NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt was wrong, and that’s a good thing

Dale Earnhardt once told Dale Jr. that computers were a “waste of time”. Fortunately, given where NASCAR is now, he was wrong.

Just four races on the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule had been contested when NASCAR was forced to bring the season to an unexpected halt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. All races through early May have been postponed, and none of them have been rescheduled yet.

NASCAR postponements: TRACKER

Had this happened in Dale Earnhardt’s day, things would be nothing like they are now. Fortunately, this is a topic about which the Intimidator was wrong.

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In response to this pandemic, NASCAR and iRacing introduced the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series so that the drivers can still compete against each other in a virtual world while they are not able to compete at real venues.

This simply would not have happened in Earnhardt’s day. He competed in the Cup Series from 1975 to 2001 and was killed in a last-lap Daytona 500 crash in February of 2001. His legendary career included a record-tying seven championships and 76 victories.

iRacing, which was launched in 2008, has been described by many drivers as being as close to the real thing as possible, which is a far cry from a video game such as NBA 2K20 or Madden NFL 20.

In iRacing, drivers are actually still driving, whereas in a video game, you are using joysticks and buttons to control your animated players. Several drivers, most notably Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series driver William Byron, have utilized iRacing to propel themselves into NASCAR.

The introduction of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series has even allowed Dale Earnhardt Jr. to get back to competing on Sundays despite the fact that he retired after the 2017 season.

According to him, his father once gave him advice about racing online. That advice? “Computers are a waste of time”.

Fortunately, Dale Sr. was wrong about that.

Here is what Dale Jr. told SportsCenter.

"“When I was trying to buy my first computer, I wanted to race online. When Dad saw that, he was like, ‘Computers are a waste of time.'”"

But now here we are in 2020, and thanks to computers and the virtual world of iRacing, Dale Jr. is back competing on Sundays against many of the active Cup Series drivers.

"“Look at it now, I would probably be rubbing that in his face.”"

Like NASCAR introduced the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series in response to this pandemic, IndyCar introduced the IndyCar iRacing Challenge, and Dale Jr. is even set to make his IndyCar “debut” this Saturday afternoon in the IndyCar iRacing Challenge race at virtual Michigan International Speedway.

Saturday afternoon’s IndyCar iRacing Challenge race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from virtual Michigan International Speedway beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Virtual Richmond Raceway is scheduled to host the next eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race on Sunday, April 19. This race is set to be simulcast live on the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Sports app beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET.