So, I got this text message from ESPN yesterday afternoon:
"ESPN Autos - Dale Earnhardt Jr. won inaugural NASCAR iRacing.com WC Series race (100 laps) at Daytona."
Oh?
I jumped to ESPN.com to see if I could find coverage of this race. Hell, I wasn't even aware that they had added a race between the Shootout and the Twin 125s or whatever it is they are calling them these days. (Gatorade something-or-other, I believe.)
Nothing in the Worldwide Leader's autos section; in fact, not even listed on the schedule of events at Daytona.
An oversight, I figured. The race was apparently so poorly marketed that not only did I not know about it, neither did ESPN.
Hopped over to Jayski. Searched frantically for info on the race.
Nothing.
"Oh, come on!" I thought. The most beloved man in NASCAR wins a race for the first time in a couple of years, and there is no coverage of it?
Then I got distracted and forgot about it.
Got on the Google this morning and plugged in "dale earnhardt jr. iracing.com daytona".
First result was this article on NASCAR.com. Included was this tidbit:
Instead, with his virtual Chevy Impala SS coughing as the fuel began to run out, Earnhardt swept under the checkered flag for the victory.
And also this:
Earnhardt, who had problems with the steering wheel in his racing simulator during qualifying,
Oh. I get it now. It's a computer simulator thingie.
And it merited a breaking news alert text message from ESPN.
Let me restate:
My phone vibrated. I looked at it. A new text message from ESPN. They were texting me to let me know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a race on a computer.
What the fuck?
"ESPN Autos - Dale Earnhardt Jr. won inaugural NASCAR iRacing.com WC Series race (100 laps) at Daytona."
Oh?
I jumped to ESPN.com to see if I could find coverage of this race. Hell, I wasn't even aware that they had added a race between the Shootout and the Twin 125s or whatever it is they are calling them these days. (Gatorade something-or-other, I believe.)
Nothing in the Worldwide Leader's autos section; in fact, not even listed on the schedule of events at Daytona.
An oversight, I figured. The race was apparently so poorly marketed that not only did I not know about it, neither did ESPN.
Hopped over to Jayski. Searched frantically for info on the race.
Nothing.
"Oh, come on!" I thought. The most beloved man in NASCAR wins a race for the first time in a couple of years, and there is no coverage of it?
Then I got distracted and forgot about it.
Got on the Google this morning and plugged in "dale earnhardt jr. iracing.com daytona".
First result was this article on NASCAR.com. Included was this tidbit:
Instead, with his virtual Chevy Impala SS coughing as the fuel began to run out, Earnhardt swept under the checkered flag for the victory.
And also this:
Earnhardt, who had problems with the steering wheel in his racing simulator during qualifying,
Oh. I get it now. It's a computer simulator thingie.
And it merited a breaking news alert text message from ESPN.
Let me restate:
My phone vibrated. I looked at it. A new text message from ESPN. They were texting me to let me know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a race on a computer.
What the fuck?
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If you're that into racing maybe you should check out iRacing eh?
ReplyDeleteJr. won a race against the best drivers of the iRacing.com simulator, wich he is among.
ReplyDeleteI'm a driver too, but not among the best.
Filippo from Italy
Watch racing much? They talk about IRacing all the time. Pay attention.
ReplyDeleteYou could be a part of it too, instead of indulging in your ignorance, why not check it out?
ReplyDeleteWow - thanks to everyone for your comments, and welcome to Bramble Tamble. Quite unexpected. To address a couple of comments:
ReplyDelete@Donald @ 6:10 PM: I did, thanks.
@Anonymous @ 6:50 PM: No, I don't watch racing much anymore. Daytona holds my interest because it's Daytona (just like I'll watch the Super Bowl if my team's not playing in it), but honestly, the Cup Series has been broken beyond repair for me. Has been for several years.
****
All that said: I think the point of my post was missed. It was not "what is iRacing?" or "indulging in (my) ignorance" or to belittle/demean iRacing.com and its participants.
The point, which I guess I failed to flesh out here given that my comments section has blown up making the same general point (yeah, 4 comments is pretty much a record for this blog) is this:
Was it really a newsworthy enough event for ESPN to interrupt my day, even if only for a moment (which, as you read, turned into "more than a moment")? Was it really worth the resources (however minimal) used to fire out a text message to my phone?
I say no.
I signed up for "breaking news alerts" from ESPN for a reason - to keep up on breaking news, of course - and it's rare that I don't receive something that's at least remotely newsworthy.
But this is a story apropos of nothing. It's not an indicator of how Dale Jr. is going to perform at Daytona any more than how Danica Patrick's ARCA run shows how she's going to do this weekend in the Nationwide race.
And yeah, I'll admit it: the Dale Jr. angle gets under my skin a bit; had one of the other participants named in the press release won the Daytona iRacing event, would ESPN have even bothered?
Come on - really?
Actually, Nascar Officially sanctions the iRacing.com Series and considers it a branch of motorsports. Real racers around the world use iRacing as tool to get acclimated to both car and track.
ReplyDeleteYou will be hearing more and more about iRacing.com, so if you don't want to be alerted by ESPN about anything related to a computer simulator "thingie," I suggest deleting them off of your alert list.
As far as it being "Newsworthy" It is for us at iRacing.
ReplyDeleteHow many do you figured got that same message and said iRacing what? Checked it out and are now members, its called Marketing, ESPN thought it was news. Oh and BTW theres id imagine atleast at this point 30 million dollars invested in this Sim, thats Newsworthy as well. Good Day.
It's called marketing. Getting the word out there about the product. Try a little and perhaps you can break that 4 comment barrier :)
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to Dale, he deserves a win, or that beard will grow on him
ReplyDeleteI would just like to add that Dale Jr is one of the, if not the most popular driver in NASCAR so it might have interested alot of people
ReplyDelete