The Reality Part Isn’t Virtual: Bubba Wallace Loses Real Blue-Emu Sponsorship After Quitting NASCAR iRacing Event


The Reality Part Isn’t Virtual: Bubba Wallace Loses Real Blue-Emu Sponsorship After Quitting NASCAR iRacing Event

One of the biggest hits of the whole “no racing because of the pandemic” moment we are living through at the moment has been the broadcast of NASCAR iRacing events on FOX Sports 1. These shows have drawn more than one million viewers for a few weeks straight and they are pretty fun to watch. The drivers are all pretty loose, the commentary is funny, and the graphics/presentation of the race is so freaking life-like it’s kind of close to seeing the real show. Guys like Clint Bowyer have used these races to really show off how funny and entertaining they can be in an environment that lacks the deadly intensity of wheel to wheel 200mph competition. Mixing in the fact that some of the younger, lesser-known drivers are showing the older guys the way home is another added element of the fun. Well, fun for most people.

Bubba Wallace was not having fun last weekend when he got into a virtual scrape with Bowyer and ended up having to have his car electronically replaced during the Bristol race. This put him laps down and annoyed him to the point where he, as the kids say, “rage quit” while kind of blowing off the whole concept of the event. No big deal, right? Wrong.

Wallace had sponsor Blue-Emu on board for this race and they immediately and publicly fired him. At first everyone was wondering if this was some sort of a stunt but it quickly became apparent that it was not. See, the math here is really easy. These sponsors are dying for any sort of television or exposure they can get and frankly, putting 1-million eyeballs on a ;I’ve sporting event is non-existent at the moment except for NASCAR. That’s why companies are ponying up money to be on these shows, these virtual cars, and displayed on the drivers’ simulator setups. They are taking this as seriously as they would a normal race weekend. Wallace wasn’t and he missed the point that his responsibility to represent those people who were paying for the space on his car wren’t paying in virtual money, they were spending cash.

Compounding the situation for Wallace was some flippant Tweets and social media posts following the quitting incident that didn’t do much to help his cause.

Road and Track has the whole story at the link below. Smash it to read the whole deal. It’s pretty amazing.

Here’s an account of the whole scene from Road and Track – pretty amazing stuff 


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20 thoughts on “The Reality Part Isn’t Virtual: Bubba Wallace Loses Real Blue-Emu Sponsorship After Quitting NASCAR iRacing Event

  1. brian cooper

    The entire thing is stupid. I don’t see why people would watch people play video games. Second, who is paying real money to sponsor someone to play video games. Maybe I’m too old to get it, but this whole deal is dumb on every level.

    1. Nate

      Dear Boomer,
      Many people have nothing better to do with their time right now and racing virtually is still racing. Its professional drivers competing against each other with the same sim rigs they use to practice and you can watch the races for free.

  2. KCR

    Dear Nate, As a “Boomer” myself. You see we years ago went to “out door” sporting events. Then went home and did the sporting events our selves in our neighborhood.The generation you belong to.Were raised riding a couch , not a go cart or bike or playing sand lot ball ect. So in siding with Mr. Cooper. I cant understand why some one would set and watch some one play a not real game . If you go watch the “real thing” I get that its happening for real in front of you. This is the same thing as getting excited about who is gona win, The Road Runner or the Coyote.

    1. Hoffman

      To me, this just looks like the natural progression for NASCAR, only the timeline has been sped up a bit. It became artificial a long, long, time ago. The car of tomorrow? Stock car racing……S T O C K. Right. They wanted to become just like stick and ball sports, all about the personalities, the hoopla, and the hype. The marketing guys are probably ecstatic over how well the SIM version is going, with real sponsorship bucks still rolling in. I would not be surprised to see some spinoff of this continue after we pull our heads out of our asses over the Chinese virus and move on. The question is, how long before NASCAR is SIM only?

    2. Nate

      I go to quite a few races myself throughout the year. I went to the 24hrs of Daytona earlier this year and had tickets for Sebring, but guess what? Sebring was pushed back if not canceled along with all other racing for the time being. I also build cars, and many of my vendors aren’t currently supplying me with parts or are delayed for the time being. This means that many people have a bunch of free time (pro drivers included).
      I prefer watching the race in person, but its not happening right now (maybe you need to get outside the house and see whats going on?). Calling a different form of racing dumb or stupid just shows how close minded some of you are.

  3. Greg

    I don’t understand fantasy football, or any of the other “fantasy” sports, but many people seem to like it. Is this much different? I really don’t know. I also don’t understand why there are sponsors of professional bowlers, fishermen, darts players or golfers. But millions of dollars get thrown at them, so what do I know? But if any of these guys threw a temper tantrum while being paid to represent a sponsor I’m sure they’d get fired too.

  4. Alan Reinhart

    You guys are missing the point, doesn’t matter if it’s a video game, a real race or match box cars being pushed around a track. What matters to the sponsor is being seen on TV by the more than a million people who were watching. Bubba was being paid real dollars and the return was a million people were seeing the Blu-Emu car. Bubba took the car off the TV. As I mentioned in the other story about this. If I hire a guy to work all day and he quits after an hour, I’m not paying him for the whole day. Bubba was hired to drive 150 laps and quit after 11. And he got fired.

    Alan

    1. Hoffman

      Alan, I agree completely with what you’re saying about Bubba being fired. I get that point. Still, I find it hard to take it very seriously. The whole thing is absurd, semi fake or completely fake NASCAR- who cares either way? I know, I know, some people care a lot, and paying sponsors take it very seriously, and Bubba no doubt takes it more seriously now………but dang. There’s so much to love about race cars and racing, and I find so little of that in the context of NASCAR.

  5. Skeptical

    Next up on fox sports, iConnectFour championships followed by the World series of video Monopoly. Then get your thrills with Granny’s on Video Slots at 11pm.

  6. david kluttz

    I think Blue Emu was looking for a way out of Nascar–they are like the rest of us and could see it sinking like a rock –This is a new low for Nascar but I have 100% faith that they will sink even lower –Dale Sr would have told them all to take a flying leap and just went fishing until tracks opened again.

  7. Piston Pete

    As I mentioned in the comments of the initial reporting of this “story”, I think the entire concept, and the fact that our community is arguing about it, is nonsense. That said, I am a Boomer who has played many sports (not soccer), delivered newspapers before sunup and after school, stayed up half the night working on some pos car so I could drive it to work the next morning and froze my ass off pushing snow off the wings of B-52s in sub zero weather. I’ve been a Teamster, union laborer, carpenter and boilermaker and I learned all my social graces from high school football coaches, USAF drill instructors, construction foremen and motorcycle club presidents. I also watched in disbelief as my children pounded away at some silly video game, oblivious to my encouragement to try something real.
    So I guess I’m just old and don’t get it.
    BTW, tell Bubba I’ll give him $100 to put a Piston Pete Productions Proudly Presents sticker on his car for the next real, might slam into somebody, could get really hurt, checkers or wreckers race he’s in.

  8. Katherine Canady-Murdoch

    Sorry you don\’t like irace. Since the real thing is on hold I think they are great. I love wing sprints and drag racing. 73 years old and female. Go to Joliet Gainesville and Indy. Other places when possible.

  9. Piston Pete

    Well, I assume I don’t like it, the concept seems so ridiculous to me that I never considered watching it.

  10. Piston Pete

    Ya know, I hate to go on about this (which is kinda funny, cause normally I enjoy going on), but I gotta check myself on this topic.
    Bob Dylan told us 55 years ago to ”don’t criticize what you can’t understand.” Now I was 12 when he sang that and he was talking about my parents, but I’ve realized that the world has changed around me, just as it did for my parents, and that this topic isn’t of the world I understand nor embrace. So, as my old road is rapidly aging, I’m gonna get outta the new one since I can’t lend my hand.
    Y’all knock yerselves out.
    Tell Bubba I’m still good for the hun.

  11. Alan Reinhart

    Pete,

    Here’s the point you are missing, I don’t care if you like, are indifferent to, or hate iRacing. The point is that many people are watching it, and that companies are paying to have their logos put in front of those people.

    Saying “I’ll throw a hundred at it” is like telling Don Schumacher that “I’ll sponsor Hagan for a hundred” The numbers are WAY bigger than that, and the sponsors want to see a return.

    Let’s say you sponsored him for a hundred a lap, the race was 150 laps, so you paid him $15,000.00 After 11 laps he quit, not because he wrecked, you can reset and get essentially a new car without penalty. He quit because he had a tantrum. After 11 laps. Would you still pay him the entire $15,000.00?

    It’s not real racing, it’s not real cars, it’s NOT NASCAR! But it is something that people are watching, that REAL racers are participating in and that REAL sponsors are paying REAL MONEY for. If you don’t like it, fine. But many are watching because there is nothing else to watch. And sponsors are paying real money, They expect the ones cashing the checks to take that seriously.

    Alan

  12. Piston Pete

    Alan, I understand the insignificance of my offer of a hundred dollars, that was a joke.
    Your point is well taken, I did miss the return of investment aspect of the discussion. It’s a shame that even in fantasy land, racing is driven by money.
    If I feel comfortable sitting shoulder to shoulder with friends and yearly acquaintances by September (very questionable), I’ll see you in Indy.
    We REALLY need to get outta the house.

  13. nada

    How hard can it be to understand? Really?

    If you are paid to expose a brand and don’t live up to your end of the bargain you get fired. It’s not rocket science.

    People’s personal preferences what’s ”real sports” or ”real entertainment” means nothing. I consider 99,9% of all tv-shows bullshit. Yet there are advertisers in those shows, go figure.

    It’s marketing and economics… abso-fuckin-lutely nothing else!

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