Talladega IndyCar race honestly. I’ve run it a few times in groups and first of all, it’s just crazy to go that fast around Michigan, even though it is in the SIM world, knowing our points and how much brake and stuff we need to use in a stock car. It’s just a different animal in IndyCar. But, I’ve not really spent much time driving other tracks. Yesterday, I was driving a little bit on the Richmond track in the NASCAR set-up and I’m like I want to drive the IndyCar on here. I still have some exploring to do. I feel like Talladega would be too big in some respects. I don’t have any kind of experience doing it. And I know I’ve been interesting in the IndyCar-side to learn new tracks. That’s a big part of what’s going on in my head for the future is new experiences. So, I’m definitely more personally more interested in new things.”
WHEN YOU FIRST SIGNED-UP FOR IRACING IT WAS KIND OF AN 11^th HOUR DEAL AND YOU STRUGGLED. HOW MUCH HAVE YOU JUMPED INTO IT SINCE THEN WITH YOUR COMPETITIVENESS?“Yeah, I jumped in head-first honestly. The part has been more eye-opening for me has been how to run and operate the SIM rig and all the third-party apps that tie into it relate and the data that exists there and trying to understand how to calibrate things and make things work correctly and how to even talk in game war to one of these third party apps where you can have a spotter and a crew chief helping you made good decisions. Playing the game is certainly challenging on it’s own, but I had no idea the rest of it that went into it. And that’s really what rocked my world in week one, and even into week two. It was literally five or six days a week, four to five hours a day, just trying to figure it all out and get it set-up.”
THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SEND-OFF YEAR, BUT NOW YOU ARE KIND OF SEQUESTERED, IN A SENSE. WHAT HAS BEEN THE ADJUSTMENT IN THINKING ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT’S GOING ON WITH NOT ONLY RACING BUT WITH THE WORLD IN GENERAL?“For me in my final year in a Cup car, I feel more for the fans that wanted to see me at their track and experience that and have it. I know where I am and I’m very content and fulfilled with the career I’ve had. Sure, I want to be on track. Sure, I want to go to these places a final time. I feel more for the fans that aren’t having that opportunity right now that I long for myself to experience it and to be there, if that makes any sense. And that’s only a small piece in the grand scheme of things when you look at all the individuals that are affected by the Coronavirus and the families that have been affected, and the economy, and businesses and business owners. This is way bigger than me and way bigger than what was going to be my final time at these tracks. So, that stuff hasn’t really even crossed my mind, honestly, is why I bring it up. There have been so many other issues at-hand to think about and be concerned with, that I haven’t thought much at all about it being my final year and what I might be missing for myself. It’s been more about others and more about the fans and what I see on my social thread, I see people that have been lifelong fans that are sad they don’t get to see me run. So, it’s been about others far more than it’s been about what affect this has had on me, personally.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH BLAISE ALEXANDER AND THIS BEING YOUR LAST TRIP TO POCONO RACEWAY, ASSUMING WE GO THERE?“When I look back on the friendship we had, it wasn’t for a really long length of time. Actually I met him when I was living in Milwaukee running my ASA team. He tried to pick-up my girlfriend at the bar. And that’s how we met the first time, which was an interesting way to meet. And, I respected his courage and we started a friendship that grew and lasted for a handful of years before we tragically lost him. But, his love of life and how charismatic he was and his dedication to the sport and his family and the connection he had with his parents and his siblings, he taught me a lot in a very short period of time and we became really good friends. Whenever I’m in Pennsylvania, I always think of him. He loved the state that he grew up in and loved that area. I think about him often, for sure.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS FAMILY AND IF WE RACE AT POCONO, HOW EMOTIONAL WILL THAT BE FOR YOU?“At this stage, there’s just a lot of pride. The emotional side, shortly after we lost Blaise, those emotions are different from where they are today and time helps shift things in your mind. I’ve been able to shift that to just all the funny stories and memories. And I do stay in touch with his family. I hear from his dad occasionally and is brother often and his sister I hear from. When we do check-in, it’s always a funny story. I still have a lot of pain, especially for his family, but the conversation is always shifted to funny stories and reliving those.”
HAVE THERE BEEN ANY DISCUSSIONS WITH HENDRICK AND HOW TO MAINTAIN THE EDGE THAT YOU GUYS HAVE HAD OVER THE BREAK? IS THERE ANY CONCERN THAT THIS EDGE YOU’VE HAD MAY BE LOST BECAUSE OF THE HIATUS?“There’s really very little we can do. We can work on our computers, but Hendrick has been shut down for a while now. There has been an agreement reach where teams aren’t sending employees into work and not only from the NASCAR point, but obviously what the governor has said on the amount of people that can gather at a given place. There are many reasons why none of the teams are working and moving forward in groups and physically working on cars. The world of SIM, and it’s hard to regulate that, I know that a lot of these are ways we advance our cars and physically taking vehicles to the wind tunnel and shaker rigs and 7-Post rigs, that’s also been banned. So there has been a big effort made to kind of freeze the sport. I know our team, much like many other teams, is spending a lot of time on the phone trying to strategize on where to work or what to look at, but we physically can’t go anywhere or do anything right now. So, I feel we really are in a freeze of sorts right now.”
HAVE YOU SEEN A DIFFERENT ALEX BOWMAN THIS SEASON THAN OTHER YEARS? IS HE DOING STUFF DIFFERENTLY ON THE TRACK OR AWAY FROM IT THAT HAS BOOSTED HIS PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR?“He’s really dug in deep and has asked himself all the tough questions about how he can get better. It’s been really amazing to see him grow and learn. I would say the thing that’s talked about most is the confidence that’s come with all of that. Running good on-track brings the bulk of it in being able to win has fueled that more than anything. But off the track, the work he puts in helps feed that and really shows the dedication that he’s putting into being the best that he can. So, I’ve been really impressed. I’ve watched him evolve quite a bit over the years; especially since his responsibilities were just running the SIM for us, to now having a full-time seat in the car. He’s done a lot of growing and maturing and he’s done an amazing job.”
HOW MUCH TIME HAVE YOU SPENT ON THE SIM RIGS DURING THE POSTPONEMENTS TO GET UP TO SPEED?“I’ve been probably averaging about five hours per day for seven days a week for probably two and a half weeks. This week has been much less since we’re not doing the Cup race on Sunday. I’ve been able to enjoy a little bit more downtime. And I was finding those hours were taking place late at night after we’d get the kids to bed, I would jump on the rig. And then a lot of these coaches that are available to help me fast track my way in, have day jobs and spend most of the evenings and the night doing their SIM work. I felt like I didn’t sleep for two weeks, honestly, and working around the clock and a lot of the time at night on the SIM rig.”
REGARDING THE SCHEDULE, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GETTING IN ALL 36 CUP RACES EVEN IF THAT MEANS HAVING TO DO WEEKLY DOUBLEHEADERS OR MULTIPLE WEDNESDAY NIGHT RACES GOING FORWARD?“I don’t have a problem with it on my end. As a driver, you just want to take your helmet and go. Racing is the most fun we can have. But, I’m just one point of view on that. I quickly think about the crew members that have to get the cars ready and physically move everything around the country as we need to. I know there’s a lot more that goes into it.”
YOU RAN FOR THE HEROGS FULL-SEASON IN THE BUSCH SERIES IN 2001, BUT 9-11 HAPPENED TOO. WHILE THESE ARE VERY DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES, ARE THERE ANY THINGS THAT ARE SIMILAR AS TO WHAT THINGS WERE LIKE IN THE RACING COMMUNITY AT THAT TIME?“I feel like the Busch cars were already off that next weekend and it was more of an impact on the Cup guys and more of a shift in having that race postponed. Then they came back and raced at New Hampshire after the season was over. So yeah, it is different. But, I feel like there was so much more fear than what I’ve personally experienced. And now I feel like we’ve been able to create a safe place for us at home and just with social distancing and we’ve created a safe environment. I just remember how unsafe I felt and how scared I was, generally, back in 2001 in September and the month that followed.”
REGARDING IRACING, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO PROVIDE A SENSE OF NORMALCY TO THE AMERICAN SPORTS FAN RIGHT NOW, IF ONLY FOR A SHORT WHILE? WHAT WOULD BE YOUR MESSAGE TO THE NASCAR FAN BASE RIGHT NOW?“Oh, it feels great. And it’s nice to also have a purpose. I’ve spent my whole life worried about going racing each and it’s just every time I have an off-season, a week or two in I get stir-crazy because my habits have changed and I haven’t experienced life in the sense without getting ready for a race weekend. It brought a little bit of structure for me; more than I anticipated honestly, because I was just so far behind in the SIM experience. But to see the viewership numbers and understand how much fun the fans are having watching it, it has motivated me and has me highly interested to keep it going. As we look around and see other sports try to figure out how to virtually offer something for their fans, we were one of the first if not the first, to do it and do it well and break all kinds of records in the process. So, hats off to everybody to pull it though and our partners on the television-side to allow this to happen.”
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR MESSAGE TO THE FANS AT THIS POINT?“We’re all in this together. Let’s do our part. I think the sooner we can control the curve and push things down, the sooner we can find out whatever our new norm is.”
WHEN WE GO BACK TO RACING, IT’S LIKELY WE’RE RUNNING WITHOUT FANS. WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT’S GOING TO BE LIKE?“It’s not the ideal situation by any means. I know our sport amongst every other sport out there, is going to be faced with that decision, and if they choose to compete with fans in the stands or not. For me, it’s a real simple answer. There are millions that watch on television, and I don’t want to deprive the greater sum because we can’t have the fans in the stands. And I get it. I want fans in the stands. They deserve to be there. We want them there. There’s an energy that comes with it. But we are in uncharted territory and we’re going to have to do things a little different than what we’re used to. And if we can get back to the track months before because fans aren’t in the stands, and provide our sport to millions and get people back to work and some normalcy going on in our country and our industry, I’m definitely for that.”
THEY TALKED ABOUT THE SCHEDULE BEING VERY COMPACT, BUT AS A DRIVER IF YOU START RACING SUNDAY, WEDNESDAY, SUNDAY FOR A WHILE, HOW DOES THAT UPSET THE ROUTINE AS A DRIVER? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PREPARE FOR SUCH A HECTIC SCHEDULE?“Good question. I, personally, haven’t been through a schedule like that. I think Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell and some of these guys that have grown-up racing dirt are more accustomed to multiple venues in a weekend and tracks and all that kind of thing. For me, I’ve lived through the testing era, where we had unlimited testing and spent a lot of time during the week at different tracks and moving around. They are long weeks. But, I personally enjoyed the physical challenge that went with it. The mental side was a little different because you could only focus where you were at that time. So in some respects, it didn’t give you all week to overthink and over prepare for what you were going to do. It almost simplified things where hey, I’m at X-track now and that’s where my focus needs to be. Dig into my notes and my routine and do the best I can, and move on. So, in some ways it simplifies the mental aspect. Physically will be far more difficult. And then whatever a driver experiences, crew chiefs, crew members, the traveling-side, and even the media, it’s going to be way harder for everybody. The drivers would probably have it the best or the easiest, if you will, work-wise, and the rest of the industry is really going to have to sort out how to manage that physical and mental endurance that’s going to be required.” 

CORVETTE RACING REWIND: Oliver Gavin, Long Beach 2018Victory was No. 50 with program for Corvette veteran

DETROIT (April 9, 2020) – With racing on hold all over the globe, Corvette Racing is taking a look back at some of its top highlights from its 20-plus years of competitions. In the first of a new series titled “Corvette Racing Rewind”, Oliver Gavin relives the 2018 Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach, which he won with long-time teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.

The result was extra-special for Gavin as it marked his 50th victory as part of Corvette Racing. Five of those wins have come at Long Beach – three with Milner. “Amazing the way that all came around,” Gavin said after the race. “Yes we had a little bit of luck, but Tommy had to drive brilliantly at the end there and stay out of trouble. There were a number of incidents there. Man, we could have gotten taken out. We could have gotten in the wall. Tommy just navigated through it. We had a great pit stop. The guys did an amazing job. We jumped a number of people and put us in position there we could challenge for that victory. And we got it! That is our first win in season No. 20 for Corvette Racing. And it is my 50th victory with the team. That is pretty amazing… I am just thrilled.” The next edition of “Corvette Racing Rewind” will feature Antonio Garcia reviewing his drive to close the 2017 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Lucas Oil Announces New eSports Involvement

CORONA, Calif. (April  6, 2020) – While the current focus of all Americans is to stay healthy, many race fans and drivers are eager to interact and profess their love of racing. eSports, through a variety of races and broadcasts, has allowed that to happen during a time when this community needs it the most. To further enhance that camaraderie, Lucas Oil Products, the American-based manufacturer and distributor of performance additives and oils, announced today that they are expanding their presence in eSports. Lucas Oil eSports will begin with a focus on the competition surrounding the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series.

Lucas Oil has already enjoyed a partnership with iRacing through the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. Several of the tracks and the series events can be utilized with the online platform. In fact, the 3/8 mile dirt oval track and the off-road track at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, are scheduled to be scanned for future iRacing competitions.    “Lucas Oil has always tried to be on the cutting edge of all that it involves itself with and eSports is one of the new leading areas of development within racing,” said Morgan Lucas, Senior V.P. of Sales for Lucas Oil. “We have a great family of Lucas Oil supporters and that racing goes hand-in-hand with that. eSports is an important way for us to expand our exposure to new groups while creating a bond with our existing racing community.”   A series of races are currently being planned to create a sense of togetherness for the community of each of the series and events. Lucas Oil eSports will utilize the vastly popular iRacing platform, which many racers currently use to hone their skills.   The first race for Lucas Oil eSports will be the Late Model Knoxville Nationals for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The event is scheduled for Friday, April 10 at 8 pm ET, and will be broadcasted on Lucas Oil’s Facebook page. The series team of MAVTV and Lucas Oil Racing TV commentators, Bob Dillner, James Essex and Dave Argabright, will call the action.   Several of the best Dirt Late Model racers in the country who compete in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this year will take part in this challenge. They will face-off against others who will qualify through an “Open Race” format the day before the official event. An announcement of which drivers will participate will be coming soon.   “While we all try to do our part in making sure our country overcomes the virus, the anticipation for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series to resume action in 2020 is building,” said series director Rick Schwallie. “After successful Georgia and Florida Speedweeks, which saw impressive car counts, racers and fans now have the opportunity to build on that through series events within Lucas Oil eSports, and we are excited to have the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series be a part of that.” A full schedule for Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, and the legendary Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals is coming soon.

eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational SeriesVirtual Bristol Motor Speedway Food City Showdown Team Chevy Press Conference TranscriptApril 5, 2020
WILLIAM BYRON SCORES VICTORY AT VIRTUAL BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYCHARLOTTE, NC (April 5, 2020) – William Byron adds his name to the record books by taking his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet to victory lane in the Food City Showdown at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, the third race of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.  With the postponement of all NASCAR on-track activity through May 3rd, NASCAR and iRacing joined forces to start the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. The sim racing series features competitors from the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, and other NASCAR dignitaries. The 150-lap simulation race virtually took place at the half-mile oval of Bristol Motor Speedway, where the NASCAR Cup series was scheduled to be in-action this weekend. Byron won heat number one in dominating fashion, leading all fifty laps and securing the pole position for the main event. Leading 116 of 150 laps in the main event, Byron’s victory adds to his impressive career iRacing stats, now totaling 309 wins. “It was a lot of fun. We had to work through some track position and really just keep ourselves up towards the top-five. Luckily, we were able to do that and make the pass on Chris Buescher, and really just manage the restarts,” says Byron.  Ryan Preece finished sixth in his No. 37 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick finished eighth in his No. 31 Alsco Chevrolet, and Garrett Smithley finished ninth in his No. 51 Petty Ware Racing Chevrolet to give Team Chevy four of the top-10 finishing spots.  John H. Nemechek (Ford) was second, Timmy Hill (Toyota) was third, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was fourth and Matt DiBenedetto (Ford) rounded out the top-five finishers of the race.  Live coverage of the remaining eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series season can be found on FOX, FS1, and the FOX Sports app.  WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET TRANSCRIPT: 
THE MODERATOR: Thank you to all of you for joining us. We are now joined by William Byron, driver of the No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet and the winner of today’s Food City Showdown at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway. William, congratulations. Tell us a little bit about those final laps.            WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I appreciate it. I thought we had a pretty solid race. Obviously, there was a lot to kind of decipher through and try to get through, but I thought we stayed up close to the front. We had the one tire strategy call that got us back to the top 5 and then we just had to work through the top 5 methodically after that. Was really proud of how we kind of did things, and thankful for Nick Ottinger, who kind of helps me on my esports team, and AXALTA for letting us run this cool paint scheme. It looks awesome. Hopefully we can it run it sometime in the real Cup car. I had a lot of fun.             Q. I’d like to start with a question about the aggressiveness on the track and kind of an overview of the race that we saw. The cautions and the parking and the drivers being really aggressive, did you expect all that? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I kind of expected it a little bit. You know, considering what guys were good and what guys were maybe not as experienced, racing on there is the same, but it really comes down to how you value how you race others, and I treat it like I would ‑‑ I race others the same way I would in the real car, and that’s kind of what it takes to be good on there.            I think you just saw some guys that weren’t maybe as experienced at it maybe in the back, but I’d say the top five or ten guys really know what they’re doing, and those were the guys I was worried about racing the whole time.            Q. How frustrated were you last week after getting punted out of the way, and what does this win mean to you on the virtual side of things? You’ve been so strong on the virtual racing and obviously a very good sim racer. What does it mean to you, and were you frustrated at all during the week? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, you know, it’s for fun, so I get that part of it. But like I said, I treat it ‑‑ for me mentally, I try to treat it as a race when the race is going on. After that obviously ‑‑ during the week I wasn’t worried about Texas. I got over it pretty quick. But I think that it was just frustrating because we hadn’t closed one yet and we had led the most laps, so to finally close the deal this week was really awesome, and yeah, I think it just is cool to see the hard work kind of pay off from obviously myself but the guys behind the scenes that are working with my esports team and stuff like that. It’s cool and it’s great for AXALTA and gives me some confidence, so I like that.             Q. It’s interesting seeing how this has sort of taken on a new intensity at times. I don’t know if it’s just Bristol or the fact that this has gone on a few weeks, but you had Bubba quitting in the middle of today and Larson and Suárez both getting booted. Is that something that is sort of easier to have happen in this virtual environment? Like have you ever rage quit something, or is it a sign of just the intensity of this picking up? What do you attribute all that to?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think the easy excuse is to say, oh, it’s a game and all that, but at the end of the day, everyone is racing, and seeing how much time some guys have put in, I know that it means something to them.           You’ve got to race. It’s race craft, and I feel like race craft is the same no matter what you’re racing; whether it’s on a computer or at the dirt track or at an asphalt race, it’s the same. I think that’s what I try to do, just stay patient, really race the top seven or eight guys. Denny is really good on here, Timmy Hill is pretty good, and John Hunter Nemechek seems pretty fast. So just try to worry about those guys.           But yeah, obviously some of the guys further back were obviously causing some wrecks and stuff. So, you just have to get through that and try to keep yourself clean through the race.             Q. A young guy like you that has time to practice, put the hours in, it’s kind of not surprising that you would get up to speed in a quick way. For guys like the Busch brothers who this is their third race, how long is it going to take before we see those guys get more into the mix in the future? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think Kyle was pretty fast this week, Busch. I thought he was ‑‑ in the practice races, I did a couple on Friday I guess it was, and Denny was really good and Kyle was pretty fast, too. I think the people that have strengths at certain racetracks are going to show up, and ultimately, it’s just about kind of knowing the little nuances that are going to make you faster.           Yeah, it’s just ‑‑ I wish we would have a little bit longer runs because I think you would have seen the guys who really had it figured out. I think Kyle and Denny and some of those guys would have come to the front. But unfortunately, it’s kind of a short‑run race, but really, I think those guys are starting to get it. Hopefully if I can give them some tips or whatever, then get them rolling with some of the little nuances here and there.             Q. And just kind of curious, what are you doing to entertain yourself in addition to iRacing these days? WILLIAM BYRON: I mean, honestly, just kind of trying to have a somewhat normal routine. I stay at home, obviously, I try not to be around a bunch of people, but my family is in town. My sister, she lives in New York, but she’s been in town for a few weeks now, so I’ve been having fun with that, just kind of seeing my sister, and that’s been great.            I feel fresh, and I feel like when we do go back racing, I’m excited for it because I use iRacing as just kind of a mental training, and I feel like I’m excited for when we do go back because we have fast cars there, too.             Q. I know you talked about it being for fun and everything, but do you think you feel any more pressure to win these races because everybody knows your history in iRacing? WILLIAM BYRON: A little bit, yeah. I think that like the first week, I was I feel like the most nervous, and I think everyone gets nervous when they iRace just because you don’t have the sound of the engine and some of those little adrenaline things that actually kick the nervousness down in the real car. So that is a little bit there, nerves for everybody, but I’d say so, yeah, just because people are like, oh, well, this is your thing and all that. Yeah, I think the first week that kind of showed. I was a little bit overaggressive knowing who I was going to race, and then this week I just tried to be patient, and it worked out pretty good.             Q. You mentioned Nick Ottinger, and I know he’s been a big part of what you’ve done with establishing William Byron Esports. What kind of things were you leaning on him for and working with him on, and do you think anything that you guys are working on together will be able to translate for those guys when they go back and compete in the Coca‑Cola Series? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think that those guys have helped me a lot. John is a great sim racer, too, and really, I’ve kind of built that relationship with Nick to learn from him. He’s a cool guy. I like the way he thinks. Honestly the way he thinks is similar ‑‑ we think similarly, I guess.            When I watch him drive, I feel like I’m watching somewhat of the same things that I would do, and obviously he’s really good. Yeah, I think that I just try to watch him on Tuesdays when they run the Coke Series, but hopefully ‑‑ I think he’s like sixth or seventh in points right now. He finished second in the first race, so hopefully he can get a win here soon.            Q. And in regards to your race, if they’d had a late‑race caution ‑‑ you had been getting away pretty good on the restarts. Were there any nerves if you’d had one more caution to worry about?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, we were just worried about the tires because I had been out there for 60 or 70 laps on the same tires, so I was a little worried that I didn’t have a lot of tire left, so I just tried to keep saving until really the last two laps. But I think the tire strategy worked out perfectly. We were able to pit there about halfway, cut the race in half, which is what we wanted to do, and a couple guys stayed out but we were able to methodically work our way back to the top 5 from ninth, I think, so that was great.             Q. You mentioned on your interview with the TV booth I think a few minutes ago that when you generally do iRacing these days, it’s to learn or kind of improve your race craft, and you talked about how different it is to being in a competition with a much different group of guys. Could you just explain a little bit the differences between what you normally experience when you decide to do iRacing and what the last three weekends have been like?WILLIAM BYRON: Well, I think that you’re basically ‑‑ how iRacing works is there’s a rating for each driver, and that goes from like 1,000 to basically 9,000, so I’m like a 6,300 rating, so I usually race with guys that are around that range or better, and so you’ll have less cautions or you’ll have more quality of like race craft, and I feel like when we put our race together, it’s a wide variety of experience levels, so I think that’s just tough to kind of manage.            But yeah, I try to use iRacing because it improves my race craft, and I feel like we’ve been doing a good job of promoting it the right way. We just have to make sure that everyone understands that there’s races that you can do on there, and I try to do those races and not just run laps of practice by myself. The races that you can practice on kind of help improve my race craft, and that’s why I use it to try to help me on the real car.            Q. You mentioned how you race people the way you want to be raced; do you get to see that in the same sort of fashion during the iRacing as you do ‑‑ maybe not the same way, but do you see some of the same traits that you would when you are racing someone on a real track?WILLIAM BYRON: I think so, yeah. Definitely the tracks that you can maybe move someone out of the way or bump them out of the way are very similar. Last week obviously getting moved out of the way, I learned something there and kind of applied that towards this week. I got a little bit more aggressive with some of my moves during the week and tried to do that back to the guys so that I can kind of establish position on them.            So, I think, yeah, really that stuff is the same. You just ‑‑ it’s just a matter of kind of understanding the little nuances that are obviously going to be different than a real car. You know, you don’t have the sense of smell and noise and maybe feel, but you have vision, and your vision is really critical in there.             Q. Have the mid‑week practice races legitimately helped you get ready for Sunday’s races, and if so, in what ways?WILLIAM BYRON: I think so. I think what really helps me a lot is running ‑‑ they have these races that are called A‑fixed races, and it’s Class A, which is the Cup cars, so I run those. I probably ran a handful of them, less than 10 this week, but somewhere around that number. They’re very similar length of race to what we just ran, so I feel like those help me. Knowing the competition, knowing who’s good and fast, and Denny Hamlin was obviously my biggest threat today I feel like, so I was kind of looking out for him and what he was doing through the week.            Yeah, I think those races are what help me kind of get better.             Q. And then how much did shifting to the single‑file restarts change the race for you, if at all? Do you feel like that was a benefit for you in the late restarts? WILLIAM BYRON: It was tough. I mean, I think that double‑file restarts I think would have been a similar result. You know, if you were a bottom‑lane guy it’s a little tough to get clear of the outside guys, so I would have had my hands full with second in a lot of instances if I didn’t get a good jump. It just comes down to how good a restart you get. I feel like the single‑file restarts kind of brought the strength of certain guys to the front.            I don’t really know if it changed everything that much. It was just a little bit hard to time and try to figure out. It kind of was like running short‑track races.             Q. What was going through your head there when you lost the lead for a little bit with the various pit strategies and everything because obviously it was a new position for you than the rest of the race after leading the first 73 laps. I know you had fresher tires, but it looked like once you were able to get a run on Smithley, you made pretty quick work of Bowman and DiBenedetto on the bottom, which isn’t something we really saw today. WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, honestly the biggest heart‑stopping moment was when Landon Cassill cut spun or whatever and he was coming back up the track and I had to kind of go to the bottom and I was sideways for a bit. Luckily nobody was on my bumper and I was able to save it. Yeah, I’ll probably look back at that moment as like the race‑winning moment, missing that and kind of able to work my way back through the field. I think I started ninth and Kurt Busch raced me really clean and Alex raced me pretty clean, and then once I got to like second I knew that all I had to do was just manage my tires to make them overcome the older tires that I had in front of me, so I just kind of hung out for a while and let Buescher, knowing that his tires were going to give up after 10 or 15 laps just because they were older, so yeah, then we had a restart there and I was able to get by him, and we ran side‑by‑side for a couple laps, so he raced me good there, too.           Yeah, it was definitely ‑‑ things worked out to get back to the front. Luckily didn’t ever really have to start in the back. I think the furthest back we were was ninth, so luckily it worked out on pit strategy.             Q. Seeing more of the virtual world in racing and the talents that are displayed, how much of a recruiting tool or a development tool do you see this in the entrance into actual real‑world racing? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think that for me, I used it obviously to get started in my racing career, and I feel like I did that because I saw guys like Dale Jr. promoting it. If I were a young kid right now and I was 10 or 12 years old and didn’t have the money to get into a real race car or didn’t know anybody that has a real race car, then I would definitely get into iRacing. I was a race fan that would watch NASCAR on TV, and we’d go iRace after the race was over to try to figure out what it’s like to be those guys.            I’m really fortunate that now I’m able to run the real race cars, but I definitely never forget about iRacing, kind of what it taught me.             Q. The number of laps y’all are running, I noticed it went from 100 to 125 last week and then we had the heat races and the length of the race today. Do you think the number of laps is about right for driver attention span and viewer attention span? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I think it could be a little shorter. The heat races, we probably didn’t really need those today. But I think that honestly it was good. I definitely would be a fan of like at Bristol there, it’s obviously a 50‑lap heat race and then a 150‑lap race, that’s a long time. If we ran maybe 50 laps in a heat laps and then 80 laps in the race, that would be probably good, too.           Yeah, I think it’s just a factor of the fact that it’s Bristol and it’s going to be a shorter race if it goes green.             Q. Can you just kind of take me through the emotions and how different they are this week from last week and if it was even a case ‑‑ is this stuff so serious, how upset you got last week, and is it a case that you and Timmy actually had to talk?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I think that the biggest difference is the time that it takes for your mind to recover from what happens. I mean, obviously when the race is going, I think anybody would be dumb to tell you that they don’t take it seriously because it’s a race, but it took me probably an hour after the race to really cool off and realize that I was just racing on the computer and I could get over it.           No, I didn’t really think about Timmy all week. He actually sent me a message on Twitter on Thursday, and I was like, hey, it’s all good. Granted, would I have raced him the same if he had been in front of me, for sure, because I kind of know the tone that he set with that move, but I wasn’t worried about it after, I guess, Sunday night around 7:00.             Q. You’re involved in the Coca‑Cola Racing Series with your own team; at some point sports are going to come back. You guys are going to go back to racing, the focus is going to be what happens on the track. You’re involved in this in the Coca‑Cola Racing, the iRacing team. How does this carry forward once sports return, because obviously there will be more focus on that? What do you guys do and how does that keep going and try to build this alternate audience?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think what I like about this racing is that anybody can go do it, and I think that’s similar to the appeal of golf and really everyone can go play golf or everyone can iRace at their own level. Like that’s what I want the appeal of this to be. I want it for to be kids, and I want people that want to see what we’re doing on Sundays to be able to go on there and race, and then ultimately what the Coke Series should be about is that those guys are the best at it, and I feel confident some of those guys would do well in a real car, too.           I think that’s understanding the skill level that they have, and that should hopefully bring an audience and the relatability that it has, the fact that anyone can go and try it.             Q. What were your thoughts on the restarts going single file in the middle of the race both last night and today? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think that it was kind of necessary just because of the wrecks that were going on. Bristol is a tough track, and I really think it just comes down to ‑‑ it takes some laps to kind of understand what’s going on, so yeah, it’s a tough track, so I didn’t ‑‑ I wasn’t surprised.             Q. You mentioned Nick Ottinger and John Gorlinsky. How much time did you spend practicing with them this week?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, they were pretty helpful. They’ve been helpful since this deal got going a couple weeks ago, so it’s been good to work with them. I feel like I’ve learned ‑‑ obviously I’ve raced on everything, but I’ve learned a lot about the little nuances that those guys do really well. I feel like that’s what they’ve helped me with, and I’ve definitely grown an appreciation for how good they are.             Q. How much of an advantage have they been compared to maybe some of the drivers who don’t have the Coca‑Cola Series drivers to lean on? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think really everyone has kind of found one of those guys to really reach out to. I know that Denny has a team and Austin Dillon has a team, so all those guys really know what’s going on. That’s the best resource that we all have is to use those guys, so I feel like everyone has figured that out pretty recently.             Q. You spoke about your sim craft and mentioned earlier this week that Bristol wasn’t your best track in sim and in real life. Can you talk a bit more in depth about what you can take away from today’s race that may help you at Bristol later this season?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think that honestly in Bristol recently, I’ve tried to work on the way that I drive the track, and I feel like the first time that I went there in the real car, everything from iRacing translated really well, and I did well, but then when I got into the Cup car I was a little bit lost. I worked on it a little bit this week, and I feel much better about it. I’m kind of excited to go back there here soon.             Q. The restarts, wheel spin kind of is a big factor. What did you necessarily do to try and remedy that, especially when it came to single‑file restarts?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think just working on them throughout the week to know what was going to happen and how it was going to feel. It really just comes down to having a clean launch. You get wheel spin at the top of the gear in second gear, so I just tried to keep my launch smooth and get through the gears well, so all that stuff worked really well, so definitely excited about how the restarts were, and hopefully can carry that over to the next race that we have.             Q. When it comes to Bristol, in previous races the addition of PJ1 has been added to the bottom line, but what we noticed throughout the iRacing race, the outside line proved to be prevalent. Do you think that iRacing will eventually add that patch of PJ1 so there’s a little bit more traction on that inside line?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think so. I think they’ll learn that from this week. I was able to run the middle and make that work pretty well, so we just worked really hard on being able to run the middle throughout this week, and I’m fortunate that that paid off for us.            THE MODERATOR: William, thank you again for joining us today.            WILLIAM BYRON: No problem. Thank you.            THE MODERATOR: And thank you to all the media for joining us, as well.  

BATAVIA, OH (April 3, 2020) – On Sunday, March 29th, President Donald Trump extended federal social distancing guidelines through the end of April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This announcement forces the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials to postpone and cancel additional events.
This extension now also affects events at Hagerstown Speedway, Port Royal Speedway, Tri-City Speedway, and Macon Speedway. The series hopes to resume the original schedule on May 1st at Ponderosa Speedway and May 2nd at Florence Speedway.
Port Royal Speedway’s Rumble by the River, originally scheduled for April 19th, has been postponed until Thursday, August 27th. 
The Nininger Tribute at Hagerstown Speedway, scheduled for April 18th, has now been canceled. Also canceled are the Budweiser 50 at Tri-City Speedway scheduled for April 24th and the April 25th event at Macon Speedway. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials look forward to the return to Tri-City Speedway on July 17th for the NAPA Know How 50; and to Hagerstown Speedway and Macon Speedway in 2021. 
With the ever changing guidelines set forth by the federal, state, local, and public health officials, along with information that is based on guidelines from the CDC, the series has begun discussion with promoters to create alternative dates for races through the end of May. Please note, at this time, all May series events are set to take place as originally scheduled, the alternative dates are only there in case the need were to arise. The alternative dates can be viewed by visiting:  https://lucasdirt.com/events/schedule.

BATAVIA, OH (April 2, 2020) – Join us tonight on MAVTV Motorsports Network, to see the third different driver and team take the checkers on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in 2020. The original airing on MAVTV from Tuesday night of the Wrisco Industries Winternationals, happens at 6 PM EST, with a re-airing at 9 PM EST. 
The February 4th event from “The Clay by the Bay” saw passing all throughout the field, with the Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race, passing an average of two cars per lap. The broadcast will include driver interviews, in-car cameras, and various technical segments.
Owned and operated by Lucas Oil Products, MAVTV Motorsports Network is a television network deeply rooted in the automotive world. MAVTV is available to over 35 million homes on U-verse, DIRECTV (channel 214), Fios by Verizon, Vidgo, TIKILIVE, fuboTV, Spectrum, and other nationwide providers. MAVTV will broadcast 5 live events and 34 original tape-delayed airings. To find a full list of providers, visit: mavtv.com/get-mavtv/providers.
The entire 2020 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series TV schedule can be found on the series website at: www.lucasdirt.com/schedule/tv-schedule/.

Richard Childress Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway … Richard Childress Racing boasts 18 wins at Bristol Motor Speedway spread out among the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Welcome, N.C.-based organization will make it’s first attempt at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. The Format … NASCAR, iRacing and FOX Sports are teaming up to deliver the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a selection of simulation-style esports races that include current and former NASCAR Cup Series drivers. The series heads to the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway for a fixed set-up race this Sunday, April 5. Drivers will compete in a qualifying session to set the grid for two 50 lap heat races. These heat races will determine the starting order for the featured 150-lap eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway. The race will include two resets, manual cautions and three attempts at a Green, White, Checkered flag finish. All current NASCAR Cup Series drivers are locked into the 35-car field, including Austin Dillon (No. 3 Dow Chevrolet) and Tyler Reddick (No. 31 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet). But Wait, There’s More … In addition to Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race on Sunday afternoon, RCR will compete in the inaugural Saturday Night Thunder at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway. The race features NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series drivers competing in a true short track-style showdown, complete with qualifying times to set heat races and a last chance qualifier race to round out the starting lineup. RCR’s roster of NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers, including Anthony Alfredo (No. 33 Realtree Chevrolet), Myatt Snider (No. 93 TaxSlayer Chevrolet) and Kaz Grala (No. 29 HotScream Chevrolet) are scheduled to compete and fans can watch all the action at eNASCAR.com. The Car Designs … Each RCR driver’s paint scheme was designed in-house by the RCR Graphics Center Powered by Roland, an in-house full-service design and production facility located on the Richard Childress Racing campus in Welcome, North Carolina. Local graphic artist John Dragonetti then rendered these designs for the iRacing platform. Learn more about Dragonetti’s designs at twitter.com/JohnRDragonetti. Did You Know … Seven of RCR’s NASCAR Cup Series wins at Bristol Motor Speedway came with the legendary Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel. Interactive RCR … For up-to-date news and exclusive content, visit RCR’s corporate Twitter page – @RCRracing – along with the RCR eSports team Twitter Page – @RCR_eSports, the RCR NASCAR Cup Series team Twitter page – @RCRCup and the RCR NASCAR Xfinity Series team Twitter page – @RCRNXS. Information about the 16-time championship winning organization can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardChildressRacing and on Instagram at Instagram.com/rcrracing. Visit www.RCRracing.com. Catch the Action … The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway will be televised live Sunday, April 5 beginning at 1 p.m. ET on the FOX broadcast network (where available), FS1 and the FOX Sports app. Races will be available in Canada through FOX Sports Racing. Also make sure to tune in for Saturday Night Thunder via a livestream at eNASCAR.com.

This Week’s Dow Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway … Dillon owns one top-five and two top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway and is a former race winner at the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He will make his first virtual start at the track in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series this Sunday. Dow brings a science and engineering crew who is driven by limitless curiosity to the RCR Team … Austin Dillon and the RCR team are again supported by Dow’s materials science expertise and technologies this season. Backed by the power of data analysis and virtual modeling, Dow develops and manufactures high-performance components and materials custom-made for the No. 3 car. Dow and RCR’s partnership has expedited innovation and shortened testing time in the automotive industry by recreating in the lab one of the most extreme environments – the racetrack. After 7 years of collaboration, Dow scientists and RCR engineers are continuing to work together to make the No. 3 car faster, safer and more precise. Stay up to date with Dow’s exciting developments at www.dow.com/sports and follow us on Twitter @DowSports & @DowNewsroom. A Commitment to eSports … Dillon is a long-time iRacing team owner. For the past two years, he has fielded two cars in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, which is a $300,000 eSport World Championship series officially sanctioned by NASCAR featuring the world’s most elite oval simracers. Dillon’s two drivers, Blake Reynolds (No. 30) and Michael Guest (No. 33) compete on simulated versions of the actual real-world NASCAR tracks and Gen6 cars available on iRacing. The rounds run every other Tuesday night and is broadcast live on Twitch, Facebook and YouTube.  The Crew … From Team Dillon Management’s offices on the campus of Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, North Carolina, Dillon will be competing in a rig provided by Sim Seats. Dillon will have a talented support system on Sunday, including Dillon’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series driver, Blake Reynolds (@breynolds_66). Reynolds was a Champ 4 contender in 2019. NBCSN Short Track Challenge … If you enjoy Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race on FOX, make sure to tune into NBC Sports Network at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, April 6 to see Dillon race the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet in the inaugural NBCSN Short Track Challenge. Dillon will join his teammate, Tyler Reddick, along with Parker Kligerman, Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace and William Byron at the virtual Rockingham Speedway. The drivers are virtually racing via iRacing simulation for a spot in the championship race, which takes place at the virtual Martinsville Speedway on Thursday, April 9. AUSTIN DILLON QUOTE:Are you looking forward to competing at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend?“I’m really looking forward to racing at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend because the real Bristol Motor Speedway is always a fun time for racers. It’s going to be interesting racing in the virtual race. I think it’s going to be a wreck-fest because it’s really hard to race on the track virtually. We’ve all been practicing a lot but it will be interesting to see what happens because they are still making changes to the track to apply PJ1 traction compound to the bottom groove. I’m really excited to compete in this race for Dow and plan to have some fun with it.”

This Week’s Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway … Reddick is a former race winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Bristol Motor Speedway. This weekend’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race will mark his first virtual start at Bristol Motor Speedway. ALSCO Official Uniform Provider of Race Fans … Alsco is a fourth-generation family owned and operated business, founded in 1889, that was recognized by prestigious Hohenstein Institute for having invented the linen and uniform rental industry. Celebrating over 130 years of business, Alsco provides linen and workwear rental services to customers that include restaurants, healthcare, automotive industry and industrial facilities. With over 180 locations and 20,000 employees, Alsco provides world-class service to over 355,000 customers in 14 countries. Learn more at alsco.com. The Crew … From his home in North Carolina, Reddick will be competing in Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro invitational Series race in a rig provided by Sim Seats. His spotter, Derek Kneeland, will be assisting Reddick during the race. NBCSN Short Track Challenge … If you enjoy Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race on FOX, make sure to tune into NBC Sports Network at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, April 6 to see Reddick race the No. 31 Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet in the inaugural NBCSN Short Track Challenge. Reddick will join his teammate, Austin Dillon, along with Parker Kligerman, Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace and William Byron at the virtual Rockingham Speedway. The drivers are virtually racing via iRacing simulation for a spot in the championship race, which takes place at the virtual Martinsville Speedway on Thursday, April 9. TYLER REDDICK QUOTE:What’s been your experience racing at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway so far? “So far, I’ve noticed that if you can run right next to the wall the track is really fast, I’m wondering if that will change at all though because iRacing is working on adding a traction compound. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway this Sunday. I love the track and have had a lot of success there in the past so I’m looking forward to the race.”

This Week’s Realtree Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway … Anthony Alfredo has not yet made a Bristol Motor Speedway start in one of NASCAR’s top-three touring divisions, but does have a handful of starts at the half-mile oval in the K&N Pro Series East and in a Super Late Model. Virtually, he has competed at Bristol Motor Speedway several times in a Super Late Model and a Modified. He’s a former virtual race winner at the track in a Modified.  Realtree … Realtree is the world’s leading camouflage designer, marketer, and licensor with over 2,000 licensees utilizing the Realtree camouflage brand. Thousands of outdoor and lifestyle products are available in Realtree camouflage patterns. In addition, Realtree is committed to supporting individuals and groups that work to ensure our outdoor heritage, the conservation of natural places, and the wildlife that resides there. Realtree promotes its products and relationships widely on television, as well as through Realtree.com and many other outlets. Happy Birthday, Fast Pasta! … Alfredo celebrated his 21st birthday on Tuesday, March 31 by following North Carolina’s stay at home order with a birthday live stream on his Twitch account (Twitch.com/Fast_Pasta). He included live streams of practice for this weekend’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on iRacing and Call of Duty. The Crew … From his home in North Carolina, Alfredo will be competing in Saturday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race in a rig provided by Sim Seats. Alfredo has a talented support system on Sunday, including last year’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Zack Novak and his teammate Jimmy Mullis, who will serve as crew chief and spotter, respectively.  ANTHONY ALFREDO QUOTE:What will it take to be successful at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway?“It will take a lot of practice to be successful at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. I won five races last week at virtual Texas Motor Speedway and had a lot of confidence heading into the heat race but I still put in about 10 hours on top of those races to practice. I expect to put in even more time than that this week to make sure I get comfortable and have the confidence I did last week. Racing online this week will help a lot, too, in order to practice long run speed and race strategy.”

This Week’s TaxSlayer Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway … Snider has one start at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Truck series and is entered for Saturday Night Thunder at the virtual track. About TaxSlayer … TaxSlayer makes online tax filing accessible for millions of Americans, with an easy-to-use platform and unlimited support at a fraction of the cost of the competition. Trusted for over 50 years, the Augusta-based tech company successfully completed more than 10 million state and federal e-filed tax returns in 2019 and processed $12 billion in refunds. TaxSlayer achieved a 4.6/5 TrustScore on consumer review site Trustpilot, with 85% of its customers rating the tax filing platform Great or Excellent. For more information, visit www.TaxSlayer.com.  Tax Day … The IRS has extended the federal tax filing deadline for 2020. Tax Day is now July 15, 2020. This extension is automatic and applies to all taxpayers. For up-to-date information and advice, check out TaxSlayer.com/blog. Save Now … When you file with TaxSlayer, the savings are around every turn. All the deductions, all the credits, and all the money you deserve comes back to you in your refund. Plus, when you enter promo code MYATT21 at checkout, you’ll save 21% off the cost of your federal return. Start for free at TaxSlayer.com NBCSN Short Track Challenge … If you enjoy Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race on FOX, make sure to tune into NBC Sports Network at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 8 to see Snider race the No. 93 TaxSlayer Chevrolet in the NBCSN Short Track Challenge. Snider will join Dale Earnhardt Jr., Timmy Hill, Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Preece and Landon Cassill at the virtual Myrtle Beach Speedway. The drivers are virtually racing via iRacing simulation for a spot in the championship race, which takes place at the virtual Martinsville Speedway on Thursday, April 9. MYATT SNIDER QUOTE:What are your thoughts on racing at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night? “It’s just so cool to be representing RCR and TaxSlayer in an awesome event like this. I’m really proud of NASCAR and the racing community as a whole for rallying behind this method of racing when we all can’t physically race. It’s going to be tough racing against drivers who have a lot of iRacing experience, but I think with enough practice I’ll be able to compete. I can’t wait to take my TaxSlayer machine to virtual Bristol.”

This Week’s HotScream Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway … Grala has a total of six starts under his belt at Bristol Motor Speedway, spread out among the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Truck Series and K&N Pro Series East. He is entered for Saturday Night Thunder at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway. HotScream … HotScream takes two concepts, dessert and spicy food, and combines them to form a product that can only be described as ‘HotScream The Spicy Ice Cream’. By taking ice cream with its cool creaminess and incorporating a spicy swirl, HotScream has created a new taste sensation, one that almost defies one’s own senses. At first, you taste the pureness of the vanilla, followed quickly by the sweetness of one of seven flavor swirls. As you continue to enjoy HotScream, things change: You feel a warming sensation that starts in the back of your mouth, creating a rush that only can come from spicy foods. The warming continues to linger but doesn’t engulf your mouth with fire. Taking another bite, you again taste the cool, creamy vanilla and the respective flavor profile while the heat dissipates, only to come back time and time again. HotScream is currently available at ACME Markets, Big Y, select ShopRites, Stop & Shop and 400 Walmart locations from Maine to Texas. For more information, visit HotScream.com. The Setup … Grala has spent much of this week working with FURY Race Cars on developing the prototype for a simulator chassis. Although the rig will not be ready in time for the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway race, he expects it to be in operation and ready for competition in the eNASCAR iRacing iPro Invitational Series soon. FURY Race Cars is a manufacturing company based in Mooresville, North Carolina that designs and builds race cars for competition in numerous racing series around the world. https://furyracecars.com/about KAZ GRALA QUOTE:You’re relatively new to iRacing. How do you prepare for the virtual race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway?“I just got my iRacing subscription on Tuesday of last week prior to the virtual Texas Motor Speedway race, so it’s been a fun learning curve for me. I’ve been practicing all week in my No. 29 HotScream Chevrolet at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway. I’m pumped about it because Bristol Motor Speedway has always been one of my favorite tracks to race on in real life and the virtual track is almost as good as the real thing. You’re going to see lots of action out there this weekend, just like you do in real life. Hopefully not too much action on my end. I’d like to have a clean race.”

After a disappointing finish in the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang at the virtual Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday, Matt DiBenedetto now turns his attention to the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, where he’ll pilot the No. 21 REESE/Draw-Tite Mustang in the third round of the NASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series.

At Texas, DiBenedetto was running 11th and poised to move up when he bounced off the wall and damaged his car on a long green-flag run late in the race.

Still he managed to salvage a 15th-place finish, one spot better than where he qualified.

“I was saving my right-front tire, driving smart and smacked the wall all by myself,”

DiBenedetto said. “I was faster than a big group ahead of me and had a top-five car, but I messed it up.”

Now he’s focused on Bristol and preparing himself to race the No. 21 adorned in the blue and white REESE and Draw-Tite colors for the first time, on the virtual version of the track where he finished second in last year’s night race after leading 93 laps late in the race.

 “Bristol is my best track in real life,” DiBenedetto said. “But iRacing has a different feel to it.

“It takes a lot of practice to get more comfortable with it and to have the precision you need.”

He said that in addition to working out to keep himself in shape for his eventual return to traditional racing, he’ll spend hours this week in front of his computer preparing for Sunday’s virtual run on the high-banked, half-mile asphalt track.

“I’ll definitely put a lot of practice into it,” he said.

Eddie Wood said he and his family team are proud to have their virtual Mustang carry the universally known REESE and Draw-Tite brands, which have been providing heavy-duty and custom hitches and towing equipment since their inceptions in 1952 and 1946.

“As NASCAR’s oldest continuously operating race team, it always feels special to be associated with companies that have similar histories to ours,” he said.

The Bristol race is set to get the green flag on Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, with TV coverage on FOX, FOX Sports 1 and the FOX Sports app. 

DELAWARE, Ohio (April 2) — Six-time drag racing world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. will always pick the familiar confines of his JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro as his preferred mode of go-fast transportation. But for three years, from 2008-2010, Coughlin enjoyed the unique experience of hitting breakneck speeds driving an Olympic bobsled as part of the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge.   “As I think back on those three events, that was actually pretty crazy,” said Coughlin, who will pullback from full-time racing at the end of the year. “At the time, the competitor in you comes out and the way they set it up was NASCAR versus NHRA so we just kind of dove into the fight. It probably was a bit insane but it was also a lot of fun.   “You’re in these things with no roll cage, no safety belts and no brakes really, except for one the brakeman uses after the run is over. It’s all about gravity and once they release you in that tube, you’re fully committed. The sled and its occupants are going to the bottom of the mountain. How you get there is up to you. If you crash and turn it over, you’re still going all the way down, just on your head, and that happened.”   Coughlin got involved in the charity event after hearing the story of former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine, who had learned of the struggles of the United States bobsled team in the 1990s. Bodine discovered the American athletes were far behind countries like Germany and Russia because they were using old, second- and third-hand bobsleds from their European counterparts.    Thinking the technology in the USA was equal to or even superior to most other countries, Bodine put a group together and started building bobsleds at his racecar shop. Almost immediately, the fortunes of the Americans soared and by 2002, the team collected its first Olympic medals since 1956. The Bo-Dyn Project took off from there.   “Geoff put quite the effort together to help our athletes and it was great to see the success they had attained after his involvement,” said Coughlin, who was a torchbearer for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games. “Both the men’s and the women’s teams jumped way up in the world rankings. Of course, funding was critical and they put together the Challenge both to raise money and awareness for our U.S. athletes.   “When Woody (Scott Woodruff, director of media and motorsports at JEGS) asked if I wanted to race as part of the NHRA team going up against the NASCAR guys, I jumped at the chance. I figured not too many civilians would ever have the chance to pilot a bobsled with our Olympic athletes serving as coaches. I knew nothing about bobsleds other than watching on TV but we decided to go for it.”   The Bobsled Challenge had actually taken place for two years prior to the NHRA drivers getting involved but despite their lack of experience, an NHRA contingent of Coughlin, Morgan Lucas, J.R. Todd, Melanie Troxel, Shawn Langdon and Bob Vandergriff attacked Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y., with wide-eyed gusto.

NASCAR CUP SERIESTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMARCH 31, 2020 
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, spoke with media via teleconference to discuss the upcoming eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, the Richard Petty Motorsports 43 Crew Challenge presented by U.S. Air Force, and more. Full Transcript: CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE UPCOMING 43 CREW CHALLENGE YOU HAVE GOING ON?“That is different from iRacing; that’s actually on Nintendo Switch. We have been playing religiously about every weekend. We’ve actually gotten super competitive, almost unhealthy the way we play. We decided to make it fun. We’ve always kind of had this idea in the back of our heads, but it was always tough throughout the regular work week before all this coronavirus stuff happened. Now that we have some downtime, we decided to create a little challenge where fans get to race myself and five of my guys that are on my Richard Petty team. We feel like we’re pretty good. 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 talk crap to each other. At the end of the day, it makes it fun. We are going to change it up a little bit. I think we’re going to try to get the other competitors in our chat room as well and be able to stream that to hear everyone’s audio. So, it’ll be pretty cool.” WHAT IS THE FOCUS THAT IT TAKES TO RACE ON THE VIRTUAL TRACKS? “It’s kind of crazy how focused and determined we are. On a sim, I don’t know if it’s my setup or my combination of wheel and pedals, but it’s super sketchy. You can make one little twitch in the wheel in real life and you know what’s going to happen. On this, you don’t know when it’s going to spin out. So, it’s kind of hard to judge that. By the time you find out, it’s almost a little too late. My wrists hurt so bad on virtual versus real life because I’m just trying not to do anything crazy or stupid with the wheel. Like I said, I don’t know what it’s going to do. You saw Ryan Preece go through the grass there and it was crazy how he saved in. I did the same thing, I don’t know at what point of the race it was, and I was about to break my whole simulator because I was shaking so hard to keep it underneath me. You definitely have to be focused. You saw Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) hit the wall in turn 4 and I was doing that a lot in the practice races, just because you’re like ‘OK, I’m going to exit the corner, I’m good’, but no it’s different. You have to stay focused the whole time.” WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE FOR BRISTOL? IF BOUNCING OFF THE WALL IS SO DIFFERENT ON THE SIMULATOR, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR BRISTOL?“Bristol is going to be tough. You can kind of get away with it in real life. It’s tough; you hit the wall, you’re cutting a tire quick. But here, it depends on where you hit with the car, it really affects your performance pretty bad. So, it’s going to be tough. There are going to be a lot of close quarters racing. The guys on the bottom may have a little bit of an advantage because it’s so easy to get in contact. Still looking back at the replay of my wreck last weekend at Texas, it was so close that you’re dealing with lag and I felt like I wasn’t there underneath him, and all of a sudden, he was spun around. It’s those things that will take you out of contention quick. There’s definitely going to have to be a lot of give and take.”  LOOKING AT YOU GUYS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, IT SEEMS LIKE THIS IS SOMETHING THAT’S CREATING A GOOD DISTRACTION AND POSITIVE DISTRACTION THROUGH THIS. DO YOU THINK THIS IS GOING TO MOVE THE DRIVER COMRADERY FORWARD IN THE SERIES AT ALL?“No, because you’re still going to get mad at each other. You see (Danial) Suarez, for an example, when he spun, he pulled right back up on the race track. Obviously, he wouldn’t do that in real life, so it’s like why in the heck are you doing it on virtual. Yeah, it’s not going to hurt anybody, but you ruin somebody’s race. I don’t know if it’s going to make the comradery better. We still get mad and frustrated, so it’s just virtually versus real life.” WHAT DOES YOUR NORMAL DAY LOOK LIKE NOW?“Man, it’s been tough. I’ve been very, very bored. I’ve been getting a lot done around the house actually. Amanda (Carter) has been here and she’s been working; she has to work everyday from home. So, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., she’s on the computer downstairs. She gets a little time away. In the last few days, we’ve been able to go out on walks throughout the neighborhood here. My allergies are really bad and it’s pollen season. I told her I’m not going outside again for like the next week; let me get through my allergies and we’ll be alright. Other than that, it’s a lot of time on iRacing. There are a bunch of different leagues that I’m joining in. I’m playing a lot of Call of Duty. I’m still kind of being a big kid at home. We’ll try to come up with dinner and lunch plans. We stay at the house as much as possible. I think we’ve quarantined ourselves pretty good. We were able to go over to her mom’s house yesterday for Amanda’s birthday. That’s about the only time we get out of the house, unless we need to go to the grocery store or something. Other than that, just trying not to go crazy. Keep your options open on whatever there is to do. We’ve been working on photography. I’ve been asking Amanda if I can take pictures of her. She was like ‘I brought some cute clothes’, so we were able to do that and just have fun. At the end of the day, you start to run out of ideas. You can only watch so many TV shows, you can only watch so much Tiger King. I only watched like thirty seconds of that and I was like ‘this is ridiculous’ (laughs). But all in all, just trying to keep it fun and light-hearted.” WHEN THIS IS OVER THIS, BACK TO RACING AND THE WORLD IS WORKING IT’S WAY BACK TO NORMAL, WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE NEW NORMAL?“Yeah, it’s tough. Obviously, just interacting with people, whether it’s pit crews, fans, whatever it is. We spread germs like no other. Before this pandemic, we were washing our hands and trying to be as clean as we could. But still, it’s crazy just how quick this spread and how quick the outbreak was, I think we’re going to be a lot more on top of things now. So, the interactions may decrease a little bit, which I think people understand that. We don’t want to shoo away anybody, but when you’re not feeling alright or something, we’ve got to do a better job of social distancing ourselves to not let this happen again. I think as far as racing, it’s going to be action-packed. NASCAR is doing everything they can to get a full season in. I know states are pushing different boundaries and adding new rules. Virginia just announced theirs until June 10th, which is crazy, but that’s what we’re following. We’re following the CDC and what the government says. So, it’s going to be tough, but hopefully we can get it all in and get going.” AS THE IRACING GOES ON, IT SEEMS TO BE GETTING MORE COMPETITIVE. DO YOU THINK TEMPERS MIGHT FLARE A LITTLE MORE?“Yeah, for sure. At the end of the day, we’re all competitors. It’s funny, I can sit there and try to become third perspective for a second while I’m driving, and be like ‘Man, we’re taking it super serious’. But at the end of the day, I hope the next time we interact with somebody in real life, that’s not going to carry over. It would be like ‘Hey man, you wrecked me on iRacing’. But it’s like, ‘Cool bro, you had a reset button. Did you get hurt? Did it cost you any money?’. No, so at the end of the day, it’s a video game and there’s no blood, sweat or tears. But you do put a lot of time into it, so to have somebody wreck you out or cost you a race is frustrating. But we’re putting on a show for the fans and doing some things that wouldn’t really happen in real life, so it’s a little bit different. Definitely a lot of people are getting more serious, practicing every day. So, it’s pretty cool and shows how competitive we are.” WITH NASCAR INTENDING TO GET ALL THE RACES IN, THAT LIKELY MEANS SOME COMPRESSION IN THE SCHEDULE. JUST CURIOUS OF YOUR ANTICIPATION OF TRYING SOME OF THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN TALKED ABOUT FOR AWHILE, BUT NOW IT MIGHT BE FORCED UPON US. MAYBE MID-WEEK RACES, MORE DOUBLEHEADERS.“Yeah, for sure. I think it would be sick, honestly. Just for example, Martinsville, obviously with the new rules throw that out the window, but say start at Martinsville. Then, that Wednesday we go to Atlanta and come back and run Charlotte. Then, the next Wednesday, run Bristol or something. I know we have to keep it in the same area because it would be really tough on teams getting to and from the race track. If we went from Martinsville to California, that would not work. But yeah, it’s going to be tough. I definitely don’t want to be in NASCAR’s shoes and the tracks’ shoes trying to figure all that out. All kudos to them for going through that headache. But I think the plan they will come up will be good and best suited for us and the fans. I think it would be cool; action-packed and worn out. But that’s kind of how it was. I remember during the summer months, being 9 or 10 years old, we were in Charlotte Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we were in Atlanta, and Friday and Saturday it was either Kentucky or Nashville. Those were the fun days of just sleeping in the back of the pickup truck and the next thing you know, you wake up at a new race track and do it all over again.” CAN YOU WALK ME THROUGH ALL THE PIECES TO YOUR SIM SETUP AND HOW MUCH DID YOU GET THAT FOR?“I had a room above my garage that was completely empty when I bought it from the previous house owner. They were like we didn’t really know what to do with it, and I was like ‘Man, I can turn this into a game room’. It’s isolated for the rest of the house, so I can be as loud as I want. I had bought a counter-top from IKEA. My neighbor actually helped me cut it up and get the dimensions right so I could have one part of my desk where I can sit down and play Call of Duty and stuff like that. Then, off to the side in the corner, there’s another part of the desk with another monitor set up for iRacing. I have my sim rig over there. I bought my rig a couple of years ago. I can’t remember the exact brand of it, but it was a couple hundred bucks. Then, my steering wheel and stuff is pretty expensive. That’s up in the couple grand or so. All in all, I’m in the $4,000 to $5,000 range, if you think about my computer and monitor setup. It’s funny, because you see these guys’ sims. I was actually able to meet Chad Wheeler and he does a lot of rigs for a lot of guys; Clint Bowyer, he does the FOX one, he’s got Dale Jr.’s. I was able to meet him and I was like ‘Man, I might need to be talking to you’. My rig is completely fine, but these are super nice. But we’ll see.” WHAT ARE YOU HEARING FROM YOUR FRIENDS IN ALABAMA ABOUT THE SIM RACING?“Alabama, I have no idea. I haven’t been to Alabama since I was two-years-old. My uncle still lives down there, and him and my aunt tune in every Sunday to watch it virtually. It’s crazy; I was sitting here talking to Amanda. The first race that was at Homestead, all we knew was FOX was going to air it and whatnot. We sat there and watched the broadcast of the race; they’re doing the National Anthem, they have Billy from MRO come through and do the invocation. We were like ‘holy cow, this is serious, this is awesome!’. It’s cool how we are transitioning into the world and putting on a show. We were really doing it just to have fun and give the fans something to watch. We’ve been doing this for a while, but for FOX to step up and broadcast it. You joke about it now, but TV runs the schedule in real life. We’re sitting there waiting for command and commercial breaks. It’s the same thing. All in all, it’s good for the sport and a good time. They enjoy it.” IS THERE A TRACK THAT IS YOUR FAVORITE VIRTUALLY? “The road courses are a lot easier on virtual because you can crash, reset, know what to do now and get new tires every time. It’s definitely not that easy in real life. But it’s different; some of the favorite tracks I have in real life are based off of the feel, speed and whatnot. Examples would be Bristol and Dover. Going through the corners there at Martinsville, you can show up there, have a lot of success and feel good. It’s different, going against guys that I know I can out-run in real life. You jump on the sim and they’ve been doing it everyday for the last three years, they go out and out-run you. So, it’s different; it’s totally different. You figure out the ins and the outs of being fast and good at these tracks virtually. But all and all, all of them are fine because you get the reset button and you get to try new things that you wouldn’t try in real life.” THE NUMBER OF LAPS IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A FEW MORE LAPS OR DOES IT SORT OF TIGHTEN UP THE INTENSITY OF THE COMPETITION?“No, I think the number of laps have been good. To be honest with you, I hadn’t been on iRacing in about six to eight months. It’s been kind of the cycle where I’ll jump on for a week and then I’ll get burnt out, and I won’t jump on for six to eight months. It’s been like that for a couple of years. That’s the point where I’m getting right now. I jumped on when we first announced that we were going to run for Homestead. I started racing every night with sprint cars, late models, all that stuff. Now, the only time I’ll get on is to practice a little bit and run the official races that we run on Sunday’s. It’s definitely good for me; I like the number of laps. It’s just long enough because you get to play a little bit of strategy, so we go 100 percent for the full race.” DO YOU SEE THIS AS A VENUE TO BE ABLE TO COMPETE WITH DRIVERS THAT HAVE HAD SUCCESS IN THE SPORT, BUT NOW YOU CAN DO IT VIRTUALLY WHEN IN THE REAL WORLD, IT WOULDN’T BE PRACTICAL?“Yeah, it gives them an opportunity to jump back in and jump into the sim world to give them a taste of that. It’s cool to have Bobby (Labonte) in there and whatnot. Racing against Dale (Earnhardt Jr.), I know he’s been doing it for a while. Still, it’s cool to see that. It just gives them a chance to be a kid and get the action for racing underneath them.” A FEW WEEKS AGO, AT CALIFORNIA, YOU AND A COUPLE OTHER DRIVERS WERE ABLE TO HONOR KOBE BRYANT AND THE OTHER VICTIMS OF THE HELICOPTOR CRASH. OVERALL, WHAT DID THAT TRIBUTE AND THAT WHOLE WEEKEND MEAN TO YOU? “That was a special weekend. (Ryan) Blaney had his car, and so did (William) Byron. We had the names and decals on our car. It was special. I remember when it happened, my mom had called me. You could tell she was very upset with just the tone in her voice. She was like ‘hey, did you hear the news’, and I was like ‘no, what happened’. I think I had just woken up from a nap to be honest. She was like Kobe Bryant died and I hung up immediately, got on social media, saw the news and immediately started sobbing. Seeing all the hits on Sport Center and all the news outlets about Kobe Bryant, how it impacted globally, just really makes you think about how big of an icon and person that we was to everybody, not just the sports world. We definitely lost a great one; one of the greatest of all-time for sure. It was super sad to see and just unfortunate. All of the other victims and his little girl, that was tough to swallow. The whole accident was just super tough, so we thought it would be cool for us to honor everybody there on our race car and show that we’re still thinking about them. There’s not a day that goes by that you get on Instagram or Twitter and there’s some Kobe highlight or some kind of Gigi highlight that brings you back and puts you in your feels again. So, it’s still tough to think about. It was cool to see the impact that he had globally; it just makes you want to try that much harder to be that type of person when you retire and leave your legacy behind.” ABOUT THESE MID-WEEK RACE POSSIBILITES, TALK ABOUT PHYSICAL FITNESS OF DRIVERS AND ENDURANCE, DO YOU THINK THAT MIGHT BREAK YOU DOWN A LITTLE BIT OVER THE COURSE OF TRYING TO SQUEEZE IN ALL 36 RACES IN?“Yeah, it will for sure wear you out. It’s definitely going to be tough on the physical side of things and mental side of things too. You’re really going to have to position yourself to have the endurance. I’ve definitely been hitting the gym here at the house more than I have in a year or so. We don’t know the exact schedule yet and what’s going to happen, but we have to plan for the most strenuous schedule as possible. Getting the upper body right, getting the cardio right and just making sure we can last. It shouldn’t be a problem; we’ll get that day or two reset in between to gain your stamina, confidence and your physical abilities back. It’ll definitely be tough, but it’ll get myself in shape and that’ll be nice.” TALK ABOUT THE MARIO KART RACING.“You definitely learn a lot. It’s funny; it’s like who are we racing against this week? You’ll seem them take a shortcut and it’s like ‘whoa, where did that come from?’. Or they’ll somehow get to that corner better than you. So, for me, I’m always analyzing the people I’m racing around, how they’re doing this and how they’re doing that. When are they drifting, when are they using their mushrooms, 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 competitive and I want to win in everything. I don’t care if it’s Mario Kart, iRacing or real life, it’s a racing game that I have a huge passion for.”

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang will return to competition on network TV this weekend as the sport’s iRacing wing steps up to deliver live content to a sports world starved for entertainment due to the coronavirus.

Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at virtual Texas Motor Speedway is the second event held this season featuring mostly Cup drivers but the first to be carried on FOX. Last week’s race at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway was broadcast on FOX Sports 1, which also is airing this week’s race.

The Invitational races might seem on the surface like a hastily assembled affair, but they are made possible by iRacing’s infrastructure already in place.

Drivers participate via computers in their own homes, with their consoles varying from $40,000 rigs to some costing just a few hundred dollars.

The Wood Brothers, with backing from the dockless electric scooter rental company Spin, a Ford Motor Co. property, already were involved in on-line racing and fielded four drivers last year.

Two competed in the 18-race NASCAR Peak iRacing League, and two more in the 16-race season for the NASCAR Heat Pro League.

Jon Wood, senior vice president and co-owner of the Wood Brothers team, said the foundation already laid by iRacing is the reason NASCAR fans can watch Cup drivers in action even though the traditional cars are idled indefinitely. 

 “iRacing took a chance before anyone else in being a NASCAR eSports league,” Wood said, giving much of the credit to iRacing Executive Vice President and Executive Producer Steve Myers, and to Otto Szebeni, who is iRacing’s director of sales and marketing. “We met them at Homestead in 2018 and they mentioned the idea of having an esports league. 

 “We really knew nothing about what they were planning, but the notion of an iRacing league, made up of some Cup teams seemed like a really good idea. 

“We joined in and were actually the first team to commit, not knowing if it would be a total flop or a booming success.”

After some initial difficulties explaining the concept of online racing to the old-school members of his family’s race team, Wood said his team now fully supports a venture that has become a leader in a sports world scrambling for ways to deliver content.

And, as with their traditional Cup team, the Woods have strong support from Ford in their iRacing venture.

Wood credited Brett Wheatley, who once oversaw the Motorcraft sponsorship and now oversees the company’s mobility and autonomous vehicle businesses including Spin, with recognizing the potential of esports like iRacing.

“Brett wanted to be a part of our esports venture, seeing it for what it could be at some point down the road,” Wood said. I think he accurately called that shot.”

Now, with few sports broadcasting options other than re-runs, the vision of folks like Wheatley and the iRacing execs is paying off.

 “The shutting down of all of America has kickstarted the e-sports revolution, but iRacing was already there and totally killing it long before this virus took hold,” Wood said. “If not for last year’s Peak Series and this year’s Coca-Cola iRacing Series, I can almost guarantee we wouldn’t be talking about iRacing in the way we are now.” 

 “The infrastructure and relationships were already there because of team involvement.”
 Wood said it took no more than a single text message relating to last Sunday’s Homestead race. From letting the team know the race would happen to making sure Matt and his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang would be involved was a single back and forth text. No contracts, no delays.  

 “That level of trust and knowing whatever they do, we know it will be done right.  That wouldn’t exist had it not been for the already existing relationships we have, and I think many other teams probably have very similar experiences,” Wood said. 

The O’Reilly Auto Parts 125 race at virtual Texas Motor Speedway takes place on Sunday, March 29, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time and is available on FOX, FS1, and the FOX Sports app.

NARC NEWSLINE – March 25, 2020, By Jim Allen …  And just like that, racing season and every other sport in America gets slam dunked by a China-borne virus named after a popular Mexican beer, which is hawked by a former Dallas Cowboy quarterback!  What are the odds?  Who saw that one coming?  I didn’t!  You didn’t!  And that unique scenario led to school closures, mass panic, pantry raids at Costco, the instant demise of the travel industry, shelter in place, and toilet paper being hawked on the streets like it’s crack!

So how does that effect all of you fanatic sprint car fans?  Just scroll through the social media site of your choice and it rates somewhere between totally pissed off to predicting an open wheel apocalypse (whatever that is!)   Many have wanted to revolt and race no matter what politicians and safety officials preach.  That got even more complicated when many fans lost their minds after watching California’s very own Carson Macedo win at Williams Grove in Pennsylvania.  If they’re racing, why can’t we race?  I get it.  We all get it.  But on the other side of the coin, nobody wants to actually get “it” – most specifically the COVID-19 virus.

The bottom line is it’s pretty hard to stage a “successful” open wheel event with less than 250 people, all of whom must be social distanced by at least six feet, while all of the veteran (older) race fans are quarantined at home surfing Amazon for hand sanitizer and face masks.  Yes, several promoters and sanctioning bodies have considered running renegade and staging racing events anyway.  But deep down, short track promoters know they will take a financial bloodbath in the process and that is probably more dangerous for our sport than the actual coronavirus itself. By the way, in the time it took to read that, the recommended group body count has already dropped to 100 …, no wait …, make that 50.  Now another press conference by the governor and it’s down to 10 people, who now have to prove they haven’t sneezed since the third grade.  Heck, by the time you’re done reading this piece, it will be highly recommended, suggested and legislated that you and your significant other can’t sleep in the same bed.

At this point, promoters are between a hard place and a harder place because while we do this for fun and an entertaining break from reality, their livelihood is probably at stake.  They are being forced to cancel everything, batten down the hatches, cut every expense, and sit tight and hope they can outlast the storm.  That is pretty depressing because a lot of work goes into preparing a track, negotiating a schedule and sponsorships and gearing up for any season.  And this knife cuts on both sides, because as of right now, the State of California is still expecting their facility lease payments to be mailed in a timely fashion.  If a concession isn’t made, we might be worrying about ALL tracks like we perpetually do about Calistoga (which may now be the most stable track of the pack after contracts were signed.)

Which brings us full circle to the slam dunk portion of the NARC King of the West Fujitsu Racing Series.  Two races schedule, two races postponed indefinitely (which is Latin for cancelled.)  And now that the State has mandated that no activities are to take place on any fairgrounds until May 10th, that officially scrubs the 30th Annual Dave Bradway Jr. race at Silver Dollar Speedway until 2021.  Keep in mind that the May 10th date is the “best case scenario” timeline.  That would tentatively make the May 16th Peter Murphy Classic the season opener, which is coincidental because it’s Mr. Murphy who has been preaching for years to “Bring a Friend” to the track.  Motorsports is going to need a lot of friends to recover from this.  Let’s hope that all of your friends are still employed by then.

Speaking of Murphy, everybody figured that Peter Murphy was one of the luckiest men alive when he took over the reigns at Keller Auto Speedway.  I did!  You did, we all did!  He marched in with a new vision and passion, new paint, new sponsors, and a healthy bounce in his step.  That resulted in an awesome season opener in front of a packed house at the Kings Fairgrounds.  He also has some great plans lined up to help grow 410 sprint car racing in California with some additional non-KWS competing races.  Fast forward a month and now he is in a permanent holding pattern over the Central Valley until the Fair Board and Health Department deems he can turn the lights on again.  That stinks worse than being stuck on a quarantined cruise ship.

In the meantime, we all need to be patient and go out of your way to support all of those in your family and our racing family – while properly maintaining social distancing.  Let’s get through to the other side of this global catastrophe without having to perform any memorial laps for anybody.  If you want to do something nice, send your local track promoter lunch (DoorDash or GrubHub); try to support the people and sponsors whose names adorn your favorite racing heroes cars, and with some luck, the 2020 season will not have a big asterisk next to it.

NARC NOTES:  I nominate car owner/former NARC president Walter T. Ross to be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.  #justsaying  …  We are planning to honor the legendary LeRoy Van Conett at our March 21st event.  That doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge him now!  The eight-time NARC champion claimed 65 feature events and was a dominating force any time he slipped into a sprint car. Those are some great memories, even if one can only remember a portion of them. … Geoffrey Strole recently announced that he will be chasing the NARC King of the West schedule this season.  The “G-Man” from Hanford cut his teeth as a series rookie in 2012 and finished 12th in points.  He’s aiming to improve that to the top 10 this season! …  While we are on the subject of nicknames, “Wild Bill” Anton will also be a frequent flyer this season. …  The cancellations have actually helped a few NARC-KWS teams.  Chico’s Kenny Allen wasn’t going to be ready for the NARC season until May.  Now he will be rolling in with with a new racing program, car and updated motor. …  Same thing with car owner Clayton Snow, who was tooling around in Arizona. …  And one of the newest teams who really appreciated the extra time was none other than Willie Croft.  The Roseville driver has literally built a new team from scratch for the 2020* season.  This includes everything from building a new hauler to buying the wrenches to put inside it. …

RANDOM THOUGHTS:  iRacing may become the most popular sport in America this year.  Desperate times bring desperate measures. … Do we take it for granted that every driver who buckles up in a sprint car has some kind of medical insurance?  Not to single anyone out, but why would anyone even consider getting into one without insurance?  All of us are invincible – until we get hurt – and then hindsight is the worst kind of reality check.  For those of you without an option, take a look at stida.com, which stands for the “short track independent drivers and associates.”  For less than $300 bucks you can buy a policy.  If you need it, I’ll lend it to you.  If you don’t pay me back, I’ll send Vinnie to break your kneecaps, which means you’ll need insurance anyway. …  Have you every wondered how Cornhole Tournaments get televised on ESPN, but not many, if any dirt track races? …  Since most of us are spending a ton-o-time on social media these days, start posting some of your favorite racing memorabilia and photos. … Wishing new Antioch Speedway promoter Chad Chadwick the best in his efforts to improve that facility.  Like Peter Murphy, he has big plans to take motorsports to the next level at his Contra Costa Fairgrounds race track. We would like to plan a return trip. …

… What do you with all of your spare time?  I agree, you can only watch Netflix reruns of Breaking Bad, Rake, Dexter and Narcos so many times before you go bats**t crazy!  For that reason, your NARC King of the West racing series entertainment guide highly recommends a subscription to SpeedShiftTV.com and/or MillsVideo.tv.  Pick a random race, pour yourself a beer in a plastic cup and see if you can predict (if you are young) or remember (if you are old) the top three finishers.  Make sure you throw some dirt in your face every few minutes for the full effect.  Or take it to the next level and do it naked when the kids are in bed.  What?  I just threw that in to see if you were still paying attention! … This is also a good time to surf the libraries of some of our great photographers; many of who have websites showcasing their work.  Others you can reach on social media.  I’m sure they would love an order for a nice photo of 2019 series champion DJ Netto to mount above your bed. …  There are also some great podcast available, a couple of which I’ve been on recently (sprintcarunlimited.com & Across the Groove.) … Support those who support sprint car racing.

So let’s steal a page from the Disney playbook, which is to end every story/movie on a positive note.  There will be good news ahead – if we’re patient.  We will still be alive if we do the right thing.  Race cars will be ready to go and your favorite dirt track(s) will be anxious to open their ticket booth.  And when we finally take the first green flag in qualifying, we will have an 80-way tie for the NARC King of the West Fujitsu Racing Series championship point lead late in the racing season.  A battle for the ages!

Coming to you live from Auburn, CA.  See ya!  Stay healthy and start lining up your friends for when this show gets on the road again.

Giovanni Scelzi Earns Back-to-Back Runner-Up Results in California and Arizona

Inside Line Promotions – PEORIA, Ariz. (March 2, 2020) – Giovanni Scelzi produced a pair of top-notch performances in his family owned sprint car during the last two weekends.

Scelzi earned a runner-up result on Feb. 22 at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif., before duplicating that result last Friday at Canyon Speedway Park, which hosted a Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour doubleheader that featured more than 50 drivers. Continue reading Giovanni Scelzi Earns Back-to-Back Runner-Up Results in California and Arizona →