eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series – Advance
Track: Virtual North Wilkesboro Speedway (.625-mile)
Teams: No. 6 Acronis/Nutrien Ag eFord, No. 17 Fastenal eFord
Drivers: Ross Chastain (No. 6), Chris Buescher (No. 17)
Twitter: @RoushFenway, @Roush6Team, @17RoushTeam
Hashtag: #ProInvitationalSeries, #eNASCAR
eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series – Saturday, May 9 at 3 p.m. ET on FOX Broadcast Network, FS1, FOX Sports App
ADVANCE NOTES
Event Details
· The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series concludes this weekend with the much-anticipated return to North Wilkesboro Speedway, a .625-mile track roughly 80 miles from Charlotte that once featured the stars of NASCAR.
· To date, the series mirrored the would-be NASCAR Cup Series schedule and garnered close to 7 million viewers through six weeks. The return to North Wilkesboro is in large part thanks to the efforts of Dale Earnhardt Jr., and a group of volunteers from the racing industry, who paid a visit to the oval back in December to clean up the vacant facility and prep the track for iRacing action. Chris Buescher, who has never turned a lap at the track, was part of the group that initially assisted in those efforts.
· The spin-off series that iRacing and others teamed up to create – Saturday Night Thunder – also concludes this weekend with a Friday night race at Martinsville Speedway, where the NASCAR Cup Series was set to be this weekend for a special Saturday night race. Drivers from the ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, and other regional series will continue to contest that event.
· Saturday’s event from North Wilkesboro will feature traditional time-trial qualifying set to determine the projected 30-car field. Drivers will once again have one available reset at their disposal in the 160-lap event.
History at North Wilkesboro
· North Wilkesboro Speedway was part of NASCAR’s first Strictly Stock (now called the Cup Series) season in 1949. The venue last hosted NASCAR’s top division in 1996.
· Jack Roush has two wins all time at North Wilkesboro – both from Mark Martin – in 30 events from 1988-96. Martin went to victory lane in the fall of 1990 after nearly winning the spring race, leading 103 laps in that event after starting from the pole.
· The Hall of Famer also won again in the fall of 1995 after leading 126 laps. Overall, Roush had 14 top-10s at the facility with four different drivers (Martin, Jeff Burton, Ted Musgrave, Wally Dallenbach Jr.).
Buescher at North Wilkesboro Speedway
· Like most of the field in Saturday’s event, Buescher has never turned laps from North Wilkesboro, but was part of the volunteer crew to pay a visit to the historic facility back in December to make iRacing possible at the .625-mile track.
· Through six weeks in the #ProInvitationalSeries, Buescher has finishes of 28th, 18th, 23rd, 21st, 29th and 35th.
Chastain at North Wilkesboro Speedway
· Chastain has finishes of 14th, 22nd, 16th, 13th, 27th and 17th in the #ProInvitationalSeries.
On the eCars
RFR team partner Acronis – paired with Nutrien Ag Solutions from Chastain’s Xfinity Series entry – will ride on the No. 6 eMustang. Longtime RFR partner Fastenal will be riding along with Buescher on the No. 17 machine.
NASCAR/iRacing History
NASCAR and iRacing have an unprecedented history in the esports space, currently in the 11th season of the longest-running officially sanctioned esports racing series, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. It features 40 of the best sim racers in the world competing for more than $300,000, one of the richest payouts in esports racing competition.
Roush Fenway’s 2020 lineup includes Nathan Lyon, driver of the No. 6 and a native of St. Louis Missouri, and Kollin Keister, driver of the No. 17, who hails from Frostburg, Maryland.
