NASCAR Cup champion Johnson joins IndyCar pros for Esports race

Johnson, who will retire from full-time NASCAR driving at the end of this season, and had been due to test an Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet IndyCar at Barber Motorsports Park.

The race, it has been confirmed, will be held on the Watkins Glen International track, after the public voted for the New York state track over the other finalist, Michigan International Speedway.

Johnson has never won at Watkins Glen in real life, but is adept at road courses, having won the Cup race at Sonoma, and twice finished runner-up in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.

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Jack Harvey and the Meyer Shank Racing team have now disappeared from the entry list since Thursday when Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin and former Formula 1 driver Scott Speed were confirmed, the former in a Team Penske entry and the latter replacing Marco Andretti in an Andretti Herta entry.

The starting lineup will be set in a 10-minute qualifying session prior to the event, but all drivers will run the same car setups, and the race will last approximately 90 minutes.

This Saturday's Esports event will be followed on a weekly basis by five more virtual IndyCar races. Barber Motorsports Park (April 4), "Driver's Choice" track (April 11), "Random Draw" track (April 18), Circuit of The Americas (April 25) and a non-IndyCar "Dream" track (May 2).

There will be no overall champion but IndyCar will make a donation to one of its partner charities.