Josh Williams wins NASCAR iRacing Replacements 100 sim race amid coronavirus cancellations
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NASCAR wasn’t on the track this past weekend due to the coronavirus, but several top racers were online instead.
(Podium eSports)
Josh Williams, who is Ryan Blaney's spotter in NASCAR Cup, held off William Byron to win the first Replacements 100 Esports race, organized by iRacing.
The driving sim also runs a full 20 race eNASCAR season sponsored by Coca-Cola and contested by dedicated eSports drivers, but set up this Sunday’s race on Atlanta Motor Speedway to include several real-world NASCAR stars including Williams, Byron, Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr, many of whom are sim racing enthusiasts.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The race was broadcast live by Podium eSports on Twitch, and attracted a peak audience of around 30,000 viewers, according to the Charlotte Observer. It went off relatively smoothly, but suffered a few glitches. One notable one being a crash by Parker Kligerman that was caused by his computer. Each driver was allowed one reset during the event for such occurrences.
A second replacement-style race hasn’t yet been announced, but this week’s NASCAR races at Homestead-Miami Speedway have been postponed, so there’s an opening on the calendar.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Here are the full results for the Replacements 100:
1. Josh Williams
2. William Byron
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}3. Steven Steffen
4. TJ Majors
5. Parker Kligerman
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}6. Tyler Overstreet
7. Garrett Smithley
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}9. Bubba Wallace
10. Coleman Pressley
11. Chase Briscoe
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}12. Bryan Boris Cook
13. Justin Haley
14. John Theodore
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}15. Kevin Iannarelli
16. KC Heschel
17. Kyle Long
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}18. Anthony Pelican
19. Tyler Truex
20. Gary Sexton
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}21. Anthony Alfredo
22. Tim Dugger
23. John Guidone
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}24. Harrison Burton
25. Myatt Snider
26. Chad Knaus
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}27. Ben Rhodes
28. Matt Noyce
29. Justin Allgaier
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}30. Alex Bowman
31. Taylor Gray
32. Jonathan Davis
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}33. Kevin Hamlin
34. Tyler Ankrum
35. Noah Gragson
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This story has been updated to clarify that Josh Williams is a Team Penske spotter and not the Xfinity Series driver of the same name.