iRacing

These guys have a futile attempt to beat Dale Jr. at Lowes in the Silverado!

Dale Earnhardt Jr talks to the media about iRacing and the NASCAR deal.

Part of the back story to the recent NASCAR/iRacing partnership  was that last year Dale Jr. was advising NASCAR on the direction they should take in the gaming world and was adamant they consider working with iRacing;

We had a terrific meeting with NASCAR, one in which Jr. dragged one of his monster computers from his house down so Paul Brooks, Blake Davidson and Nick Rend could demo the software. Jr. was the one that actually sat at the computer and toured them through the website and software showing them all the thought and engineering that has gone into this service.  Both sides left the meeting with a desire to work together and nine or so months later here we are.

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• The NASCAR announcement press conference [video] (popabawa.net)

iRacing CEO and co-founder David Kaemmer joins NASCAR driver and iRacing member Dale Earnhardt Jr, along with NASCAR representatives Robin Pemberton and Blake Davidson to announce the partnership between NASCAR and iRacing.com, starting in 2010.

“The online world is an ever-growing marketplace filled with NASCAR fans,” said Blake Davidson, managing director of licensing products for NASCAR. “To provide those fans with the most realistic NASCAR racing environment, iRacing was the right partner for us.”

Davidson said Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski and A.J. Allmendinger are the drivers who will be competing in iRacing.

“Their involvement, along with NASCAR Competition, in the development will make the experience even more authentic,” he noted.

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• iRacing partners with NASCAR from 2010! (timwheatley.org)
• NASCAR is coming! (popabawa.net)
• iRacers dominate at Talladega! (popabawa.net)

iRacers dominated the top positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Aaron’s 499 on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway;

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3. Ryan Newman (not an iRacer. Booo!)
4. Marcos Ambrose

No word on whether the guys used the recently released Talladega track to prepare for the race but if Dale Jr. did we’ll get to know about it pretty soon, he’s never shy about  promoting iRacing!

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• Lacking Victories, Earnhardt Maintains a Devoted Following: Lacking Victories, Earnhardt Maintains a Devoted Following (nytimes.com)
• Keselowski Wins at Talladega After a Wild Final Lap (nytimes.com)
• In pictures (news.bbc.co.uk)

Dale Jr. ran with an iRacing logo on his car at Daytona recently, here’s a link to a shot of the car;

http://www.iracingworld.com/_Dale-Jrs-Nationwide-car-at-Daytona/photo/2892897/57752.html

It’s the Daytona 500 today and our boy Dale Jr. has a decent shot at winning according to Lars Anderson at SI.com;
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/lars_anderson/02/13/inside.nascar/

Why does he think he has a great chance? iRacing of course!

My pick to win is Earnhardt. Seven of his 18 career wins have come on restrictor-plate tracks, and he’s spent more time preparing for this race than any other driver. This offseason Little E practiced for Daytona for as many as six hours a day from the comfort of his living room in Mooresville, N.C., while playing the racing simulation game of iRacing, the most lifelike, authentic game on the market today. “Every ripple in the concrete at Daytona is replicated in that game,” says Earnhardt. “I learned things about the draft and just how to get around the place on iRacing. I think it’s really going to help me once the race gets started.”

Dale spends 50% of the week iRacing!

Image via Wikipedia

The OpinionNation guys had Dale Jr. on this week talking about iRacing and his passion for SimRacing. Cool!

it’s pretty long (90 minutes), you can hear it after the jump;
http://psrtv.com/podcast/index.php?p=episode&name=2008-11-25_theopinionnation_e8.mp3

Short clip of Dale Jr and online racing from FX’s TV Show called “360″ back a few years ago;