NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace rage quit a virtual race on Sunday, offering a hearty “PEACE OUUUUUUUUUUUT” upon his exit from the server.
Bubba Wallace rage-quit a virtual NASCAR race, then his sponsor dropped him
Turns out virtual wrecks infuriate NASCAR drivers just as much as real-life wrecks.
But Wallace wasn’t just having some fun on Twitch. He was competing in a serious race, and might have cost himself a little money by exiting early.
Most sports leagues have been limited to making content out of old games during the Covid-19 pandemic, but NASCAR has been able to take things a step further with iRacing. Some current and former drivers with home simulator setups are competing in the eNASCAR Pro Invitational series, with races airing on FOX Sports and the network’s NASCAR commentators calling races.
Sunday’s race on the virtual version of Bristol Motor Speedway featured as much aggressive, contact-filled driving as the real thing. And from the broadcast camera angles, the wreck that caused Wallace to log off looked very much to be Clint Bowyer’s fault.
One of Wallace’s sponsors doesn’t seem to care, though. Notice the “BLUE-EMU” overlay on Wallace’s screen? It’s a company that makes pain relief products, and it told Wallace that it was terminating his sponsorship over Twitter.
BLUE-EMU sponsored Wallace’s team in actual NASCAR as well, but is going to be dropping its sponsorship of his team altogether, in both physical and virtual racing. Apparently it’s not just a video game!
FOX is airing the eNASCAR Pro Invitational every week until regular NASCAR returns, so you can see this rivalry continue in the iRacing server for the foreseeable future ... assuming Wallace logs back on.
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