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Thank You Denny Hamlin, iRacing, eNASCAR, America Needed This

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Denny Hamlin passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the very final lap to win today’s Dixie Vodka 150,  an eNASCAR race that’s part of the Pro Invitational Series. Most of America is only now just getting acquainted with the iRacing competition, a virtual race/eSport that’s perfectly suited for our chaotic times of isolation and quarantine.   

The simulated race spent a lot of time today as the top trending term, nationally, on Twitter today.

“This is something that can get real traction, simply because it’s as real as it gets,” Denny Hamlin said on media conference call after the race.

“I’m excited that this was just a first step and hopefully something that builds for years and years to come.”

 The man who also won the Daytona 500 this season, in real life auto racing, discussed how NASCAR has some advantages over other sports when it comes to getting a foot hold in the marketplace right now.

While everybody is staying at home in hopes of flattening the COVID-19 curve, all sports are off for the time being; eSports are the closest thing we’ll have. 

“Although NASCAR has its struggles at times, for the regular fan to go out and simulate a game-winning shot or game-winning pass, like iRacing has given them that platform, and there’s no other sport — like NBA players can’t go play NBA2K and put it on TV and make it look like the real thing,” he said.

“You can’t go play Madden and make it look like the real thing.  There’s so much animation…”

“..I think that it (iRacing) certainly keeps our sport relevant if we can keep it going.  I think that it’s going to — a lot of that’s going to fall on the shoulders of the drivers.” 

“I think as long as you have drivers willing to participate, you’re going to have a product that people are going to want to see.”

” So I think that if you got that first step, then most likely you can keep this thing going because ultimately people out there, the fans, want to see their favorite driver, and they don’t care if they’re racing virtually or in the real world, they want to see their favorite driver win.

 “I’m just looking through my social media and all the same people that congratulate me on TV on a normal Sunday tweeted me again today.”  

“I think it keeps people excited about our sport, and hopefully we can keep it.”

He’s absolutely right- we had something live to watch on TV and to tweet about. We needed this, so thank you!

America needed a nice diversion, something more light-hearted to think about and get into for awhile.

For those of us who have the luxury and good fortune to feel bored sometimes, to not be seriously worried all of the time about serious matters, we could really use something like this so hopefully it continues. And it’s not really “just a video game.”

It’s an entire pod and simulator setup. Not to mention Denny Hamlin did it barefoot!

“Yeah, I like feeling the pedals.  With shoes I just can’t do it.  I always go barefoot,” he responded.

And the sport gained at least a few new fans today.

“People are talking about it,” he continued.

“If we got five new fans that were just sitting at home watching TV today that thought it was exciting and is willing to tune in next week or willing to tune in to a NASCAR race or go to a NASCAR race because they got introduced to racing today by iRacing, it’s a success.” 

“If you made positive gains in your audience, whether it be one person or 1,000, it’s a good thing.”

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.

You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link