Last week's virtual NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway drew 1.3 million viewers on Fox and FS1, according to Nielsen. The cable network began broadcasting live iRacing after the official NASCAR season was postponed over three weeks ago to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
For the sport's sanctioning body, the networks and the iRacing community, that viewership number is momentous. It indicates exposure for a sport that has suffered from declining sponsorship and viewership in recent years, and has already provided revenue-generating opportunities for teams forced to cut its staff and salaries amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's really opened up a bunch of eyes to what the potential is," team owner Rick Ware said.
Ware, who owns Rick Ware Racing, has been able to leverage the success of his team's No. 51 driver, Garrett Smithley, an iRacing veteran who runs in NASCAR's marquee Pro Invitational Series on Sundays. On Friday, the team announced a five-race deal with GunBroker.com for remaining iRacing events for the No. 51 car. Ware said that deal morphed into a longer lasting partnership for real races.
"It's exactly the opposite of what's ever been done before," Ware said. "It's a testament to iRacing and to NASCAR and to Fox for what they've done to put this together. They've created a small little monster that I think is going to grow."
Not all of Ware's drivers have been able to capitalize on iRacing's momentum, however. J.J. Yeley and Joey Gase are two full-time Cup Series drivers competing for RWR who have not received guaranteed slots in NASCAR's premiere iRacing series, which features a mix of current and former Cup drivers in a lineup that runs between 30 and 35 competitors.
Despite their attempts to enter the lineup for Sunday's races, Yeley said he and his teammate have been unable to. Instead, they were relegated to NASCAR's "Saturday Night Thunder" event, which features drivers in lower-level series such as Xfinity, Truck and ARCA. They were informed of their placement via an automated email earlier this week.
"It's more or less a support show," Yeley said. "And unfortunately, that race will only be streamed over the internet. It won't be live on Fox."
Yeley said that after the first race at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, he reached out to NASCAR about joining the Pro Invitational lineup. He said an official assured him via text and over the phone that he would be entered in last Sunday's race at virtual Texas Motor Speedway and that "everything seemed fine."
"I pursued getting a rig as quickly as I could," Yeley said. "I had some conversations with sponsors to try to rectify the problem of us not having real races, and it felt like everything was really good. I spent a lot of time during the week practicing."
But last Friday, Yeley said he learned through Twitter that instead of being locked into the main event, he would have to qualify for one of the remaining four spots against competitive iRacers to ensure his bid. Neither he, Gase nor Brennan Poole (another full-time Cup driver for Premium Motorsports who was not locked in), raced their way into the main event.
Yeley said that was a hard hit in terms of sponsorships and an opportunity for exposure.
"For small teams especially we don't have every race sold for sponsorship and we're always continuing to look for primary sponsorships, associate sponsorships, whatever it may be to give that extra added value," Yeley said. "And we feel like now we've had that taken away from us."
RWR is a team that employs 55 individuals, according to Ware. That's compared to other, larger operations with more than a hundred employees. Because of the coronavirus, Ware said he has had to make temporary pay and job cuts at the shop.
"We're probably losing, on the best side, I'd say, it's going to be half a million dollars," Ware said. "For the worst side, it would be three quarters of a million."
Agri Supply Store, for example, was one sponsor Gase was hoping to console following the postponement of Atlanta's race. The company had pre-paid for a slot on the No. 52 car. Gase said he intended to instead showcase their logo on his car during the Pro Invitational.
"It was something to tell them that we appreciate them and kind of make it up to them a little bit," Gase said. "And now we don't have had the opportunity to do that."
Gase said he has also received calls from other partners concerned about the lack of exposure.
"That's the hardest thing," Gase said. "When possible sponsors and current sponsors are reaching out and saying, 'Hey, why aren't you racing in this?' And there's really nothing to say other than, 'Sorry, I guess politics?' You don't want to say that because that looks poorly on the sport."
According to NASCAR, iRacing sets the lineup for the Invitational series. Gase, Yeley and Ware said they spoke with officials across NASCAR and iRacing, but they did not receive a clear answer about which organization makes the final call on the entry list. They said they understand the need to limit entries to prevent excessive cautions for television, but they also feel they should be guaranteed slots since they have a full-time charter in NASCAR's Cup Series. iRacing did not respond to The Observer's requests for comment.
"The guys that aren't in our situation, I just don't think they really understand what we're going through necessarily," Gase said.
While the RWR drivers said they believe the format could change as races continue, there will only be one teammate racing for a television audience this weekend.
"I kind of hate it for those guys and hate it for our team," Smithley said. "Cause I think they would do a good job. I think they unfortunately had some bad luck last week."
"But at the same time, it's definitely cool to kind of be carrying the banner," Smithley continued. "We were in a group text talking about it and it's cool to have my real world team behind me."
