Race Weekend Central

Monday Night Racing Announces NAPA Auto Parts as Presenting Title Sponsor

Monday Night Racing announced on Monday morning (May 10) that it will be joining forces with NAPA Auto Parts, which becomes the presenting entitlement of the third season of the popular iRacing league. Last season, the series was presented by Tufco Flooring.

The series features a wide variety of race vehicle and track combinations across the iRacing service that includes participation from real drivers in NASCAR, ARCA, NHRA and other forms of motorsports, as well as many motorsport industry members from race teams and media outlets.

Frontstretch fields virtual vehicles for Content Director Michael Massie every week, having attempted 37 of the series’ total 40 races across all three seasons so far. Frontstretch iRacing Editor Justin Melillo also takes part in the fun, having made it to the Championship 4 back in Season 1.

“We are proud to partner with a group like NAPA and the resources they could bring to not only Monday Night Racing, but sim racing in general,” MNR Co-Founder Ford Martin said. “Our league strives to become the most professional and realistic league out there, and we believe NAPA can help us reach new audiences within the motorsports community to introduce those not familiar with sim racing.

“We are excited about our partnership, and we look forward to the rest of Season 3 with NAPA.”

Entering Season 3, MNR has already crowned two champions in the last year, with Motorsport.com’s Nick DeGroot taking the Season 1 title back in September and NASCAR driver Will Rodgers claiming the throne in Season 2 just two months ago.

A few weeks ago, MNR and Podium eSports put together a broadcast of their drivers competing in real life at GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, N.C. Once again, that was won by Rodgers paired up together with ARCA Menards Series driver Nick Sanchez.

Last week, MNR kicked off its third season at the virtual Daytona International Speedway with NASCAR Marketing Communications Manager Matt Stallknecht taking the win in a five-wide finish across the stripe.

Per the folks at MNR, the opening race saw over 10,300 unique viewers on Podium eSports across multiple streaming platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

“We are thankful for NAPA’s partnership with Monday Night Racing as we continue to work to provide the best league on iRacing.” MNR Co-Founder Paul Sutton said. “Motorsports is in NAPA’s DNA, and the push to eSports is the next frontier for the sport.

“We look forward to having NAPA on board as MNR continues to grow.”

The second race of the season is the first with NAPA as the presenting title sponsor, as the MNR crew looks to take the Lucas Oil Pro 2 Off Road Trucks to Watkins Glen International for the Beef Jerky Unlimited Challenge.

Rodgers was able to hold off NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch for the win last season. Brendan Madonia took the victory in the same combination in Season 1.

Tune into Podium eSports on your social media outlet of choice, or check out the main broadcast on Twitch, twitch.tv/podium2 at 8 p.m. ET.

About the author

Since the beginning of 2021, Justin Melillo is now the iRacing Editor for Frontstretch.com. With a B.A. in Journalism from Hofstra University, Melillo has been writing about NASCAR since 2013. Focusing primarily on eNASCAR and virtual motorsports, Melillo hopes his writing and coverage can help to grow the eSports reach in the motorsports world and beyond.

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