Josh Williams wins NASCAR iRacing Replacements 100 sim race amid coronavirus cancellations

NASCAR wasn’t on the track this past weekend due to the coronavirus, but several top racers were online instead.

(Podium eSports)

Josh Williams, who is Ryan Blaney's spotter in NASCAR Cup, held off William Byron to win the first Replacements 100 Esports race, organized by iRacing.

The driving sim also runs a full 20 race eNASCAR season sponsored by Coca-Cola and contested by dedicated eSports drivers, but set up this Sunday’s race on Atlanta Motor Speedway to include several real-world NASCAR stars including Williams, Byron, Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr, many of whom are sim racing enthusiasts.

The race was broadcast live by Podium eSports on Twitch, and attracted a peak audience of around 30,000 viewers, according to the Charlotte Observer. It went off relatively smoothly, but suffered a few glitches. One notable one being a crash by Parker Kligerman that was caused by his computer. Each driver was allowed one reset during the event for such occurrences.

A second replacement-style race hasn’t yet been announced, but this week’s NASCAR races at Homestead-Miami Speedway have been postponed, so there’s an opening on the calendar.

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Here are the full results for the Replacements 100:

1. Josh Williams

2. William Byron

3. Steven Steffen

4. TJ Majors

5. Parker Kligerman

6. Tyler Overstreet

7. Garrett Smithley

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

9. Bubba Wallace

10. Coleman Pressley

11. Chase Briscoe

12. Bryan Boris Cook

13. Justin Haley

14. John Theodore

15. Kevin Iannarelli

16. KC Heschel

17. Kyle Long

18. Anthony Pelican

19. Tyler Truex

20. Gary Sexton

21. Anthony Alfredo

22. Tim Dugger

23. John Guidone

24. Harrison Burton

25. Myatt Snider

26. Chad Knaus

27. Ben Rhodes

28. Matt Noyce

29. Justin Allgaier

30. Alex Bowman

31. Taylor Gray

32. Jonathan Davis

33. Kevin Hamlin

34. Tyler Ankrum

35. Noah Gragson

This story has been updated to clarify that Josh Williams is a Team Penske spotter and not the Xfinity Series driver of the same name.