Nearly everything has been cancelled.
NASCAR. IndyCar. Formula 1. All had planned on racing this Sunday prior to the country’s concern – or lack thereof, at the time – of the COVID-19 virus.
That is until the news arose that Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert tested positive for it, the NBA suspended its season, and the NHL joined in too.
Dozens of leagues followed suit, quickly, as news spread of the virus faster than the cars that were supposed to be racing at Atlanta, St. Petersburg, and Melbourne.
Now, you would be hard-pressed to find any sort of live motorsport being nationally broadcasted on Sunday, and maybe for the rest of this month, at minimum.
NASCAR Drivers to run iRacing event in wake of Covid-19 Postponements
Although, just as quickly as social media was able to spread the news of postponement, drivers, spotters, and other personalities banned together.
A simple tweet from NASCAR’s Ryan Vargas launched what would quickly entice a plethora of big names coming together on the iRacing platform to hold a race on Sunday.
https://twitter.com/RyanVargas_23/status/1238496113423941633
Vargas didn’t organize the race being held on Sunday, but he’ll hold one of his own on Thursday.
Dozens of drivers and others took to Twitter, however, later on and worked to make something happen. On Saturday afternoon Kevin Hamlin – a spotter in the Cup Series – announced it would be run Sunday.
Hamlin will join a few familiar NASCAR names that include William Byron, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Justin Allgaier, as well as the biggest in the race in Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Other names that aren’t drivers competing include retired NFL veteran Kyle Long and musician Tim Dugger.
A thread containing a partial entry list can be seen below:
https://twitter.com/KevinHamlin/status/1238872310506979329
The race is fittingly being dubbed as ‘The Replacements 100’ and will be streamed live on Twitch at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday.
A link to the channel – the race is being organized by Podium eSports – to watch Sunday’s race can be found here.
We will have more breaking news and updates on the national pandemic over the next few weeks on Twitter at @RacingVault.
