NASCAR drawing in over a million new fans despite coronavirus
By Asher Fair
NASCAR has drawn in more than one million fans who did not watch any of the first four real-life races through the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.
And no, we don’t mean the fans sitting in the grandstands at the virtual venues that the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series has visited through its first four weeks of action.
NASCAR hasn’t seen any real-life action since the Cup Series race on Sunday, March 8 when Team Penske’s Joey Logano took the checkered flag at Phoenix Raceway ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.
While nobody could have predicted it at the time, the coronavirus pandemic brought the 2020 season to a screeching halt, and there is not yet a confirmed resumption date.
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NASCAR and iRacing responded to these tough times by creating the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series so that the drivers could still compete against one another on a weekly basis at the virtual versions of the venues where they would have been competing in real life in a world without COVID-19.
The one exception was Atlanta Motor Speedway, as the virtual series was not yet implemented by the weekend when the race at the track would have taken place, so there was no virtual race at the venue.
Nevertheless, the first four races of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series are in the books. They were contested at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, virtual Texas Motor Speedway, virtual Bristol Motor Speedway and virtual Richmond Raceway.
The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is a silver lining in itself; what other sports have the ability to keep their athletes competing against one another virtually to the extent that NASCAR can, with drivers doing what they’d be doing anyway by driving race cars?
But another silver lining is the fact that NASCAR has drawn in over one million new fans through its simulcasts of the first four races eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series races on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Sports app.
These four races have drawn in over one million viewers who did not watch a single one of the first four real-life races of the 2020 season at Daytona International Speedway (Daytona 500), Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway or Phoenix Raceway.
One million unique viewers who did not tune into any of @NASCAR's first four real-life races in 2020 have tuned into one of the Pro Invitational Series esports events, according to @Nielsen.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) April 23, 2020
➖ Overall, 5.4 million unique viewers have watched at least one of the virtual races. pic.twitter.com/Y6t6M5WxWs
That is beyond impressive, especially for something virtual.
This interesting and encouraging piece of information coupled with the fact that these four races are now the four most-watched esports events in the United States of all-time is certainly something that NASCAR can capitalize on moving forward.
It will be intriguing to see what viewer numbers are like whenever the sport returns to real-life action, which could be as early as a few weeks from now.
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The next race on the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series schedule is scheduled to take place at virtual Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday, April 26, and it is set to be simulcast live on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Sports app beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET. This race is the fifth of six races on the schedule, a schedule which could be extended depending on how the pandemic plays out.