Drivers, spotters run simulated Atlanta NASCAR race on Twitch

On the day NASCAR was supposed to hold its fifth race of the season in Atlanta, a group of drivers and spotters instead got behind the virtual wheel.

On Sunday, they raced a 100-lap race set up by sim-racing company iRacing.

The idea for the race, held at iRacing’s Atlanta simulation course and broadcast on Twitch, came about Friday. That was the day that NASCAR announced the postponement of this weekend’s events at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the following weekend’s events at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fittingly titled The Replacements 100, the race included current Cup drivers William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe, as well as numerous drivers in the Xfinity and Camping World Trucks series. It was headlined by NASCAR’s most popular personality, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“It all kind of came together Friday when we were home,” T.J. Majors, spotter for Joey Logano, told NBC Sports. “(Joe Gibbs Racing chief digital officer) Bryan Cook had the same idea as I did … and then Kevin Hamlin (Bowman’s spotter) put a lot of work into this as well. … We started adding drivers to the list. A lot of fun. It’s unfortunate circumstances that we’re all home today, but we’re just trying to make the most of it and give people something to do and watch and have some fun.”

In the end, however, it was Josh Williams — Ryan Blaney’s spotter — taking the checkered flag. Byron finished second.

“Well dang congrats @joshtwilliams snookered me on that start! That was fun,” Byron tweeted.

Earnhardt finished eighth and Wallace ninth. Bowman, winner of the Auto Club 400 in Fontana, Calif., earlier this month and currently fourth in the Cup standings, finished 30th.

“Welp sim racing sure isn’t for me,” Bowman tweeted with a gif of Will Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby character from the movie “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”

–Field Level Media