Sim to Reality: How eNASCAR has fueled growth in sport July 31st, 2026 by Justin Melillo Originally Featured on eNASCAR.com PROLOGUE Nearly seven weeks ago, in the 16th race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season at Pocono Raceway on June 14th, long-time competitor Denny Hamlin scored his 64th career win at the top level of competition, breaking a tie with the late Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time wins list. Three days before that was Hamlin’s 20th anniversary of his first career win at the same track. On June 11th, 2006, what was known then as the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series headed to the Pocono Mountains for the 14th race of the year at Pocono Raceway. Rookie of the Year candidate Denny Hamlin, making his 21st career start ever at the top level of NASCAR competition, arrived at Pocono for the first time and won, having never raced the track in any form of motorsport previously. It almost seems fitting that Denny’s win to break the tie with Kyle “Rowdy” Busch came at the place where the former took his first victory. Rookies don’t statistically shine at the top level of NASCAR competition (although Corey Heim has recently proven that statement wrong). However, 20 years ago, young Denny picked up on a notably tricky, triangular track quite quickly without any prior experience on it… Well, let me rephrase that. It’s not entirely true that he never saw the track before. Virtually, Hamlin got his reps in at Pocono, hitting his marks on a computer. In the NASCAR world, this was one of the first documented cases of Simulation paying off for Reality. Nowadays, Naval Base Coronado was in the sim before the track was even been built in the real-world. Many drivers turned to their own simulators to