Dale Earnhardt Jr. is racing against NASCAR drivers today. Here’s how to watch
NASCAR drivers aren’t allowed to compete in Atlanta this weekend. Upcoming races were postponed to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, but some Cup Series drivers are still racing this weekend. They will participate in an online race scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., William Bryon, Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace are among the names competing in the iRacing event, called The Replacements 100 — a play on the group of athletes hired to maintain normalcy amid labor strikes or lockouts in professional sports. Esports and the NASCAR-affiliated online racing organizer, iRacing, is filling those same gaps for drivers and fans as COVID-19 threatens the regular racing season.
Coverage of the virtual race will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the green flag scheduled to wave at 3:30 p.m. The event will be live-streamed on Twitch, so fans can watch by visiting twitch.tv/podiumesports.
Earnhardt Jr. and Byron have been outspoken advocates for esports and virtual racing.
“If I was a top 3 series @nascar driver, I would be practicing the @iRacing Cup car at Homestead this week,” Earnhardt Jr. tweeted Thursday following the announcement that races at Atlanta and Homestead-Miami would be run without fans. “I’d also be sending in my intentions to compete ASAP.”
Thursday, Earnhardt Jr. also retweeted a post from NASCAR that called for a virtual racing event with a caption that said, “Id unretire for this.” His tweet received over 10,000 likes.
It appears Earnhardt Jr. is keeping that promise. He will run Sunday’s virtual race against other NASCAR drivers, Justin Allgaier and Justin Haley, as well as non-drivers. Seven-time Cup Champion crew chief Chad Knaus (Byron’s current crew chief) and Coleman Pressley (Brad Keselowski’s spotter) will be in the race. The field will also include retired All-Pro Chicago Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long, as well as country music musician Tim Dugger and Twitch streamer Steven Steffen.
For more information about the event and sim racing, visit iracing.com/ and podiumesports.com/.
This story was originally published March 15, 2020 at 12:52 PM.
