{"id":29185,"date":"2020-03-28T08:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=29185"},"modified":"2020-03-28T08:33:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T13:33:27","slug":"weekend-preview-oreilly-auto-parts-125-at-virtual-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/28\/weekend-preview-oreilly-auto-parts-125-at-virtual-texas-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Preview: O’Reilly Auto Parts 125 at virtual Texas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

If you didn\u2019t know better, NASCAR drivers were preparing for a race at Texas Motor Speedway this Sunday as they would any other season. And even with a pause on the national sports scene because of the COVID-19 pandemic, NASCAR is still going to be racing at Texas \u2013 only this week it will do so with a popular twist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

(Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday\u2019s O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts 125 (1 p.m. ET available on FOX \u2013 where available and subject to change, FS1 and the FOX Sports App) is the second race of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series that has captivated NASCAR\u2019s best racers and, equally as importantly, thrilled NASCAR\u2019s large and loyal fanbase which can count itself fortunate to still have the ability to watch so many of its favorites compete \u2013 albeit virtually.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a wonderful opportunity for the sport, for racing in general,” said Stewart-Haas Racing driver Clint Bowyer, who last week served as an in-race commentator for the FS1 television broadcast and finished 16th out 35 in the opening race.<\/p>\n

\u201ciRacing has been around a long time and it\u2019s just something that keeps evolving and they\u2019ve perfected. Here we all are, just longing for some sports action, some competitive action that we can broadcast and show a fan, and then boom here it is in our lap.”<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Bowyer_Teleconference_iRacing_032620.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u201cEverybody has teams that compete week in and week out in their series,” Bowyer said of the iRacing product. \u201cProduction-wise, I\u2019ve known that it was good and it keeps getting better. The camera angles, everything it\u2019s pretty darn realistic and pretty darn good, so it didn\u2019t surprise me one bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this weekend will be even bigger.”<\/p>\n

Certainly there was a bit of a learning curve for some of these NASCAR regulars in last week\u2019s opener at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway. Denny Hamlin edged Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a dramatic last lap bump-and-run. iRacing regular Timothy Hill finished third followed by Chase Briscoe and pole winner Garrett Smithley.<\/p>\n

Hill and Smithley, who compete for smaller teams in the NASCAR Cup Series, may not be race favorites on the real track yet, but they are strong and experienced iRacers who turned some heads with their performances last week. And they competed with a comparatively modest set-up \u2013 steering wheels attached to their desks at home with a single computer screen. Hamlin, for example, sat in a rig with roll-bars and three computer screens \u2013 a set-up he estimated probably cost upward of $40,000.<\/p>\n

Both Hill and Smithley say this week\u2019s virtual race on the notoriously tough 1.5-mile Texas high banks will be an entirely new test for the field because it\u2019s new repave has only recently been updated in the iRacing format.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so neat with iRacing how they laser-scan these race tracks and it\u2019s identical to real-life,” Hill explained. \u201cSo, Texas was repaved not too long ago and iRacing went down there and scanned the new re-pave and actually for iRacing, we\u2019ve been running the old pavement up until this year. They\u2019ve just recently come out with the new race track, so I\u2019ve never even been on it yet.”<\/p>\n

That new competitive element may well come into play. But regardless, many of NASCAR\u2019s top drivers have spent the week upping their iRacing game with much more practice or even a new simulator to compete with.<\/p>\n

Two-time and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch finished 29th on Sunday, driving friend Ty Gibbs\u2019 sim rig with very little practice on it. Busch said he went to great lengths to borrow a sim for his home this week. And to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now, after we put Brexton (Busch, son) to bed, I can go down there and start working on getting better,” Busch explained. \u201cTexas seems like it\u2019s going to be a heck of a lot more simple than Homestead was as far as the driving aspect. You just have to hit your marks in turns one and two and get back to the gas in turns three and four, which are going to be wide open.”<\/p>\n

His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones, who finished 10th last week at virtual Homestead, is equally enthusiastic about another chance in the competition. Jones conceded, however, that he wasn\u2019t able to put as much practice time in as he may have wanted this week because he is moving \u2013 the opposite scenario of what he\u2019s expecting from the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly did not know how I\u2019d do in last week\u2019s race at Homestead,” said Jones, who drives the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series. \u201cIt had been forever since I last went iRacing, so it was like I was a rookie all over again. But things came to me fairly quickly, although I\u2019m still nowhere near where I want to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerformance aside, I think we all came away from that race impressed with how the entire industry rallied around it, and fans seemed to like it too. Now we\u2019re on big FOX this Sunday, so even more people will be watching. Obviously, that\u2019s good, but it does kind of ramp up the pressure. You want to do well. Even though it\u2019s a simulation, we\u2019re all competitors and we want to win.”<\/p>\n

Bowyer confirmed as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminds me of a rookie coming into the Cup Series,” Bowyer said. \u201cYou\u2019re up against guys who have been doing it for years, decades and you\u2019re expected to jump right into the deep end and compete with them and run door-to-door with them and beat them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure is on for all of us to gain that almighty seat time as much as we can. During the evenings and during the days, whenever you can jump on it, we\u2019re all doing it.”<\/p>\n

Bowyer, Busch, Jones, Hamlin, you name it. \u2026 so many of the sport\u2019s top names are certainly all on-board with this opportunity to simultaneously stay on their game and provide good racing for the fans. The chance to showcase the sport again nationally on the FOX network is a huge plus and both competitors and fans seem to be enjoying this new normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s doing it \u2013 it\u2019s the hot thing to do \u2013 and it was certainly fun to do last weekend to help everyone forget about everything that is happening in the real world,” Busch said of the eNASCAR iRacing. \u201cEveryone seems to enjoy it. A lot of guys are getting a little more serious about it and everyone is spending more time on it, so I figured if I\u2019m going to stop running 30th, I\u2019m going to need to get some more laps (laughing).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service If you didn\u2019t know better, NASCAR drivers were preparing for a race at Texas Motor Speedway this Sunday as they would any other season. And even with a pause on the national sports scene because of the COVID-19 pandemic, NASCAR is still going to be racing at Texas \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":24796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,21],"class_list":["post-29185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/MENCS_TMS_Green_Flag_033119.jpg?fit=5472%2C3648","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-7AJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29189,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29185\/revisions\/29189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}