QUIZ: How well do you know iRacing’s Official Esports?

The first NASCAR champion was not American! Richard Towler from England was already established in NASCAR oval racing, as were most of the drivers in the inaugural season having come from the NASCAR Racing 2003 ranks. Towler won four times in 18 races in the 2010 season and outdueled Brad Davies for the first ever title by only 18 points.

Greger Huttu was one of the first iRacing champions as well, but he was the first Road World Championship champion, and he went on to win five total between 2010 and 2015.

Ray Alfalla has four eNASCAR championships, but he was the second champion of the series in 2011, winning his three others in 2012, 2016 and 2018.

Josh Parker was the 2009-2010 iRacing Pro Series Oval champion, the precursor series to the first eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season in 2010. Fun fact, Parker is the only eNASCAR driver in history (so far) to have a win in the top level eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series and in the eNASCAR HEAT Pro League.

Both the Oval and Road World Championships started up in the same month of the same year, but NASCAR was just barely first! The first race of the series, which was at Daytona International Speedway, was on 10th February, 2010 and was won by none other that Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Road World Championship, the iDWCRR, began on 20th February, 2010 at Barber Motorsports Park, and that event was dominated from start to finish by Team Redline’s Greger Huttu.

The first champion of the series is also the only multiple time champion, as Joshua Rogers won it in 2019 and 2021. He’s no longer in the series, but this esports legend has won in pretty much any sim title he puts his hands on as he’s currently doing wonders in ESL R1.

Sebastian Job, another fellow who is good no matter what he drives, was the champion in the 2020 season, and fun fact, he’s also the winningest driver in PESC history.

Diogo Pinto was the most recent PESC champion, having won in 2022, but this question might get outdated at season's end! Stay tuned…

While Maximilian Benecke isn’t a champion of the series, he’s a staple original driver from the start, has multiple wins and has finished every season in the Top 10.

Jordan Caruso has been a consistent force this PESC season, leading by 58 points over Diogo Pinto through six races.

Charlie Collins is third while the former champion Sebastian Job sits in fourth.

Alejandro Sanchez is currently fifth and Zac Campbell, who has the most wins so far this season, is down in sixth.

The Dallara iR-01 is a fictional V10 single-seater Formula style car that replicates the power of an older Formula 1-style car with today’s technology.

The Dallara IR-18 is the current-day IndyCar, while the Dallara F3 is a Formula 3 car, both of which are also open-wheel single seaters, but not the one used in this series.

As for the Dallara P217, that is a LMP2 Prototype, not a single-seater.

The Sprint Car Series will usually kick the iRacing calendar year off, starting in the Winter months, sometimes in December.

Now more spread out, the Late Model Series usually kicks off in the Summer months, starting in June and ending in late September or early October.

In 2020 when the pandemic shut down the world, NASCAR drivers, FOX Sports and iRacing teamed up for an online racing series that the real-world racing stars could compete in.

William Byron was dominant with two wins, but he and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates did not compete in the finale at North Wilkesboro.

Denny Hamlin also had two wins that season, but suffered from mitigating issues, like his daughter turning off the monitor, in other races.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, who had already retired from NASCAR Cup Series competition at that point, was invited to compete in the series along with the likes of NASCAR Champion Bobby Labonte.

Timmy Hill might not be the first driver you’d think of when talking about winning in NASCAR, considering he has not had great success in the top levels to this point in his career, but Hill was a former eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series driver, last competing in the series in 2019. Hill won a spirited battle against Byron at Texas in the online series and scored more unofficial points than anyone else.

In a season-long battle against Jonne Ollikainen, Tommi Hallman and Yohann Harth, Robertson was consistent enough to hang on for the final title in the heavyweight bout of 2021.

The first iRX season was in 2018, and that was won by none other than Mitchell deJong

In 2019, Sami-Matti Trogen took the top honors away from deJong.

Yohann Harth became a breakout star in 2020, winning the title that season.

The OttiBoss has been a constant in eNASCAR competition since the 2012 season, winning in his first ever start in the series at Phoenix Raceway. Ottinger sits second on the list with 19 career wins.

The 2017 series champion Ryan Luza has 17 wins and sits in third overall, while the 2014 series champion Michael Conti is in fourth with 14.

Just as of the most recent race at Monza, Bobby Zalenski sits in fifth overall with 13 career wins. 23XI Racing’s Keegan Leahy, the 2021 series champion, is sixth overall with 12 wins.

Fun factoid, Kenny Humpe, another champion in the series from 2015 who is working on making it back through the eNASCAR Road to Pro, is seventh all time with 10 wins, the final driver with double digit wins.

* As of 14th April 2023.

While all are off-road vehicles, the Pro 4 has the most power and thus provides the most skill to do well in during these events. The Subaru, along with the Volkswagen Beetle and the Ford Fiesta, would be more suited for iRX, a series iRacing stopped running in 2021.

The Off Road All-Stars have utilized the other three vehicles, plus the Pro 4 as well, in the precursor races. The Off-Road Championship will make its return in 2023!