IN THE PITS: Virtual race a real success for bored NASCAR

NASCAR owns the popular iRacing Series and many of its younger drivers are considered among the best online racers in the world. They play against each other and strangers late into the night, fine-tuning the skills needed to land a big ride.

NASCAR is suspended until at least May 9 because of the COVID-19 pandemic so the series and iRacing created an invitational to give its drivers something to do. Fox Sports 1 jumped on board, 35 drivers agreed to participate and suddenly there was live sports programming on Sunday.

Yes, it was just a pretend race.