NASCAR iRacing.com Series
 | |
| Category | Online racing |
|---|---|
| Country | International |
| Inaugural season | 2010 |
| Official website | NASCAR.com, iRacing.com |
The NASCAR iRacing.com Series are online oval racing series officially sanctioned by NASCAR and hosted by iRacing.com. In 2010 they include seven different series in total, with a World Championship series, a qualifying series for the championship and five amateur series.
History
The partnership between iRacing.com and NASCAR was originally announced on May 19, 2009, but its roots can be traced back more than 15 years to an idea of Bill France, Jr., then head of NASCAR.[1] A similar but short-lived online series with official NASCAR support, called the NASCAR Racing Online Series (NROS), was organized already in the late 1990s using the infrastructure of Total Entertainment Network (TEN) with the NASCAR Racing 2 PC simulation software by Papyrus Design Group.[2] Papyrus was co-founded by David Kaemmer, also the co-founder and current CEO of iRacing.com.
The details of the series were revealed during the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.[3]
Structure
Currently the NASCAR iRacing.com series include seven series in total. Five of them, the "amateur" series, are part of the standard iRacing.com competition program and open to anyone progressing through the standard license levels used in iRacing. A minimum of 250 of the top oval drivers can take part in the NASCAR iRacing Pro Series (NPS), which in turn serves as a qualifying series for the NASCAR iRacing World Championships (NDWC), reserved for the 50 best drivers.
NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series powered by iRacing.com
The NPAS is the top oval racing series in iRacing.com featuring the Gen6 spec cars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The series started in 2010 with the first race at Daytona when NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Dale Earnhardt Jr won the first ever race of the series, the first season had 18 races where 10 different drivers have won. Richard Towler won the 2010 championship. Ray Alfalla won the 2011 and 2012 championships and Tyler Hudson won the 2013 championship. The series has gotten more media attention and all races are live streamed on iRacing Live and on the Motor Racing Network's website. In February 2014, the series signed a 3-year title sponsorship with Old World Industries and their PEAK Antifreeze brand. The partnership included a chance for 2013 champion Tyler Hudson to be one of the drivers in the running of the Peak Stock Car Dream Challenge II.
NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series
The NiPS is the qualifying series for the NDWC. Currently, the season is open to the top 30 oval track drivers who finished in the top 10 in seasons one, two, and three in the Class A series that are non-Pro or DWC license holders, as well as drivers finishing in positions 31-50 in points from the NiSWC. It was previously open to the top 250 oval drivers on iRacing. Josh Parker and Josh Berry won the first two championships in 2009 and 2010 before this series was NASCAR affiliated for 2010. All Pro Series championships take place in iRacing's Season 4, which spans from late October to late January.
Amateur Series
The NASCAR-iRacing.com partnership includes six "amateur" series that have no limits on the number of participants. Currently they include (from top to bottom) online versions of the Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series (with a shorter, locked setup spin-off series) and Camping World Truck Series, as well as a Whelen Modified Tour, a slower SK Modified series and the generically named (paved) Late Model series. The six series are organized like other standard series on iRacing.com, following a week by week schedule for the 12-week 'season', with races every couple of hours. The NASCAR series have proven to be very popular with the service's users, with the NASCAR IRacing.com C Class Series (Camping World Trucks) and the NASCAR IRacing.com Late Model D Class Series being the 3rd and 4th biggest series (by participation) respectively, despite relatively high incident rates.
See also
Notes
- ↑ "NASCAR, iRacing partner for online racing series". NASCAR.com. May 19, 2009. Retrieved January 31, 2010.
- ↑ "The Auto Channel Presents Cyber Racing Today". The Auto Channel. Retrieved January 31, 2010.
- ↑ "NASCAR gearing up for official online racing series". NASCAR.com. January 23, 2010. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
External links
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