NASCAR driver loses sponsorship after rage-quitting iRacing event

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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Recap: NASCAR in mid-March postponed all upcoming races through May 3 amid the Covid-19 outbreak. In lieu of actual racing, Fox, iRacing and NASCAR teamed up to air the iRacing Pro Invitational Series, putting pro drivers behind the wheel of virtual rigs to compete in video game racing.

Professional stock car driver Bubba Wallace is topping headlines this week after unceremoniously bowing out of Sunday’s iRacing Pro Invitational Series.

Wallace, one of 32 drivers competing in the Food City Showdown at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, got into a dust-up with fellow driver Clint Bowyer shortly after the race started. On lap 11, Bowyer bumped into Wallace as they were coming out of a turn. Seemingly thinking it was Wallace’s fault, Bowyer retaliated and intentionally smashed his car into Wallace, running him into the wall and dragging others into the mess.

Both drivers seemed a bit peeved about the incident but Wallace took it a step further, dropped a profanity before rage-quitting the game.

It’s the sort of behavior that you witness all the time in the gaming world but when professionals are competing for a national audience, I guess you sort of expect a bit more professionalism. And so, too, did one of Wallace’s sponsors.

Blue-Emu, who sponsored Wallace for the race, didn’t care for the fact that Wallace wasn’t able to keep his composure under pressure and publicly dropped his sponsorship. It’s significant because Blue-Emu also sponsored one of Wallace’s real-world races last year and recently signed a multi-year agreement as an official NASCAR partner.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/84717-nascar-driver-loses-sponsorship-after-rage-quitting-iracing.html

 
Obviously these guys don't have enough Cheeto dust and mountain dew bottles lying around there keyboard/desk/wheel.
That's real eSports
 
As an experienced rage quitter, you don't rage quit until it involves taking your keyboard and throwing it (while still wired to the computer) across the room and then twisting said keyboard into a pretzel until the keys fly off. :-D
 
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Why would I want to waste my time watching others play a game I can play myself? The whole concept of virtual competition is on the same level as the reality TV shows and is as inspiring as watching paint dry among many other comparatives .....
 
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Uncle Al said:
Why would I want to waste my time watching others play a game I can play myself? The whole concept of virtual competition is on the same level as the reality TV shows and is as inspiring as watching paint dry among many other comparatives .....
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Some people do this for the Social aspect of it.

If you ever watch a twitch stream, there is a chat there are regulars there are subscribers some people tend to build a bond with the streamer. Its more than just watching some Random play games.

I just think you are too old for this kinda thing :)

And I get it the older I get the less people I want to be around lol.
 
cliffordcooley said:
Apparently that is the case with the younger generation. They would rather digitally socialize and perhaps watch socialization than physically socialize.
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I would say some not all. However I remember my teens and early 20 most are followers and few leaders. So they just do what everyone else is doing. Not alot of free thinking at those ages. And now with the way technology is it forces people to be non social when it comes to physical interaction. Very different from when I was that age.
 
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Professionals or not, virtual racing is nowhere near real world racing. I enjoy Nascar from time to time, but I'm not watching that iRacing crap. Mr Wallace got frustrated with good cause. It wasn't Mr. Bowyer either. These are professional racers trained to drive real race cars in the real world. Virtual Racing is not and will never be comparable. There is no way to feel how your car is handling, how the wind is moving and buffeting it around, how your tires are wearing, the vibration of the engine and so on. Not to mention that lack of visual perspective.

iRacing is no replacement for real racing and never will be. I feel the frustration of Mr. Wallace.
 
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Uncle Al said:
Why would I want to waste my time watching others play a game I can play myself? The whole concept of virtual competition is on the same level as the reality TV shows and is as inspiring as watching paint dry among many other comparatives .....
Click to expand...
You could say the same thing about most real-world sports. Racing is, of course, something of an exception due to the expenses involved, but you're the only thing stopping you from getting involved with a local football(soccer for you maniacs) club or the like. If you're playing something that doesn't involve a team, that's even easier.
 
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ZedRM said:
Virtual Racing is not and will never be comparable. There is no way to feel how your car is handling, how the wind is moving and buffeting it around, how your tires are wearing, the vibration of the engine and so on. Not to mention that lack of visual perspective.
Click to expand...

This is you having absolutely no clue what you're talking about. First off, to your strawman argument ... no one has ever said it's a 'replacement' for the real thing. two, no sh!t that sitting in a chair in your house isn't going to give you G-force feedback.

Real-world racers train in simulators all the time. Most F1 drivers have simulators in their homes (Google 'Lando Norris simulator'). It's an excellent way to learn the track, as the tracks are laser scanned and are precise down the smallest bumps.

"how your tires are wearing, the vibration of the engine and so on "

Again. clueless. Look up force feedback, and motion simulation.

"Not to mention that lack of visual perspective. "

VR, and triple screens, FOV calculators. Your ignorance is practically waving around like a flag.

Lastly, not everyone is playing on a toy wheel, wheels and pedals can cost thousands of dollars and there are home-built simulators that easily surpass $20,000, and professional ones that can go between $100K and $1M. You think Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull, etc are spending that kind of cash on simulators because they are useless to the team?
 
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LoL you really think a simulator will replace a track for real are you serious.
Do you really believe racers are training on a simulator, where do you get that false info from.
What they do is rent the race track as much as possible to train on them for as long as they can rent it.
No freaking simulator, the only thing they do on simulators is finding tech related stuff.
There is simply no other way to train than drive the track and feel the tires and forces on the car yourself. The current simulators are nowhere near real time situations. Except those for the airplanes/space but your talking about simulators which costs do come near the costs of a whole f1 racing event all year long. No racing team can or will spend so much on a virtual environment.
But I am not gonna say that it will not happen, because I believe that in the near future this will become possible. For now its technically not possible yet. So I agree with the person saying that for now its not being used for real.
I do not say that a racegame can not be lifelike but a simulator nope nothing near it all.
 
ubronan said:
LoL you really think a simulator will replace a track for real are you serious.
Do you really believe racers are training on a simulator, where do you get that false info from.
What they do is rent the race track as much as possible to train on them for as long as they can rent it.
No freaking simulator, the only thing they do on simulators is finding tech related stuff.
There is simply no other way to train than drive the track and feel the tires and forces on the car yourself. The current simulators are nowhere near real time situations. Except those for the airplanes/space but your talking about simulators which costs do come near the costs of a whole f1 racing event all year long. No racing team can or will spend so much on a virtual environment.
But I am not gonna say that it will not happen, because I believe that in the near future this will become possible. For now its technically not possible yet. So I agree with the person saying that for now its not being used for real.
I do not say that a racegame can not be lifelike but a simulator nope nothing near it all.
Click to expand...
Good luck renting the Monaco track... Of course they train on the real tracks as much as feasible, but in many cases that's not very much.
 
ubronan said:
LoL you really think a simulator will replace a track for real are you serious.
Do you really believe racers are training on a simulator, where do you get that false info from.
Click to expand...
Some NASCAR drivers, especially rookies, have used racing video games to familiarize themselves on certain tracks on the circuit. Of course it's not the same as the real thing but it does help some.
 
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ziffel66 said:
This is you having absolutely no clue what you're talking about.
Click to expand...
Hold that thought...
ziffel66 said:
First off, to your strawman argument ... no one has ever said it's a 'replacement' for the real thing.
Click to expand...
You were saying? That is EXACTLY what's happening. Real life races are suspended, virtual races with the real-life drivers are on. How is that not a replacement?
ziffel66 said:
two, no sh!t that sitting in a chair in your house isn't going to give you G-force feedback.
Click to expand...
You're about to contradict yourself...
ziffel66 said:
"how your tires are wearing, the vibration of the engine and so on "

Again. clueless. Look up force feedback, and motion simulation.
Click to expand...
You were saying? No simulator is going to give any real "force-feedback".
ziffel66 said:
Your ignorance is practically waving around like a flag.
Click to expand...
And your comment is little more than a personalized attack that demonstrates your clear misunderstanding of both the subject material and the context of same.
 
mailpup said:
Some NASCAR drivers, especially rookies, have used racing video games to familiarize themselves on certain tracks on the circuit. Of course it's not the same as the real thing but it does help some.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. It's helpful as a training tool, but it is in no way a replacement for the real thing and never will be.
 
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jpuroila said:
Good luck renting the Monaco track... Of course they train on the real tracks as much as feasible, but in many cases that's not very much.
Click to expand...
Street tracks can be driven every day with the only limitation that you have to drive according to the rules, So no super speed and watching for the speed cams.
Every other track can be rented to train even though its very expenssive some teams do it often to get the best result ever.
The rest of the time these tracks do not have income other than small racing events so they are happy to rent the track out for every event possible as long as the track is not damaged ;).
The problem is to get a spot on these tracks because many drivers ( yes even private drivers) want to do the famous tracks. That is also why it becomes more and more expensive the demand drives the prices up.
See Spa and Nurnberg ring.... you have to wait many months for a spot on the track.
 
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