Kevin Harvick has openly admitted he’ll be wearing out iRacing this week. Harvick planned on using iRacing on Monday and Tuesday, then the Ford simulator on Wednesday before getting back on iRacing “Thursday, Friday, Saturday just to make sure that it’s fresh in your mind, so you know where to shift and things like that. Then it’s just trial and error after that.
Kevin Harvick is very possibly pounding out virtual laps through here as you read this. Image by iRacing

“I’ve watched enough races there that I know the racetrack in my mind, but I don’t know where our cars need to be and what gear I need to be in. I’ll learn that (this) week, and we’ll be ready and hopefully have a good day.”

iRacing and NASCAR will hold a Happy Hour event on Wednesday night. One driver from each series, along with their crew chief and engineer, will give fans a glimpse of going to a track in their first hour of practice and how they’d approach learning the course and developing a setup.

Collaboration – adding the chicane and showing off the track before race weekend – is a continuation of an already strong partnership between the two sides. iRacing and NASCAR are in their 11th season of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, and as Myers pointed out, they’ve worked together much longer; back to when the company was known as Papyrus Racing Games in the 1990s.

Myers isn’t sure there is a longer relationship in the sporting world between a “game developer” (he used air quotations here), and a sporting league. Maybe Madden and the NFL, but it is unique to have a long-term relationship with a company like NASCAR.

Granted, it took time for some within NASCAR to understand what iRacing was and what they could do. But over the last 16 to 18 months, Myers said there had been a dramatic improvement in the two sides working together, and credited some of that to how NASCAR and the world have shifted to using team technology, gaming, and simulation to connect with fans or create new ones.

The momentum and attention carried iRacing into this season. Then when the pandemic hit, iRacing was able to prove themselves well to NASCAR when in about 10 days, they went from getting a call from Fox about doing virtual racing to being live on network television.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world who could have done that,” said Myers. “I think that was just putting a bow on what we’ve accomplished over 16 years with (NASCAR) and letting everyone else in the company understand what we could do, and I think it’s just going to get better from there.

“This road course project is the tip of the iceberg for the things we’re going to be able to do for NASCAR. We’re moving into this era in technology that we can now do things for a fraction of the cost that NASCAR would traditionally need to do in the real world. For this project alone, if done right, we could literally have done all the work for them and handed them the plans to do it. That’s just going to get stronger as the relationship goes on.”

Although real racing is back, iRacing remains relevant, with the Daytona chicane being one example. Still, Myers knew it would be unrealistic to continue growing the momentum and attention it did during the pandemic. During NASCAR’s shutdown, with people at home and watching virtual racing, iRacing added 65,000 new customers. In January, iRacing had 110,000 customers.

“Even now, we’re still generating new member sign-ups about three times as much as we did before the pandemic,” said Myers. “We were doing well. We had a massive spike when the pandemic hit, but even though it’s dropped down a little bit, it’s still three times what it was before the pandemic. From that perspective we’re thrilled, because nobody can bank on the idea that you’re going to be on network TV every Sunday for eight weeks in a row. That’s kind of unheard of in this space.

“Everything we do as a company we view as ‘new member sign-ups,’ so our whole product is based on people signing up and coming in and racing, and by doing that, hopefully, we’re increasing the population of racers as we go. Ideally, our perfect case scenario is you go and have a great time, and you’re having a lot of fun doing it, and you get five of your friends to do it with you. Our best sales force is our members, who go out and recruit to enjoy this thing with them.”

With Daytona road course week upon us, iRacing members will enjoy getting to run the updated course. Speaking from experience, Myers said it’s going to be hard both in the virtual and real world. NASCAR stock cars are heavy machines that don’t have the same braking power as a sports car, and he’s going to be interested to see if the tires and brakes hold up with two significant braking zones.

And Myers is also going to be interested in seeing how those on iRacing handle the course (he’s expecting a lot of protests) as well as the best stock car drivers in NASCAR this weekend.

“These guys who are really not traditionally known to be road course racers trying to get these things slowed down for those slow corners, and it’s going to be the same struggle for our members as well,” said Myers. “And keep in mind, you’ve got fewer senses in the simulated world than the real world – you don’t have that feeling in your butt of the momentum, where the car’s moving and how it’s slowing down or accelerating. So, you’re using your ears and eyes and hands to make up for those sensations that you’re missing, and so it’s harder.

“I think people are going to have a very great appreciation leading up into the real-world race of how difficult it’s going to be for these guys. Especially jumping into these cars with no practice and taking the green flag and going into Turn 1 for the first time understanding the capabilities of their brakes. It’s going to be interesting, and I think our members are going to have a really great appreciation for what’s going to happen because they have the opportunity to do it in the sim.”

Daytona, iRacing, Esports, Insights & Analysis, NASCAR