The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series will wrap up on Saturday by turning back the clock to compete at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The NASCAR Cup Series last raced at the .625-mile North Carolina track in 1996 and it will return on Saturday in the virtual world.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has competed in every iRacing Pro Series event, helped lead a team to help clean-up the speedway back in December for iRacing to scan. In honor of the debut of Wilkesboro on the online racing simulation, Earnhardt and many others will sport throwback paint schemes.
“Hats off to Dale Jr. for taking the initiative to get the track cleaned up and scanned by iRacing so that we could do it,” said Denny Hamlin, who won the first Pro Invitational race at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway. “Obviously, I’ll need to run plenty of practice laps leading up to Saturday to get a good feel for it. But it’s a short track, which is right in our wheelhouse.”
Jeff Gordon won the final Wilkesboro Cup race and will get to use iRacing to compete at the track once again. Gordon will sport his retro No. 24 rainbow paint scheme for his second start in the series.
NASCAR.com: iRacing Paint Schemes
Fifty-one drivers have competed in at least one race during the seven-race series that started on March 22. Denny Hamlin, Timmy Hill and Alex Bowman each scored a win with William Byron being the only multiple winner with three victories. Bowman and Byron are not on the entry list for this weekend.
Martin Truex Jr. and Jon Wood will make their first series starts.
“I can’t believe how nervous the thought of being in this race has made me,” said Wood, who last raced in NASCAR in 2008 and is a two-time NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series winner. “I don’t remember being this wound up for any of my real-world races.”
See Also: iRacing Entry List
FOX Sports will have live coverage of Saturday’s 160-lap race starting at 3 p.m. ET.
North Wilkesboro is a perfect place to wrap up the Invitational Series as the Cup Series will return to racing on May 17 at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway – Darlington Raceway.
“I’m sure that I am speaking for not only myself, but for the entire NASCAR community when I say that it has been a long two months without racing,” said Michael McDowell, who is coming off his first Pro Invitational top five. “I’m thankful for the recent news that we will be returning to the race track soon, and I’m also thankful for all of the hard work that iRacing, NASCAR and FOX Sports have put in to deliver fans, drivers, teams and partners with the closest thing possible to live racing during quarantine.”
