Updates from the Armchair: This Week in iRacing

July 17, 2018

Ahead of Wednesday‘s Eldora Dirt Derby in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, fans and drivers have been slinging virtual dirt in preparation.

iRacing hopped on board to sponsor Brett Moffitt‘s truck for Wednesday night‘s race. Naturally, Moffitt hosted a few iRacing races Tuesday afternoon to get the feel of racing the truck on dirt against fans and iRacers.

We‘ll see if Moffitt‘s preparation helps him Wednesday.

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Matt Tifft showed fans how to get around Kentucky Speedway on the Richard Childress Racing sim rig.

Not sure if you‘re using the famous around-the-rim Kyle Larson line correctly on iRacing? Why not get validation from the man himself?

Dale Earnhardt Jr., a sim-racing pioneer, opened up Monday night about his role in iRacing‘s early development in a Twitter discussion with iRacing‘s EVP Steve Myers.

When you race some of the rookie and short track cars on iRacing, there‘s a good chance you‘re racing a laser-scanned copy of one of Dale Jr.‘s cars.

NASCAR PEAK ANTIFREEZE IRACING SERIES UPDATE

At Chicagoland Speedway on Tuesday, Zack Novak picked up his first victory of 2018, overcoming a botched green flag pit stop entry that sent his No. 15 spinning in the early stages of the race. While it appeared Ryan Luza had the car to beat most of the night, Novak benefited from the timing of a late-race caution following a restart that kept his car ahead of Luza‘s.

Sonoma winner Bobby Zalenski unseated Slip Angle Motorsports teammate Ray Alfalla atop the points standings after Alfalla crashed out of the race late in the going Tuesday.

The NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing Series races next at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 24.

IRACING PAINT SCHEMES OF THE WEEK

Remember Mark Martin‘s iconic 1998 race car? Justin Rowden updated it to 2018 standards on the iRacing version of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford Fusion.

Speaking of 1998 throwbacks, Zac Campbell replicated Jeff Burton‘s 1998 Exide Ford on today‘s Ford Fusion.


DON‘T TRY THIS AT HOME

When Brett Moffitt hosted a few unofficial iRacing test sessions at Eldora Speedway on Tuesday, I decided to hop in and (pathetically) log some laps.

I fell out of the test race pretty quickly (as I do), then decided to spend the last few laps, while running in last place, trying to improve my line — and maybe stop trying to drive Eldora like a traditional asphalt oval.

That‘s when iRacing Race Control decided to use me as a training exercise. I mean, it made sense — this was an unofficial race with literally nothing on the line. I was seven laps down in a 30-lap race, and my truck looked like something they load onto the hauler after a brawl at Martinsville.

I received a 30-second black flag penalty, which seemed odd, but I figured I‘d be a good sport and serve the penalty anyway.

Shortly after the race, the iRacing crew sent me video footage of the black flag incident from their end. I‘ll admit, knowing this side of the story — and considering nothing was at stake, and this was always intended as a joke — it‘s pretty funny.

Although, the “He‘s already in last!” part stings a little.