{"id":26535,"date":"2020-03-27T07:32:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T11:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=26535"},"modified":"2020-03-27T07:32:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T11:32:46","slug":"ryan-blaney-getting-irace-ready-for-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2020\/03\/ryan-blaney-getting-irace-ready-for-texas-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"RYAN BLANEY GETTING iRACE READY FOR TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RYAN BLANEY GETTING iRACE READY FOR TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ryan Blaney found himself like many race fans last weekend as he watched the NASCAR debut of iRacing from the grandstands.  And while he enjoyed the view, he\u2019s used to being part of the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when Fox Sports hits the airwaves on Sunday from the virtual Texas Motor Speedway, Blaney will be behind the wheel of his familiar No. 12 Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been a big iRacing person for multiple reasons, but it just looked like it was a lot of fun,\u201d said Blaney.  \u201cThe thing that pushed me into making it want to happen was seeing how the fans enjoyed it.  Social media was blowing up and people really enjoyed just watching some form of racing again, which is nice.  I saw their support and their push for me to try to get in, so I was happy we were able to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Blaney has internet connectivity issues from his home, one of the few drawbacks he finds living in the North Carolina wilderness, so he\u2019s joined forces with his spotter, Josh Williams.  A noted iRacer himself, Williams is opening his house and loaning his rig so Blaney can compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI practiced on Monday and Josh has kind of been helping me out,\u201d said Blaney, whose only real simulator experience has come at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, NC.  \u201cI\u2019m not the biggest tech savvy person out there, especially when it comes to that stuff, but it was neat watching everybody on there again.  There were a lot of Cup guys and XFINITY guys and some Truck guys doing it, but it\u2019s something I\u2019m pretty green at, so we\u2019ll see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Sunday\u2019s race at Homestead featured nine cautions as a mix of experience led to some major wrecks, but, thanks to their handy reset button, everybody was able to finish.  Blaney is hoping he doesn\u2019t need that this weekend, but he\u2019s glad it\u2019s there, just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And despite his relative lack of iRacing laps, Blaney says his goal for Sunday is the same as if he were going to be buckling into his real stock car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to win the race.  Competitors are competitors no matter what they\u2019re playing,\u201d he said.  \u201cYou want to win, so that\u2019s why I\u2019m practicing on Josh\u2019s rig a little bit during this week to try and get a feel for it.  You don\u2019t want to go in there not knowing anything and make yourself look silly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to have a shot at it, so you want to try to win the race, but it\u2019s also about having fun and hoping you don\u2019t wreck anybody,\u201d continued Blaney.  \u201cThe stakes aren\u2019t as high, but, at the end of the day, I believe it\u2019s a good time for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans can watch Sunday\u2019s race live at 1:00 ET on Fox, FS1 and the Fox Sports app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RYAN BLANEY GETTING iRACE READY FOR TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY Ryan Blaney found himself like many race fans last weekend as he watched the NASCAR debut of iRacing from the grandstands.  And while he enjoyed the view, he\u2019s used to being part of the action. So when Fox Sports hits the airwaves on Sunday from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,2,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eracing","category-nascar","category-touring-series-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26536,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26535\/revisions\/26536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}