How do you possibly add excitement to an eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season that has seen just one repeat winner in its first eight races, multiple new NASCAR Cup Series teams jumping on board, and multiple races that have gone green nearly the whole way?
You add an all-star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, of course. Then, you shift the platform to the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150, and Toyota Tundra. Finally, you introduce heat races and the prospect of eliminations… and then you turn them loose in a $500, winner-take-all race.
iRacing’s top 40 stock car drivers in the world are all invited to the party for this event, which will serve as a coming-out party of sorts for the F-150 that was released in June. North Wilkesboro itself, meanwhile, saw an early release last month, coming out in May instead of waiting for 2020 Season 3 after a successful debut in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series finale. It’s a combination that saw the light of day twice in the real world, with Mike Bliss and Mark Martin taking the checkered flag here in the first two Truck Series seasons; Roush Fenway Racing later used the track to try out drivers for its truck program in the mid-2000s, with Justin Allgaier and David Ragan among those invited.
But what all that will mean for eNASCAR’s biggest stars on Tuesday night is unknown. North Wilkesboro’s unique character ensures that even for a driver like Ryan Luza, who swept both of this year’s points-paying short track races so far at Bristol and Richmond, some things may not necessarily cross over—even if the event didn’t feature trucks instead of cars. The .675-mile oval features one uphill and one downhill straightaway, and with an opening in the backstretch wall, drivers who aren’t careful going into Turn 3 might get bit:
You heard it here first. Someone is going to do this at least once tomorrow during the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series All Star race😂@iRacing @BurtKligEsports @Valvoline pic.twitter.com/H3HVjG9j5r
— Logan Clampitt (@LoganClampitt_) June 15, 2020
The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series All-Star Race will air tonight at 9PM ET/6PM PT on eNASCAR.com/live and the iRacing eSports Network on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. The second half of the eNCiS regular season picks up on Tuesday, June 30 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with eight races left before the top eight in points advance to this year’s playoffs for a chance at the $100,000 champion’s prize. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
