This past Sunday was the running of the 60th Daytona 500. The Great American Race. I am not the biggest racing fan, but every year I tune in to watch NASCAR’s biggest race of the year. I like to hear what changes are made to the sport every year, and what new technology that is brought to the sport from the broadcast networks. This year, I found out that not only are NASCAR teams working on an esports venture that would hold racing video game tournaments held at tracks during event weekends, but the track Richmond Raceway is the first track to form an esports team.
As I discussed in an earlier blog about the NBA’s esports venture, esports is becoming a big business venture for many sports organizations to deepen engagement with their fans and provide additional content for their hardcore fans to consume.
Richmond Raceway has reportedly become the first NASCAR track to launch its own esports team. The iRacing team will compete in the 2018 NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series (NPAS). The NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series circuit runs every other Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern Time beginning on Tuesday, February 20th with a virtual race of the Daytona 500, and streamed on iRacing live. This is the first time that the NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series has had a NASCAR sanctioned racetrack field its own entry in the series. This type of exposure can only increase the exposure of esports, NASCAR, and attract more raceways and teams to participate. As we know, esports athletes are passionate about the sport they play, iRacers are they same way. There is a reported 70,000 active subscribers on the iRacing.com platform.
The Richmond Raceway team is consisted of six esports athletes and called the Chaos Crew. Each driver will represent various sponsors at the races. The team also will have various sponsors at the races just like the NASCAR drivers do. These sponsors area already associated with Richmond Raceway.
The raceway has already formed a partnership with NASCAR licensed 704 Games for weekly events and they are planning to install an iRacing two-seat powered simulator at the track.
eSports is a big part of the sports landscape and is taking a giant leap forward this year with NASCAR tracks and teams now joining the fray. Sports leagues and teams are seeing this as a great way to attract new fans and build stronger engagement with their current fan base.
