The eNASCAR iRacing Pro invitational Series event, where NASCAR drivers are racing each other on the internet because they can’t currently do it in real life, is already giving us some spicy sports action. During Sunday’s race, which was televised, Bubba Wallace quit in the middle of a race after tangling with a rival in the most video game way imaginable.
https://kotaku.com/nascar-drivers-are-racing-each-other-online-and-its-go-1842478763
During the event, Wallace and Clint Bowyer came together a few times, which the official NASCAR account has highlights of:
Tempers brew early at the real AND virtual @BMSupdates. 👀
Have we seen the last of @ClintBowyer and @BubbaWallace getting into each other today?
📺: FOX, FS1 and the FOX Sports App pic.twitter.com/pu8LMWWDT3
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 5, 2020
The view from Wallace’s stream, however, was better:
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was intentionally bumped in this past weekend's iRacing event, ragequit the game on national television and stream, and then got dropped by his sponsor after the race for doing so
esports are definitely sports now pic.twitter.com/XvCAq8eJnW
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) April 6, 2020
The tantrum brought some mean tweets Wallace’s way after the race, which led him to come out and publicly say how not mad he was, before his race sponsor dropped him in the most NASCAR way imaginable:
GTK where you stand. Bye bye Bubba. We're interested in drivers, not quitters.
— Blue-Emu (@BlueEmu1) April 5, 2020
And that wasn’t all the race had in store! In the same event, as The Guardianreports, driver Erik Jones missed qualifying because of connection issues, and “seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson fired his spotter less than 20 laps into the race after falsely being told he was clear of another car, only to crash.”
I miss sports. And while fake sports just isn’t the same, it’s certainly shaping up to have its own charms.
