- Racing is back!
(upbeat rock music) (car racing)
Kind of.
NASCAR has been running events without crowds
for a few weeks now, same with the World of Outlaws
and Formula 1 is gonna try it too--
(button click) (birds chirping)
Hey guys, I wrote and shot this episode a few weeks ago
we shoot all of our stuff in advance and
since then a lot of really important things have happened
in the world of racing, especially NASCAR.
And, I wanna let you guys know that we didn't
intentionally leave anything of that sort out
because it is absolutely worth talking about,
but instead of cramming it into this episode
the WheelHouse team and I wanted to give those events
their due diligence and cover them in the way
that they deserve to be covered.
So without further ado,
here's all the crazy stuff that went down,
in motorsports, during quarantine. Enjoy.
(whoosh)
But as real racing returns, I don't want that to overshadow
the astounding accomplishments of
the sim racing community during quarantine.
In our time of need,
people from all over the country and the world,
from basement amateurs to semi-pros
to some of the biggest names in motorsports
left it all, on the virtual track.
While the cars might not have been real,
the racing sure as hell was.
And let me tell ya, things got bat-(bleep) insane.
Thanks to DazzlePro for sponsoring this week's episode.
If you're like me,
you probably haven't been to the dentist in a while.
But you also live in fear of losing your teeth
and having to drink all your meals.
(sigh) It's a real fear of mine.
I have nightmares where my teeth fall out of my mouth
on a date and I can only drink milk and smoothies
for the rest of my life!
But thanks to DazzlePro's electric sonic toothbrush,
I don't have to worry about losing either losing my teeth
or going to the dentist.
Not only does it keep my chompers healthy,
but it comes with a UV light
that sanitizes the toothbrush head,
killing 99% of germs on the brush head.
It's really nice to know that I have a clean toothbrush head
every time I brush my teeth.
Honestly I adore my DazzlePro.
I love this thing. It's affordable.
I've never had a toothbrush this nice.
I never really see the hype in electric toothbrushes,
until I used the DazzlePro.
I'm a believer.
This thing is really cool
and it's just a great way to start your day off right.
To get your teeth as clean as mine, enter code DM62
at the link, in the description for 50% off.
50% off guys! That's amazing!
Support the companies that support Donut
so we can keep making dope content,
and keep our teeth clean!
#CleanTeethGang (laughs)
All right, I gotta give you guys some background
before we get into the nuttiness.
The story begins on February 12th
when the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix was officially
canceled after the Shanghai Sports Bureau called off
all sports in the city.
However, the F1 season opener in Australia
was still about a month away.
The FIA considered implementing social distancing protocols
for teams in attendance, which would be a monumental effort
for an event as the Australian Grand Prix.
After a few crew members on multiple teams
showed symptoms of Covid-19,
the organizers called it off on March 13th.
There would be no racing that weekend.
Over in the world of NASCAR,
America's favorite oval-racing series
had been racing since February.
But that was about to change.
On Monday, March 16th, NASCAR postponed their season
until May.
Within one week, we went from expecting
a great year of racing to nada!
Zip! Nothing!
Now I'll be clear, I support the (bleep) out of
every sanctioning body's decision to postpone.
Public health comes first in my book.
But now, there's no racing! That sucks!
Luck for us though, some enterprising racers
took matters into their own hands.
Some of you might be familiar
with the racing simulator called iRacing.
The sim is so realistic that professional racers
use it to practice in their own homes.
To keep the competition serious,
the developer charges a subscription fee to drive
and the sim has a pretty stringent ranking system
that rewards good racecraft.
It's not uncommon for unknown but skilled sim racers
to be put in the same lobbies as big-name, pro drivers.
I was once in the same lobby as
French Formula 1 Champion Jean Girard.
But now thanks to quarantine,
and the efforts of some devoted sim racers,
Joes going up against pros would now become
a regular occurrence.
On March 13th, NASCAR Xfinity driver Ryan Vargas posted
this tweet quote "Should I do a big hosted race on iRacing?
Get some drivers and fans involved
and find a way to have someone stream it?
I feel like we all need something to pick our spirits up."
Ryan's tweet went super viral on NASCAR Twitter
getting retweets from drivers like Justin Allgaier.
NASCAR fans were stoked.
On the 19th, eTruck Night in America, powered by FilterTime
was streamed on Twitch.
Thousands of people tuned in to see the race,
myself included.
Some pro drivers were drivers were in the race
as well as veteran sim racers,
like four-time eNASCAR iRacing Champion Ray Alfalla.
The grassroots scene had come together to give racing fans
their sport, when it was no longer possible.
And I think Ryan's race inspired NASCAR themselves
to dip their little toesies into the world of sim racing.
NASCAR, iRacing, and FOX Sports teamed up to
air the first ever sim race on March 22nd.
The venue would be a virtual version of Homestead Miami,
which was the race that was supposed to be happening
that weekend.
The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitation Dixie Vodka 150,
that's a mouthful,
was a who's who of NASCAR, including big-name drivers.
You had Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace.
They even got guys to come out of retirement for this race.
They had freakin' Dale Jr.
and NASCAR racing, three-cover driver Bobby Labonte
up in this (bleep).
This was shaping up to be the most epic race
maybe of all time.
What we got though was, kind of a (bleep) show.
But in a fun way.
Here's the thing about sim racing or any online racing game.
It has a problem that any gamer probably knows.
Because you're not putting your body
or a real car on the line, the stakes just aren't there.
And this was made readily apparent to
everyone that watched this race.
Every five or so laps, someone would crash out,
which brought out the caution flag,
only for the same thing to happen a few laps later.
And because everyone got two resets,
meaning if they crashed,
they would just get a whole new car,
the drivers didn't feel that incentivized
to drive cautiously, which only lead to more wrecks.
It was a total meme-fest,
one that went almost an hour over schedule.
Until a higher-up at FOX Sports told the organizers
"Hey, no more yellow flags
because we have a dang horse race to broadcast,
and no one is gonna get in the way of my buff horses
who are immunite to COVID, for some reason."
Denny Hamlin ended up winning that race,
and the organizers hopefully learned some lessons
about giving drivers too many resets.
Despite the hiccups though,
it was very entertaining to watch, at least for me,
but more importantly, it was a big milestone for e-racing.
That same weekend,
Formula 1 held it's own virtual Bahrain Grand Prix.
I remember this race pretty well because
I didn't watch the official stream.
I was on board with McLaren driver Lando Norris
on his twitch channel.
Now, already liked Lando before all this,
but he really came into his own during quarantine.
He is a natural when it comes to streaming
and this race proved it.
Trouble started when Lando was disconnected from the server.
While Lando was figuring out how to get back into the race,
his avatar was still driving
and holding off the competition.
When Lando was finally about to get back into the race,
his computer driver, which chat named Landobot,
had held onto the third place position
and Lando took it from there.
Unfortunately, he was crashed out on the final turn
by fellow streamer Jimmy Broadbent,
which was honestly pretty funny.
But as much as it sucks to get crashed out like that,
I think the incident really captured
the beauty of the situation.
One of my favorite sim drivers named Jimmy Broadbent,
got to have an unforgettable moment
with a rising start of Formula 1.
- Jimmy!
- The races I've talked about really show
how the motorsports world made the best of the situation.
But with the good, there has to be the bad.
Like most things in life,
the quarantine sim racing scene started to get
a little less enjoyable to watch when money got involved.
On April 5th, NASCAR went to virtual Bristol
and, asked to be expected,
there was a very early caution on the very first lap.
Racing resumed on lap 6 and in car #43, Bubba Wallace
quickly found himself in a back and forth with Clint Bowyer.
Now, what happens next,
I don't want to point fingers,
so I'll just show you.
- [Commentator A] You see Bowyer right in the bottom,
comes up. Bowyer, I don't know, you might wanna watch
the replay 'cause it looks to me like he came up on Bubba.
- [Commentator B] You gotta rewind,
that was on purpose.
- But that's not the part of the story
that gets the attention.
Instead of staying in the race, Bubba said this,
- Come on Clint! God! - [Other Voice] Awww.
Yup, he just came up and wrecked the hell out of you again.
Purpose. - Ai'ight.
Y'all have a good one.
- Then quit.
Keep in mind, he did have one quick repair left.
Well this didn't make his sponsor, Blue-Emu, very happy.
With the quickness, Blue-Emu took to Twitter
and accused Bubba of being a quitter,
and renounced their sponsorship.
This caused quite the bruhaha in online NASCAR communities
like Twitter and the NASCAR subreddit.
Some people agreed with Blue-Emu, calling Bubba a hothead.
Others suggested that Blue-Emu's rants
were all about raising publicity for the company.
But I think we can all agree
it was maybe blown out of proportion
just a little bit. Right?
Right?
Whatever the case, it certainly illustrated
that maybe the sponsors were taking the racing
more seriously than the guys doing it
because the sponsors had actual money in the game
and that was sure to cause some strife at some point.
But as it turns out, we wouldn't even have to wait one week
for the biggest, and most justifiable controversy
of the whole story.
On April 12th, iRacing was hosting a race called
Monza Madness.
It's an oval race at the Vintage Monza Oval
with current stock cars.
It sounds pretty awesome.
This race was cool because it didn't just have NASCAR guys,
but drivers from lots of other disciplines.
And unlike the last couple of oval races I've talked about,
this one wasn't being broadcast on TV.
I don't really know how to preface this, so
I'll just say it.
During the qualifying session,
driver Kyle Larson thought that he was having problems
with his voice chats.
So instead of making sure by just testing the mic
a few more times, the guy just dropped a racist slur.
- You can't hear me? Hey (bleep).
- (deep inhale, sharp exhale)
Pretty much immediately,
people were calling for Larson to get punished.
Rightfully so.
NASCAR suspended Larson, mandating that he attend
sensitivity training.
His sponsors, McDonalds and CreditOne Bank,
they dropped him.
And he was fired by his team Chip Ganassi Racing.
You've probably already heard about this incident
because it got nationwide coverage.
I don't think there's much more I can say on it
other than I agree with everyone's decisions
to cut ties with Larson.
And that that word, shouldn't have a place
in anyone's vocabulary.
Like, seriously. What the (bleep) dude?
Moving on to America's other big-time oval racing series,
IndyCar.
Quarantine had a hugely adverse effect on the Indy500,
which basically takes over Indianapolis for a few weeks
during the spring.
Obviously, that didn't happen this year.
Instead IndyCar hosted the iRacing IndyCar Challenge
at where else but the virtual Indianapolis Motorspeedway
in iRacing.
With eight laps to go in the race,
a three-way battle for the lead is being fought between
IndyCar drivers Simon Pagenaud, Graham Rahal,
and F1 young-gun Lando Norris.
Rahal and Pagenaud come out of turn one
with Rahal on the inside, but at the last second
here comes Lando, throwing down a clean pass
below Rahal, right above the curtain,
as all three of them enter turn two.
Something happens and Rahal gives Lando a little bit of room
but bumps Pagenaud which sends Simon into the wall.
He is understandably upset
and blames the young McLaren driver seemingly in real time.
- Awwww, Norris, really?
Awwww man.
Wow, Lando, wow! Nice!
- As Lando continues on, Pagenaud can be heard
very clearly hatching a plan from the pit lane.
- Let me take Lando out. Let's do it.
- Hmmm. That doesn't sound very sportsman-like.
Maybe he was joking.
At this point Lando has lapped Pagenaud
and is behind him as both drivers exit turn four.
What happens next, will shock you.
- Awww, I was spinning!
Ugh. Sorry, I didn't mean to do...
- Pagenaud slows down to "pit"
right in the middle of turn four's exit.
Obviously, people were very upset with Mr. Pagenaud,
myself included.
I mean, this guy, he's an Indy Champion.
This is not the sort of behavior you wanna see
from someone like that.
Perhaps most disappointed though was Lando,
who was certainly on track to win the race.
- Had no intention in taking me out.
So, you know (sighs),
just wanted to slow me down that little bit
by letting off in the middle of a corner.
And breaking right in front of me, so yeah!
- [Nolan] Aww, come on Lando. You're gonna make me cry man!
You just feel so bad for him!
And somehow,
this isn't even the scummiest thing that happened that day.
On the final lap, Arrow McLaren SP Driver Oliver Askew,
was blazing down the front stretch
with Santio Ferucci close behind.
It was sure to be a photo finish.
As it looked like Ferucci actually had enough speed
to pass Askew at the very last second.
Instead?
This happens.
- [Commentator] Watch Ferucci, on Askew.
Just massive wreck.
- After the race he said quote,
"I've been running a lot of different series lately,
and I was trying to get on his door because of the
NASCAR style, and I got a little too close,
and I think I turned just a touch too aggressive,
and that's my fault."
Which, honestly I think sounds plausible.
But! If you watch the on-board footage,
it really looks like he threw the wheel into Askew, so
(exhale)
I'm not so sure.
The Indy500 incident was kind of the climax of this year's
quarantine racing season.
It was just an unbelievable blowout
with multiple storylines.
It couldn't get any more ridiculous. It was truly nutty.
Things kind of calmed down for a while, until
May 23rd.
Formula E was holding the fifth round
of the race at home series where their drivers raced at home
on their computer at home.
Audi driver Daniel Abt took an early and dominant lead,
which was surprising since a few weeks earlier
he had struggled to adapt to the feel of sim racing.
He wasn't able to hold on to his lead,
but he did score a third place finish. Not bad, Daniel.
However, some people were a little suspicious
of Daniel's good performance for a couple of reasons.
Number 1, his good performance,
and number 2, the fact that his face was obscured
on webcam by a poorly placed microphone stand.
Hmmmm.
Formula E driver and waffle spokesman Stoffel Van Doorne,
immediately suspected trickery in a post-race interview
and was backed-up by two-time F-E Champ Jean Eric Vergne.
Turns out, their suspicious were correct.
Daniel Abt was not the guy seen on webcam,
but a professional sim driver.
He used a ringer!
Once found out, Formula E fined Daniel 10,000 euros,
which he donated to charity and then Audi fired him.
It took him out of the sport he had been a part of
since he it's beginning in 2014.
Look, quarantine has driven me a little crazy.
I get it. Look at my hair.
Look at my eyes.
I've been by myself for 12 weeks.
But, I haven't thought of anything as harebrained.
Daniel explained on video that he was filming the stunt
as a prank on the field and he
honestly genuinely seemed sorry about the whole thing.
Frankly, it does seem like a kooky
plan gone wrong on Daniel's part,
but there is so much time and money invested in these races
that I understand why they punished him like they did.
Throughout May, real racing made its way back.
The first high-profile series was the World of Outlaws'
Sprint Car racing in Knoxville on May 8th, no crowds.
Then NASCAR returned on May 17th to no crowds
and teams observing social distancing.
IndyCar returned on June 6th at Texas Motorspeedway.
And Formula 1 is due back July 4th weekend in Austria.
As the "real" racing returns this summer,
it makes me wonder how we'll look at this strange time
in motorsports.
Some people will obviously prefer to forget.
Some really dumb stuff went down because it was just a game
and I really don't think that's the right attitude.
Since there was no real racing to watch,
the sim racing, that was just a game,
was the only show in town.
And I know I'm not the only one who wanted to see
some seriously good racing, and there was,
but I guess what kind of rubbed me the wrong way was
seeing some racers not take it very seriously.
When there are tons of dedicated sim racers out there
who would have jumped at the opportunity to race on live TV
and show off their skills.
But that allows us to look at the positive stuff
with more appreciation.
We got to see a grassroots movement of organizers
come together and put on a show
from their living room to ours.
They were no longer shielded by PR people
or sponsor obligations.
I sincerely hope that going forward,
race teams and sanctioning bodies learned from this
and let their drivers be themselves.
Like, I knew Lando and Charles Leclerc were good, but
now I see that they're really cool dudes too.
Personality is just as, if not more important than skill
when it comes to building a fandom and
it just gives me a better appreciation for the community
around the sport that I already love so much.
And that's what's really cool.
Hey, if you want more NASCAR content, check out this
"Up to Speed" on Mr. Richard Petty A-K-A The King.
It's an old one, but a good one.
Or for something completely different, check out
this episode of "Money Pit".
It's my favorite show.
Zach Jobe is a very handsome man.
Follow us on all social media @donutmedia.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @nolanjsykes.
Be kind. See you next time.
Love all you guys.