William Byron gets back-to-back iRacing wins at NASCAR’s Pro Invitational
NASCAR’s best drivers returned to their simulator rigs on Sunday for the fourth race of the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series. No. 24 driver William Byron finished in first place for his second iRacing win in a row. Byron also won the last race at Bristol’s virtual short-track.
No. 66 driver Timmy Hill, who won at virtual Texas Motor Speedway three weeks ago, finished in second place. No. 77 driver Parker Kligerman took third place.
“We were able to get good exits off the corner and just have a pretty decent restart and get the win,” said Byron, who stayed powered slightly ahead of Hill down the homestretch despite his older tires.
Byron is an iRacing veteran with 700 top-five finishes, so his most recent win comes as no surprise. He led 94 of Sunday’s 152 laps, two of which occurred in overtime.
Practice on the simulator rig hasn’t only paid off for Byron, however. Other less experienced sim racers are beginning to catch up.
“Everyone was really equal on a short run in terms of speed,” Byron said after the race. “Even the guys with less experience.”
Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 37 car, started on the pole after qualifying with the fastest time just ahead of the primetime race. Preece led 60 laps before Byron, who started in third, passed him for the lead. Preece had a late run-in with No. 21 driver Matt DiBenedetto, but notched an impressive performance on the rig despite his 19th place finish.
“Honestly Preece has put a ton of time in and it’s showing,” Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s spotter Steven Steffen said on his Twitch livestream mid-race. “He’s put in a lot of time, so he needs to be commended for that.”
Preece wasn’t the only driver who improved this week. No. 2 driver Brad Keselowski also raced his best iRacing event to date. After a 25th and 24th place finish in his last two races, Keselowski ran his way up to fourth place for part of the race and finished in 10th.
No. 14 driver Clint Bowyer said that when he logged on for practice rounds earlier in the week at the three-quarter mile virtual Richmond Raceway, he watched Keselowski wreck seven times.
“(Kelselowski) spun out at the flag stand every single lap, so he’s put in the time,” Bowyer said. “As (has) Ryan Preece.”
It was Bowyer, not Keselowski, who crashed out following a computer glitch that bust his engine. Bowyer stayed on air as FOX NASCAR’s in-race analyst for the remainder of the race, however.
“It was extremely loose to start out the week,” said Bowyer. “We were slipping, sliding around. A lot of guys couldn’t even complete a lap.”
Like Bowyer, Byron noted Keselowski’s performance, but he first named No. 18 driver Kyle Busch as the next “inexperienced” iRacer to breakthrough.
“I think his talent and ability to understand the cars is coming through,” Byron said after the race.
Busch started 27th on the grid and finished in fifth for his best Pro Invitational placement yet. Byron said he entered a practice round with Busch earlier in the week in which Busch finished third.
“It would be nice to figure out qualifying and start up front and see if we have a shot to race inside the top three all day and race for the win,” Busch said. “I’ve just been working hard at getting a little bit more and more out of our M&M’s Camry and trying to figure out some more iRacing tricks.”
Although history repeated itself this Sunday, with Byron taking the checkered flag and Bowyer wrecking, as drivers continue to improve, that might not be the case for much longer. Next week’s race at virtual Talladega Superspeedway will offer a completely different format and new opportunity for drivers to either step up or crash out.
“It’s gonna be wild,” Byron said. “I think there’s honestly gonna be some really good racing though. I think the goal should be to have a couple of resets to keep us all in the game.”
This weekend’s race ran with no resets and fewer cautions (six cautions) than the wreck-fest at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago (12 cautions).
“I’m really actually looking forward to (Talladega) because I feel like some guys will be really good at drafting,” Byron said. “But at the same time, it’s gonna be really interesting.”
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
