NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace will say goodbye to one of his sponsors after rage quitting during a recent eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series event.
Traditional sports, like the rest of the entertainment industry, have been on lockdown for over a month. Instead of the NBA playoffs or Masters Sunday, all fans have to watch are rehashed SportsCenter clips and stodgy Instagram lives from Steph Curry.
NASCAR fans are faring slightly better. Drivers with at-home racing simulators are competing in live races for real prize pools. NBA 2K put on a “players tournament.” But as you can imagine, Kevin Durant isn’t as impressive with a controller as he is in real life. Drivers, on the other hand, have the rare ability to transition to the virtual realm of esports with relative ease.
To take advantage of that transferability, NASCAR set up an eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series. The inaugural event featured drivers going head-to-head on a virtual rendition of Texas Motor Speedway and even set viewing records on FS1 for an esports event. Close to 1 million people tuned in.
Most drivers aren’t taking the events as seriously as they would IRL, but things can still get heated. That’s exactly what happened during last week’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Driver Bubba Wallace was edged out of position by Clint Bowyer, who demonstrated overly aggressive driving from the start. Wallace loses control and then is sideswiped by Bowyer before completely wiping out.
Wallace has every right to be upset. The wreck was certainly Bowyer’s fault, even though he seems to blame Wallace and laugh it off in the clip. Wallace didn’t think it was funny. “Come on Clint, that’s why I don’t take this shit serious,” he says before yelling “Peace out!” and exiting the race.
On Twitter, Wallace then made light of the fact that he rage quit, wondering why people are so upset at him for quitting “just a video game.” His sponsor for the race, Blue Emu, doesn’t seem to agree with the “just a video game” stance. They dropped him from their esports and traditional NASCAR rosters.
Like millions of teenagers around the world, Bubba had to learn the hard way that online decisions can have real-life consequences. You can follow eNASCAR’s weekly Invitational Series on FOX until NASCAR returns.
