Full Throttle

… about Roush-Fenway Racing?

And I bet you thought John Henry’s move to NASCAR was his first foray into auto racing?

Everyone knows the Boston Red Sox owner infused a butt load of cash into the Jack Roush outfit, as if Jack needed it. But mergers are the IN THING in NASCAR these days, and what the hell, nobody turns down butt loads of cash. At least as long as you remain in possession of your soul.

But did you know John Henry, not only brings that large sack of cash, but in time will bring a little bit of Formula One to NASCAR. I suspect Roush-Fenway will be first in line, in time any team that can afford it will be.

The line will form outside of a company Henry formed with programmer Dave Kaemmer in 2004 called iRacing.com. They produce software racing simulators.

But not your average XBox sim that you have to pry your son loose from preventing him from becoming a Petrified Forrest-like feature in the living room.

iRacing is high tech, very high tech, and expensive. You can get a small taste of the software on the company’s home page that features a side-by-side display of the simulation and the real thing, featuring the Formula Skip Barber 2000 lapping at Lime Rock Park.

I say a small taste because the graphics are just that, graphics. Where the money is spent for this type of sim is the feel. The real-time reaction of both the car and how the sim reacts to driver input and how both react to changes made to the sim car by team engineers.

Many, if not all the F1 teams use similar simulators for testing and driver training. Allegedly, Lewis Hamilton has credited part of his success during the 2007 F1 season to McLaren’s simulator.

iRacing is negotiating with several Cup level teams right now. Once accepted into stock car racing, iRacing.com hopes its software will become standard equipment at all NASCAR race shops.

The simulator may not be under many team Christmas trees this year, but it won’t be long before the battle cry heard around Charlotte garages will be: “Simulated NASCAR Racing: On Steroids!”