Ty Dillon hadn’t sat behind a simulator rig in 10 years until he prepared to compete in Sunday’s iRacing event against NASCAR’s stars. Despite Dillon’s last-minute entry and scramble to find the proper equipment, the Cup Series driver finished 19th in a field of 35 drivers, proving his real-life driving skills carry over into the virtual world.
“In a real race car, I feel very confident knowing what I’m doing,” Dillon said. “In an iRacing rig, I’m not so sure what I’m doing. You don’t want to be the first one to mess it up for everybody.”
Germain Racing’s No. 13 driver gave a promising first showing on the sim and said he plans to compete in other iRaces organized by NASCAR with the season postponed. Dillon currently sits 24th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings and finished 15th at the last race at Phoenix Raceway.
Although Dillon, who lives in Mooresville, N.C., said he’ll keep practicing with iRacing in his downtime, it’s more likely you’ll see him sponsoring an eNASCAR team or driver (like his brother Austin) before he enters a virtual series as a driver.
The 29-year-old prefers to spend his time with his wife, Haley, and his 2-year-old daughter, Oakley. With more free time, Dillon spoke with The Observer about what his family has been doing under quarantine (hint: it involves a lot of Frozen and Blippi), what his first iRacing experience was like and the bright side of the coronavirus.
Q&A
Alex Andrejev: Let’s talk about Sunday’s race first. What was that like?
Ty Dillon: Yeah, it was quite crazy. I really hadn’t played a racing game in probably 10 years. And when I found out about the whole thing last Thursday, I was kind of scrounging to find a rig. I dug up the old one that I had from 10 years ago that had been being used at Richard Childress Racing. They had upgraded it so when I got it back to my house, I spent a day or so trying to update it, get it all worked on. I had a couple of days and nights of practicing and figuring out how the system works. And that was really my first race ever.
AA: Wow. How did it feel?
TD: During the broadcast, I remember hearing Dale Jr. talking about how he and Denny Hamlin have raced against each other for two decades on iRacing so that made me feel a little bit better about my 19th-place finish considering that was my first race, but I was extremely nervous because in a real race car, I feel very confident knowing what I’m doing. In an iRacing rig, I’m not so sure what I’m doing. You don’t want to be the first one to mess it up for everybody. Luckily, I made it through all right.
AA: You already had an iRacing rig, though. Why did you have that 10 years ago?
TD: So that was actually my first iRacing race. What I raced on before was a different game. It was actually for the ARCA racing series, so it was pretty different. It’s still a form of racing, but I’d never really ran an actual iRacing race. So that was pretty unique for me.
AA: I know some of the guys were doing practice sessions before Sunday. Were you in on those? How did you prepare?
TD: NASCAR, iRacing and the drivers did a good job of communicating through email to let us know when sessions were open and what was going to happen. Those sessions let us figure out stuff like lag time, and they did a good job of getting everybody connected. It was kinda cool with the first practice session I got on, there were probably 10 or 15 drivers on there, but by the time the race came around, you know, there were 34 actual drivers racing, and I think six or seven didn’t qualify for the race. So it all turned out really good and somehow we all figured it out by communicating.
AA: Did the race go as you expected? What were your expectations going into Sunday and then how did those play out?
TD: I think that was part of my nerves — not really knowing what to expect, but I figured there would be a lot of crashes. Half the field really knew what they’re doing. The other half, it was their first time, yet they’re all smart drivers. There were quite a few cautions. Probably more than we all wanted, but for the last 25 laps to go green and have a good finish, I thought that was a great thing for the whole race. And as a group, NASCAR as a whole, to just get back to our fans at a time where everyone’s pretty anxious and stressed out about what’s going on in the world, just to kinda ease everyone’s mind and have a little bit of lighthearted fun competition was great.
AA: Were you one of the guys who was doing other stuff as you were racing or were you locked in the whole time?
TD: I was live streaming it and my wife was helping me out. We weren’t too serious, but we were having fun. It’s on my Instagram @ty_dillon. It’ll be saved on there to see behind-the-scenes of how it all works. It was really fun having my wife and my daughter in the background and seeing a little bit of our life and our home and how we interact. I think that was probably the most fun part for me: To be competing and also be spending time with my family.
