eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series – Virtual Texas Motor Speedway News & Notes

eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series
Next Race: O’Reilly Auto Parts 125
The Place: Virtual Texas Motor Speedway
The Date: Sunday, March 29
The Time: 1 p.m. ET
TV: FOX (where available and subject to change), FS1 and FOX Sports App
Distance: 125 Laps

eNASCAR Pro Invitational Qualifier
The Place: Virtual Texas Motor Speedway
The Date: Sunday, March 29
The Time: 10:55 a.m. ET
Online: enascar.com/live
Distance: 30 Laps, No Cautions
More fun to come in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 125

While NASCAR’s on-track activity has been postponed through the weekend of May 3rd to align with CDC guidance, drivers and fans are turning to the virtual world to see some of the best racing competition around.

Last Sunday, NASCAR, iRacing and FOX Sports teamed up to deliver the first-ever eNASCAR iRacing Pro invitational Series event, the Dixie Vodka 150, at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway. This week, FOX Sports announced their commitment to cover the remainder of the season, beginning Sunday, March 29, at 1 p.m. ET from virtual Texas Motor Speedway with the O’Reilly Auto Parts 125.

Entitled FOX NASCAR iRacing, the races will be simulcast on the FOX broadcast network where available, FS1 and the FOX Sports app. Races will also be available in Canada through FOX Sports Racing.

Last weekend’s inaugural event, won by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, drew 903,000 viewers on FS1, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox Sports iRacing was the most-watched telecast on FS1 since the pandemic-induced sports shutdown began on March 12 and Sunday’s most-watched sports telecast on cable television, as well as ranks as the highest-rated esports TV program in history.

Additionally, according to rankings by Twitter interactions, the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series on FS1 was the #1 most-social TV program overall on Sunday. NASCAR-owned content related to the event also produced more than one million engagements throughout the weekend.

Again this Sunday the event will feature FOX NASCAR broadcasters Jeff Gordon, Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds calling the action. They will be complimented by Stewart-Haas Racing driver Clint Bowyer, scheduled to return as the in-car analyst while competing from a simulator in the FOX NASCAR Charlotte studio.

Fans can watch the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Qualifier race online

This week the qualifier race to fill the final four spots in the 35-car field will be streamed for fans to watch.

The eNASCAR Pro Invitational Qualifier will take place at 10:55 a.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live.

34 qualifiers from the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and regional series are scheduled to battle to join the 31 drivers locked in to Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 125 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX (where available, subject to change), FS1 and the FOX Sports App.

The race will consist of 30 laps at Texas Motor Speedway and there will be no cautions.

Note – should there be any late additions or drops to the list of guaranteed entries, that will impact the number of qualifiers advancing from the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Qualifier.

Sunday’s run of show and race format

Below is a breakdown of Sunday’s run of show for the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Qualifier and the O’Reilly Auto Parts 125:

eNASCAR Pro Invitational Qualifying Race

10:30 a.m. – Practice begins

10:55 a.m. – Qualifying begins, 5 minutes – 2 laps

11:02 a.m. – Race begins – 30 laps, no cautions

O’Reilly Auto Parts 125

12:00 p.m. – Practice begins

12:50 p.m. – Qualifying begins, 3 minutes – 2 laps

12:54pm – Warmup begins (set to 45 minutes, will advance on FOX command)

1:00pm – Broadcast Begins

1:13pm – Green flag – 125 laps

Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 125 will consist of 125 laps with double-file restarts and lapped cars will go to the rear. There will be three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish, if necessary.

Drivers will be allowed one fast repair this week at virtual Texas Motor Speedway. If a car is damaged, drivers must drive back to their pit stall and come to a complete stop. This will automatically apply the fast repair and give the driver a new car.

Fantasy eNASCAR available for fans

Fantasy offerings for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 125 1 p.m. ET on FOX – where available and subject to change, FS1 and the FOX Sports app) are growing.

This weekend DraftKings, in collaboration with NASCAR, has put together a $10K winner-take-all Sportsbook Pools contest. Free to enter, the contest requires participants to submit their picks for questions like, “Who will have the highest finish this week?” and “Will the winning car number be odd or even?” The participant with the most correct answers wins, pursuant to NASCAR official rules and scoring.

Last weekend’s kick-off race garnered over 13K unique entries, adding to the over 300K people participating in overall free-to-play pools entries since mid-March.

Over the airwaves overseas

Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race from virtual Texas Motor Speedway will be available to our international affiliates in 165 countries and territories, reaching over 300 million households.

Including the United States, the show will be available to over 400 million households worldwide.

Below is a lineup of broadcasters:

Giving back

The regular season may be on hold but NASCAR’s regular and passionate commitment to giving remains strong as the world deals with the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The NASCAR Foundation has partnered with the sport’s race facilities to help those immediately impacted by the virus in local communities. It hosted a Feed the Children campaign last week in the Homestead-Miami area where the sport was scheduled to compete on track and instead debuted the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. The plan is to go forward with similar charitable organizations in other markets.

At the Homestead-Miami Event on March 22, for example, the NASCAR Foundation and other industry partners raised almost $40,000 for “response efforts” including a donation to the area’s Feed the Children organization. The group will use the funds to distribute supplies – including food, cleaning supplies and other daily essentials – to local schools in the community. Dixie Vodka, iRacing, FOX Sports and Coca-Cola Racing joined drivers Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick by either pledging or donating supplies/money during the Homestead-Miami iRacing event.

This week, the NASCAR Foundation, will work with Speedway Children’s Charities – the official charity of Speedway Motorsports, which owns Texas Motor Speedway – site of this week’s iRacing event. The organizations will partner up with the American Red Cross to help “lifesaving missions” in North Texas because of COVID-19. Specially, this effort will make sure the American Red Cross is prepared for patients and their critical needs for people “affected by disasters big and small.”

Similar partnerships with the industry and local charities are expected. Donations are currently being accepted in support of these efforts at: NASCARfoundation.org/response.

Driver Stats

See complete stats for entered drivers here.

— NASCAR —