Meanwhile, it looked like Jr was pushing pretty hard in qualifying at Dover. That car doesn’t look stable at all and just simply will not turn, a 22nd spot isn’t that bad though, hopefully if he doesn’t drop back they’ll have time to work on the car before going a lap down.

I started watching NASCAR in 1997 and in that season, Dale Earnhardt Sr was the underdog. He wasn’t on good form and I started to support him, hoping he would improve and return to the days of competitiveness I had read about and seen on video highlights.

When Dale Jr came into the sport, I latched onto him and followed him through the Busch series. I supported his meteoric rise to the Cup series and like an awful lot of NASCAR fans I put my full support behind him after the death of his father in the 2001 Daytona 500.

After a few years of success with his fathers team, Dale Jr left and joined Hendrick motorsports. Last season at times Jr looked like he was a championship contender, but he slowly faded as the season went on and as we started the 2009 Sprint Cup season, he hardly raised his head. Dale Jr is a sleeping giant.

I think it’s quite shocking that Hendrick have let this continue for so long now. I also wonder why?

Dale Jr and Tony Eury Jr (Jr’s Crewchief) are cousins. I can’t imagine how hard it would be for Dale Jr to let his cousin go out of a job and that’s why it has to be time for Hendrick to do it for him. There’s plenty of room in the organization for him, but I think Jr needs someone else to help him.

Still, it isn’t unheard of for a superstar to have a bad year in a Hendrick car: During 2008, Jeff Gordon did not win a single race for the first time since 1993 (his rookie season). I really hope that Dale Jr has a similar turn around because this year, Gordon is flying.

We don’t pay these guys to be members of iRacing. They drive with us for two reasons – racing online is fun and because our simulation so accurately reproduces the cars and tracks they drive on, it helps them in their real-world racing.

In addition to the thousands of drivers who compete in iRacing-organized virtual racing series every day, every weekend scores of iRacers are competing on tracks in the physical world. iRacer Brett Smrz was a winner in the Skip Barber national race at VIR this weekend, while Alex Ardoin and Joel Miller finished second and third in the Star Mazda race there. And in the season-opening 2009 Jetta TDI Cup doubleheader, held this weekend at VIR, AJ Nealey was runner up in the first race and Jake Thompson won the second.

BEDFORD, MA (January 19, 2009) – The World Cup of iRacing™, a global, team-style, annual internet-racing competition, was announced today by John Henry, chairman of iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations, LLC. Henry also announced that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has joined iRacing’s Competition Committee, the group charged with overseeing the new tournament and other internet racing activities.

“The World Cup of iRacing represents a new aspect of the sport of internet racing,” Henry said. “In addition to all of the individual racing opportunities that iRacers enjoy, the World Cup of iRacing gives each of our members around the world the chance to compete as part of a geographically-based club, working throughout the year with their teammates toward a common goal, one that would be out of reach for the vast majority of people racing on their own – a true world championship.”
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So, I lined up for the race and as the pace car pulled in I was ready to have a good race… It was going well and I was in 10th-place on lap four when – suddenly – I was disconnected as an incoming telephone called seemed to disconnect me.

Unfortunately for the person in 12th when I disconnected, I continued to be visible to them while they were invisible to me! Unknown to me I was involved in an incident with a car I couldn’t even see…

So, the best bit of the race wound up being when I was lapped by Dale Earnhardt Jr, who won his 20th iRacing Oval race from 58 starts!

I rejoined the server after my disconnection and put some laps in… Why? It’s always best to do this, because you can run clean laps with no pressure and increase your Safety Rating. I finished 11th and had no incidents apart from the one already mentioned. My fastest lap was a 22.788 on lap nine.

“I had been practicing on the computer at VIR and in the game, you really have to be disciplined and not try to drive real hard and just try to drive smooth. That’s what I did in the test and it worked awesome.”

“No, I haven’t been to any driving schools. I’ve just been practicing on the computer a little bit.”

In July 2001, at the Pepsi 400 (the next race after February’s Daytona 500 to take place at Daytona), this happened: