Dale Earnhardt Jr. took some time to explain how iRacing played a huge role in the reconfiguration of Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The new and improved Atlanta is drawing rave reviews after last weekend’s race, and the NASCAR world has a video game to thank for that, and Speedway Motorsports’ CEO Marcus Smith for being open to an idea that would’ve sounded insane not too long ago, according to Earnhardt.
“Atlanta, as we know it now, was developed through iRacing. We forget about that,” Earnhardt said, via the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download. “Marcus was like, ‘Hey, Atlanta’s dying.’ It was. Lost a date. Nobody was coming. Empty grandstands. Drivers liked it, but the fans said the racing was boring. Marcus had two options, dig it up and rebuild it, or close it entirely. He invested millions of dollars in the reconfiguration, and 20 years ago it would’ve been a massive gamble, not knowing really whether it’s going to work or not. You’re going to spend millions of dollars moving a lot of dirt, putting down a lot of pavement, hoping for the best.
“But with iRacing, he was able to go to Boston and say, ‘Hey man, can y’all put this in a virtual world? Can we try this out? Can we put these race cars out there on iRacing, allow these drivers, your SIM racers, some of the best SIM racers in the world, to pick this apart? Tell us what they hate about it, tell us what’s not good, what we need to fix, what they do like.’ That saved millions of dollars. It took all the guess work and the gamble out, that a reconfiguration can have.”
After the success Atlanta’s had after leaning on iRacing, Earnhardt expects other tracks, like Fontana and Texas, to lean on the video game when the time comes for them to go in a different direction as well, following a new precedent.
“So I think Auto Club, Fontana’s future success will depend on how much they have, and will continue to lean on iRacing,” Earnhardt added. “Chicago, the street course, was vetted and improved through months of simulation on iRacing before becoming a reality. Anything that ever may happen to Texas, if it ever does, will be done through iRacing.
“Marcus now will go to iRacing anytime that he wants to consider doing anything to his race tracks. ‘Hey, let’s run this through the system, man. Let’s beat this up. Let’s poke a bunch of holes in this, and figure out why we should or shouldn’t do it.’ So that’s something that’s pretty cool.”
With an emphasis on iRacing, NASCAR is making smarter decisions and saving some money doing so. The sport is truly moving towards the future, and it’s something Dale Earnhardt Jr. can get behind, now and in the coming years.
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