iRacing is fun but won’t carry racing teams for very long

CHARLOTTE, N.C. »

Virtual racing has been the small saving grace for motorsports since the coronavirus pandemic brought nearly everything to a halt.

Timmy Hill’s iRacing victory on national television gave the journeyman driver and his sponsors exposure they would never receive during a normal NASCAR weekend.

“What I’ll gain from this is recognition. It’s hard to get that recognition because of the level of competition that we are in real life,” said Hill, who at 27 has bounced around NASCAR’s three national series since 2011 before making his first Daytona 500 this year.

“We just don’t have the money, the dollars, to compete at a high level. Every once in a while we’ll get that big payday and we can really reinvest in our race team,” he said. “This win will hopefully gain some recognition and attract more sponsors for us, maybe in the real world when we get back racing. Hopefully it will help me in the real world.”

The real world looks grim right now: Racing and revenue have come to a halt and it is unknown what the landscape will even look like when the crisis ends.

IndyCar suspended its season 48 hours before it was set to open and last week new series owner Roger Penske made t he unprecedented decision to delay the Indianapolis 500 from Memorial Day weekend for the first time in its long and storied history.

Penske’s transportation business has been hit and he informed Penske Corp.’s 60,000 employees over the weekend that both he and the company president would forego their salaries while senior leadership be paid less. Roughly 50 employees from IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway were laid off.

NASCAR has so far cut salaries for its executives by 25% — that includes the presidents of tracks owned by NASCAR — and 20% for all other employees. Behind the scenes, NASCAR has crafted a schedule to accommodate the seven races already postponed, but series leader have been hesitant to release details because everything is so fluid. NASCAR has officially suspended the season until May 9 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia — a state that on March 30 issued a stay-athome order until June 10 or it is rescinded by executive order.

Senior NASCAR executives have consistently checked in with teams and NASCAR had a March 30 call with members of the Race Team Alliance to discuss future scenarios, including the development of the Next Gen car that had been scheduled for a 2021 debut.