Bowyer: Esports "built and formed for this very moment"

Clint Bowyer says NASCAR drivers aren’t any different than anyone else during the novel coronavirus outbreak – looking for diversions from the problems and inconveniences caused by the pandemic.

“Just trying to keep the kids sane, trying to keep my wife sane, trying to help her. We’re all in this together. Everybody is doing the same thing. There’s no magic button to push,” Bowyer said Thursday.

“There’s no secret ingredient. We’re quarantined. It does suck. It sucks for everybody, but we’re doing this for a reason, we’re trying to protect one another and trying to keep everybody alive and healthy, and doing what our president and the government asks us to do.

“This is the right step.”

Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Photo by: NASCAR Media

And like everyone else, Bowyer has been looking for something to do since NASCAR postponed all races through May 3.

The start last Sunday of the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series gave many NASCAR drivers the chance to return to competition, at least in the virtual sense.

Bowyer was the in-race reporter for Fox Sports of its broadcast of the first Pro Invitational race, which saw an audience of nearly 1 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 as Denny Hamlin edged Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the victory.

Bowyer will repeat the role again this Sunday as the drivers compete on the virtual Texas Motor Speedway in a 125-lap race at 1 p.m. ET (Fox).

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“We’re all longing for something to do and – boom – here comes this iRacing thing right in our lap. It has been there for a long time and it’s almost as if it was built and formed for this very moment,” Bowyer said.

“I cannot wait to get back on the track this Sunday and continue to sell our sport and it’s a different way, it’s a different model, but it’s still racing, it’s still extremely competitive, it’s still exposure beyond belief, it still shows the strength of our fan base. You can’t lose sight of that.

“We had one million viewers on FS1 last week with something that had never even been tried before. Yes, obviously, everybody is at home, it’s a perfect storm, nothing else to do, but it was so big that Fox took the chance again and put it on the big boy station, on network.

“It’s going to be on Fox this weekend and it’s going to be bigger and better than it’s ever been.”