Daniel Abt tabbed a professional eSports driver to take part in a charity virtual race.
Daniel Abt, a pro Formula E racer with the Audi team, was suspended this week after it was revealed he hired a ringer to compete for him in a charity virtual race.
Abt was kicked out of the race, and ordered to pay 10,000 Euros to charity, for the infraction.
After the discovery, Abt apologized, saying: “I did not take it as seriously as I should have.”
The man Abt is accused of hiring is Lorenz Hoerzing, a pro gamer who has also been banned.
In a statement about his suspension, Audi wrote:
“Daniel Abt did not drive his car in qualifying and the race at the fifth event of the Race at Home Challenge on May 23 himself, but let a professional sim-racer do so.
“…Integrity, transparency and consistent compliance with applicable rules are top priorities for Audi — this applies to all activities the brand is involved in without exception. For this reason, Audi Sport has decided to suspend Daniel Abt with immediate effect.”
Making all this more delicious: The Audi Formula E team is run by Abt Sportsline, a company that is owned by Abt’s father.
Chase Elliott has had a rough week. And just when it looked like NASCAR’s reigning most popular driver would win Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 and make up for the devastating finish he had Wednesday at Darlington Raceway, heartbreak struck again.
In fact, the last two races for the Hendrick Motorsports driver have been so crushing that Kyle Busch — a driver more famously known for his snark, sass or temper who had a little run-in with Elliott earlier this week — even comforted him when the iconic race was all over a little after midnight Monday.
To quickly recap, NASCAR’s redesigned COVID-19 schedule had the sport in two sets of back-to-back races at Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. At Darlington on Wednesday, Elliott was running second late in the race when Busch made contact with him from behind and sent the No. 9 car spinning.
Elliott was furious, and after he got out of his car, he flipped Busch off. And to his credit, Busch owned up to it immediately, saying it was his mistake after he overestimated the size of the gap.
Fast forward to Sunday, and Elliott looked poised to win his first race of the season — and the first Coca-Cola 600 of his career. By about midnight, he was leading with just two laps remaining in the scheduled race distance when his teammate, William Byron, spun to bring out the caution flag and guarantee the race would go into overtime.
In a no-win situation, Elliott was among those who then went to pit road. He could have tried the other side of the coin and stayed out, but there was no guarantee he’d have held onto his track position anyway off the restart.
On a Zoom call with reporters after the race, Elliott said:
“You just make the best decision you can based on the information you have. When you are leading the race like that, people behind you are going to do the exact opposite of what you do.”
Still, it was a brutal finish after coming oh-so-close to a win just days before that. When Elliott pitted, eight cars stayed out, including eventual race winner Brad Keselowski. Elliott ultimately finished third behind teammate Jimmie Johnson, who was later disqualified, bumping the No. 9 team up to second. Busch was moved up to fourth place.
Among curt and clearly frustrated answers, Elliott also summarized what Busch said to him after the race: “He just felt bad for us.”
You know you’ve had a decidedly challenging week when arguably NASCAR’s greatest villain, the guy you flipped off only a few days ago, is comforting you now on pit road.
Clearly, Elliott and his team have some speed to work with and can try to capitalize on it again in a couple days. The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race is Wednesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, and it’s the sport’s fourth event back following a 10-week hiatus this spring because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Coca-Cola 600 is just too long. The second of what NASCAR considers its four “crown jewels” throughout the 36-race season, it’s the Cup Series’ longest race by about 100 miles and is the only one broken into four stages, instead of three.
And it lasted for more than five hours Sunday night, ending a few minutes after midnight at Charlotte Motor Speedway. So not only was this year’s Memorial Day Weekend event (won by Brad Keselowski) a five-and-a-half-hour extravaganza thanks, in part, to a 68-minute rain delay, but because of a handful of overtime laps tacked on at the end, it was also the longest race in NASCAR Cup Series history.
607.5 miles. That’s excessive, and with the length not presenting the same challenges it once did, the logic behind it doesn’t really hold up.
More on that in a second, but first: This race is way too long for anyone beyond the absolute most diehard and longtime NASCAR fans.
Synonymous with Memorial Day Weekend, the Coke 600 is an annual event since 1960, coronavirus pandemic or not, and one that typically caps off the biggest day in the world for motor sports. Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix and the IndyCar Series’ Indianapolis 500 are usually held earlier in the day, respectively. (Monaco was canceled, and the Indy 500 is now scheduled for August.)
The 2018 Coca-Cola 600. (AP Photo/Mike McCarn)
The Coke 600’s distance just desperately needs to be altered so the race is not as brutally long, especially with other sports organizations, like Major League Baseball, pushing to speed up their competitions.
But the 600-mile length is tradition too, you say?
“Tradition, shmadition.” That’s what Denny Hamlin said in May 2019 when asked about keeping the race’s length, adding:
“If the race was 300 miles, you’re going to have the same, I believe, core group watch the race and possibly even more that are interested because it’s not five hours long.”
Even during Sunday night’s race, Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 19 Toyota team echoed the thoughts of the many racing and general sports fans whose attention spans were surely dwindling when they had this exchange over the radio halfway into a 400-lap race:
"I can't believe we're only halfway through right now," — James Small, Martin Truex Jr.'s crew chief.
Kevin Harvick has said it’s different once you win it. Keselowski told USA TODAY Sports last year that NASCAR “needs one 600-mile race that connects it back and showcases that stock car automobile racing has had to pushing the limits of a vehicle, specific to performance and endurance.”
A 600-mile race may be a great way to celebrate the sport’s and event’s history, but when NASCAR is trying to expand its shrinking fan base, who’s really interested in sticking around for a five-hour saga?
Gone are the days when only a handful of cars would finish on the lead lap, and it was a question of how many cars could be engineered to withstand such an exhaustive race. At the 1960 World 600, only the winner ended on the lead lap, and 36 of the 55 cars didn’t even finish.
Compared with today, stock cars largely survive 600 miles without blowing an engine, and the iconic event can be largely uneventful, as we saw Sunday with only four caution flags because of on-track incidents. Of the 40 cars that started the race, 19 finished on the lead lap, and only three didn’t finish at all.
When asked last year about the grueling race, Kyle Busch said the sport needs the 600-miler, adding:
“Is it [tough] on the cars? No. The cars are way too sophisticated now. I bet you we could probably go 800 maybe even 1,000 miles on a race car before you’d start to see problems.”
We can confidently speak for everyone when we say: Pass.
(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Plus, when racing on the traditional 1.5-mile oval, Charlotte Motor Speedway’s best asset is geography, not its penchant for delivering captivating races. And the 600 has long been painful to watch, particularly when preceded by hundreds of miles in Indy and Monaco.
Now, if you think NASCAR will never, ever, in a million years redesign one of its “crown jewel” races, you’re probably among the majority. Really, it does seem impossibly unlikely. But there is some precedent here in NASCAR and at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Forever, Daytona’s summer race was always over the weekend of July 4th, until this year when it will be the regular-season finale in August. After nearly two decades of Homestead-Miami Speedway hosting NASCAR’s championship weekend, Phoenix Raceway is taking over this season. For 40 years, The Clash, an exhibition race before the Daytona 500, was run on the 2.5-mile oval, but next season among the several updates to Daytona Speedweeks, it’ll be on the 3.56-mile road course. Breaking races into three stages — four if it’s the Coke 600, remember! — wasn’t even a thing until 2017, and NASCAR’s points and playoff systems feel like they’re regularly being overhauled.
And for nearly 60 years, the Cup Series only raced on the 1.5-mile oval before changing things up in 2018 and making the second Charlotte race of the year on a half-road course, half-oval “roval.” Inventive, revolutionary and a necessary jolt to a nine-month schedule still in need of more updates, like shortening the length of the Coke 600.
So here’s what you do: Keep the weekend of the race, obviously. Keep the spectacle of it all, and keep the “600” in the name — just make it 600 kilometers, dropping the length almost in half to about 373 miles.
“All sports adapt and change,” Hamlin said last year. “I hate it when people say, ‘Well, that’s the way it always was.’ Things are different. I’d be just as happy with a Coke 300 trophy as a Coke 600 to be honest with you.”
It doesn’t have to be the Coke 300, but it really shouldn’t be a true 600-miler anymore either.
Brad Keselowski held off Jimmie Johnson to win one of the biggest races on NASCAR’s schedule — and the longest.
Brad Keselowski is slowly collecting checkered flags for NASCAR’s biggest races, and just after midnight on Memorial Day at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 36-year-old Team Penske driver added another.
Keselowski in the No. 2 Ford held off seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson to win the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on NASCAR’s schedule which actually turned out to be the longest race in Cup Series history, per FOX’s broadcast, because of overtime late Sunday night/early Monday morning.
It’s Keselowski’s first Coke 600 win, his first checkered flag of the 2020 season and his 31st career victory.
“I’ve wanted to win the 600 my whole life,” Keselowski said on a Zoom call with reporters after the race. “I wish it was in front of everybody. I recognize that’s not always how it works.”
NASCAR considers its “crown jewel” races to be the season-opening Daytona 500 (Daytona International Speedway), the Coca-Cola 600, the Brickyard 400 (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) and the Southern 500 (Darlington Raceway), but Keselowski said he’d throw Bristol Motor Speedway’s night race into that category too.
So by NASCAR’s count, he’s won three of four “crown jewels,” and by his own, it’s four of five. He’s only missing the Daytona 500.
In his on-track interview after the race, Keselowski told FOX Sports’ Jamie Little:
“It’s a major! It’s the Coke 600, and this leaves only one major left for me, the Daytona 500, so we’re checking them off. … We might not have been the fastest car today, but, wow, did we grind this one out, Jamie. The pit crew at the end, the yellow right before the last had a blazing stop to get us up front and put us in position. All these things just came together, and I’m tickled to death. It’s a little overwhelming to be honest.”
More than five hours after the initial checkered flag — there was an (entertaining) early rain delay for 68 minutes — Chase Elliott had the lead on Lap 398 of what was originally scheduled to be a 400-lap, 600-mile race. But a caution came out thanks to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, and when he turned to pit road, Keselowski took over.
Keselowski held onto the lead off the restart ahead of Johnson with just two overtime laps for a total of 405 trips around the Charlotte track. Elliott, however, still managed to finish third.
While being interviewed on the 1.5-mile track, Keselowski explained how he’s been in similar situations in the past but wasn’t able to come away with the win. He even thought that was going to be the case again.
He told FOX Sports:
“I feel like I’ve thrown this race away a handful of times, and I felt we were gonna lose it today. I know we’ve lost it the way Chase lost it, and that really stinks. And today, we finally won it that way, and I’m so happy for my team. I wish my wife was here. I wish my daughters were here.
Rain hit the Coca-Cola 600 early, but drivers still entertained during the delay…
NASCAR drivers have a ton of unique and specialized skills, which are regularly on display again now that the sport returned to the track, despite the global coronavirus pandemic. But apparently being able to open umbrellas with ease isn’t a universal skill in the garage.
Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 was halted just 50 laps into the 400-lap, 600-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. One of NASCAR’s crown jewels, the race started around 6:30 p.m. ET but didn’t last long as rain took over the 1.5-mile track, and officials threw out the red flag.
While still following NASCAR’s social distancing rules, FOX Sports interviewed several drivers on pit road once they got out of their cars during the break.
And that led to cameras capturing seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, his teammate, Alex Bowman, and Clint Bowyer hilariously struggling to open their umbrellas — comical moments often brought to fans by rain delays.
Now, in Bowyer’s defense, it looks like some wind may be impeding his ability to get that thing open. But for Johnson and Bowman, what’s going on there? Gotta love Jeff Gordon’s reaction to Bowyer, as he’s cackling watching the No. 14 Ford driver.
Based on Bowman’s response, he was giving Johnson a hand and even offered to do the same for Bowyer.
Chase Briscoe climbed into his car with a heavy heart on Thursday at Darlington Raceway, just one day after sharing the heartbreaking story that he his wife Marissa lost their unborn child. Briscoe wrote that on Tuesday, he FaceTimed with his wife while she went to the doctor for a checkup, just after the couple had learned the gender of their baby.
During the visit, the nurse and doctors were unable to detect a heartbeat. Following an outpouring of support from the racing community, Briscoe tweeted that he and his wife debated sharing their story, but hoped that “using our platform to help others was a way God would help with coping with it all.”
Yesterday was the hardest day of my life. @MarissaBriscoe_ and I heard the worst news any soon to be parent could hear… That we wouldn’t be welcoming our daughter to the world on December 1st. I know God has a plan and we may not understand it but we seek Him and trust Him. pic.twitter.com/71uLSeQdsP
Back in his car at Darlington, Briscoe scored the greatest win of his life in the Toyota 200. With reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Busch chasing him down in the closing laps, Briscoe outdueled Busch to edge him at the finish line and take the checkered flag.
He beat one of the best! Retweet to congratulate @ChaseBriscoe5 on his Darlington WIN.
Briscoe said after the race that he was crying inside the car and wasn’t emotionally in the right place, but called it the biggest day of his life after the toughest day of his life.
That grin, however, was plastered on the mask he wore after he pulled up to do a post-race interview. That’s right, Denny Hamlin has a custom Denny Hamlin mask. And hoo boy, it’s all kinds of terrifying.
“I mean, why wouldn’t you want this mug on the trophy again?” he joked.
So here’s the question: does he have a face mask with a Hamlin frown printed on it if he lost?
Kyle Busch took out Chase Elliott on Wednesday night, and Elliott was understandably upset.
Chase Elliott was running in second place on Wednesday Night in the Toyota 500 at Darlington Raceway with a chance to win, but he was taken out of the race after being driven into by Kyle Busch in a strange incident.
Elliott passed Busch on the outside down the straight as he crossed the start/finish line, but well before the entry to the corner, Busch turned up the track and into Elliott’s left rear quarterpanel. Elliott went spinning across the track and made hard contact into the pit wall, ending his race with under 30 laps to go.
NASCAR on a weeknight is awesome and race fans want more.
Rain threatened to spoil NASCAR’s plans for a second consecutive Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina since the sport returned to racing last Sunday, but cars were fortunately able to get on track on Wednesday night following a delay to deliver the series’ first midweek race in decades.
In an attempt to make up for lost time on the schedule, NASCAR has added multiple Cup Series races on Wednesday nights at Darlington, Charlotte and Martinsville – and fans are loving the new arrangement. NASCAR’s top drivers ran a 500-mile race on Sunday, and will attempt to complete a shorter, 500-kilometer race on Wednesday, weather permitting. In just a few days, drivers will return to the track for the longest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on Sunday, before a 310-mile race the following Wednesday.
It’s a demanding schedule for drivers and teams, but it may be a template NASCAR could explore in future seasons. The response on social media was overwhelmingly positive, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is hoping to see more midweek events in the future.
Rain is in the forecast at Darlington throughout the day.
Torrential rain washed out Tuesday night’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, and the forecast doesn’t look much better for Wednesday night’s Toyota 500.
NASCAR announced Wednesday that the start time for the Cup Series race has been moved up to 6:00 p.m. ET due to a forecast for inclement weather, but rain has continued throughout the day.
According to the Accuweather forecast, there is a chance of thunderstorms and a 56 percent chance of precipitation at 6:00 p.m. ET. The chance of rain drops to 49 percent for the next two hours, before increasing.
For a NASCAR race to be counted as official, at least half of the race distance must be completed. Unfortunately for officials, finding a time slot to get the race in could prove to be difficult, with rain in the forecast throughout the day on Thursday. If the race at Darlington is completed this week, teams will have just a few days to prepare for the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600, at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 24th.
