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A few weeks ago, I submitted a story about NASCAR scheduling virtual races in iRacing to provide entertainment for fans during the pandemic. NASCAR's virtual racing series ends this weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway, a track that hasn't hosted a Cup Series race since 1996 and any racing since 2011. North Wilkesboro was one of NASCAR's oldest and most unique tracks, a 0.625 mile short track built on an incline, with an uphill backstretch and downhill frontstretch. The historic track has sat largely abandoned in rural North Carolina since NASCAR left, falling into disrepair and decay. In December, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and many other volunteers cleaned the surface of the race track to allow it to be scanned into iRacing. This 15 minute video shows North Wilkesboro Speedway was cleaned up and describes the laser scanning process used to capture the track surface for iRacing, which is why the story may be of interest for SoylentNews readers. The first race at the virtual North Wilkesboro Speedway is at 3 PM EDT and will be televised on Fox and FS1. For those who cannot watch the race on TV, NASCAR generally streams races on YouTube within a few days of the race.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @07:30PM
I agree. The intermediate ovals are particularly bad after a repave, when they basically become single groove tracks. The racing gets better as the surface wears out and becomes rougher. Still, I'd like to see the 1.5 and 2 mile ovals be limited to one race per year. Charlotte can keep its second race, but it's on the roval. Otherwise, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, and Las Vegas should just get one race per year. Pocono doesn't produce great racing either, but at least it's an independently owned track. Running the Indy road course would improve the racing there. In place of those four races, add Iowa (7/8 mile short track), Gateway (slightly smaller version of Darlington), Nashville Fairgrounds (0.596 mile short track), and one other race. I'd love to see North Wilkesboro get fixed up and get one of its races back, but that might be unrealistic. I'd be okay with another road course on the schedule. Montreal hosts F1 and used to have an Xfinity series race. Road Atlanta would be a good choice, too.
Probably the closest thing you get to IROC now is the Rolex 24, which does attract drivers from a lot of classes of racing. It's in late January on the Daytona road course. They don't use spec cars and there are three or four classes of cars on the course. But there are usually quite a few Indycar drivers, some NASCAR drivers, and occasionally an F1 driver or two. Kyle Busch drove in this year's race. And Fernando Alonso drove last year. It's not the same thing, but I'd bet you could fit in another race on the road course during Speedweeks. And if NASCAR actually does shorten its season, it might be possible to have a couple of races afterward with NASCAR and Indycar drivers. You won't get any F1 drivers because their season runs through the end of December. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing another race during Speedweeks and maybe a second race on Daytona's oval in early November.