The third time was the charm on Sunday for William Byron.
The Charlotte, North Carolina native dominated the day en route to the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series Food City Showdown at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway.
Byron had come close in the previous two iRacing events at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway and virtual Texas Motor Speedway, only to see the wins slip away.
But on Sunday, Byron was a man on a mission. He was fastest in qualifying, won his heat race and then led the114 of the 150 laps in the feature race around the virtual half-mile speedway.
“I thought we had a pretty solid race,” said Byron. “Obviously there was a lot to kind of decipher through and try to get through, but I thought we stayed up close to the front. We had the one tire strategy call that got us back to the top five and then we just had to work through the top five methodically after that.
“Was really proud of how we kind of did things, and thankful for Nick Ottinger, who kind of helps me on my esports team, and AXALTA for letting us run this cool paint scheme. It looks awesome. Hopefully we can it run it sometime in the real Cup car. I had a lot of fun.”
Byron jumped to the lead on the drop of the green flag, and would pace the event for the first 72 laps, giving up the top spot to make a pit stop on a lap 72 caution.
Back under caution, Byron would begin battling his way through traffic. He had worked his way back up to second and was closing on leader Chris Buescher when a caution came out on lap 100 when Kyle Busch spun after contact with Ryan Preece.
When racing resumed, Byron set his sights on Buescher, taking the lead on lap 107. He would go unchallenged the rest of the way en route to the victory.
“Yeah, we were just worried about the tires because I had been out there for 60 or 70 laps on the same tires, so I was a little worried that I didn’t have a lot of tire left, so I just tried to keep saving until really the last two laps,” said Byron. “But I think the tire strategy worked out perfectly. We were able to pit there about halfway, cut the race in half, which is what we wanted to do, and a couple guys stayed out but we were able to methodically work our way back to the top five from ninth, I think, so that was great.”
Behind Byron, a trio of drivers battled over the closing laps for second place, with second head race winner John Hunter Nemechek edging out virtual Texas winner Timmy Hill and virtual Homestead winner Denny Hamlin for the spot.
Matt DiBenedetto came home with a fifth place finish.
Preece, Parker Kligerman, Tyler Reddick, Garrett Smithley and Michael McDowell rounded out the top ten.
The race saw a flurry of caution flags, with the yellow flag waving 12 times on the day. Among the incidents was series of spins between Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez turning each other under caution. That led iRacing officials to eject both from the simulation.
Kyle Busch was on point to turn in a strong finish, running in the top five when the contact with Preece on lap 100 sent him into the inside frontstretch wall. From there, he went on to finish 18th.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott had another rough virtual race day. He was involved in several incidents, including one that saw his No. 9 turned by Ty Dillon. His car was then hit by Austin Dillon, sending it flipping into the air. Elliott was credited with a 30th place finish.
eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series
Virtual Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
Food City Shootout – April 5, 2020
1. (24) William Byron Chevrolet, 150.
2. (38) John Hunter Nemechek Ford, 150.
3. (66) Timmy Hill Toyota, 150.
4. (11) Denny Hamlin Toyota, 150.
5. (21) Matt DiBenedetto Ford, 150.
6. (37) Ryan Preece Chevrolet, 150.
7. (77) Parker Kligerman Toyota, 150.
8. (31) Tyler Reddick Chevrolet, 150.
9. (51) Garrett Smithley Chevrolet, 150.
10. (34) Michael McDowell Ford, 150.
11. (14) Clint Bowyer Ford, 150.
12. (95) Christopher Bell Toyota, 150.
13. (19) Bobby Labonte Toyota, 150.
14. (88) Alex Bowman Chevrolet, 150.
15. (3) Austin Dillon Chevrolet, 150.
16. (6) Ross Chastain Ford, 150.
17. (22) Joey Logan Ford, 150.
18. (18) Kyle Busch Toyota, 150.
19. (1) Kurt Busch Chevrolet, 150.
20. (89) Landon Cassill Chevrolet, 150.
21. (48) Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet, 150.
22. (8) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Chevrolet, 150.
23. (17) Chris Buescher Ford, 146.
24. (2) Brad Keselowski Ford, 141.
25. (13) Ty Dillon Chevrolet, 132.
26. (12) Ryan Blaney Ford, 126.
27. (96) Daniel Suarez Toyota, 72.
28. (47) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Chevrolet, 72.
29. (42) Kyle Larson Chevrolet, 71.
30. (9) Chase Elliott Chevrolet, 31.
31. (20) Erik Jones Toyota, 14.
32. (43) Bubba Wallace Chevrolet, 9.
Average Lap: 28.023 seconds
Caution Flags: 12 for 66 laps
Lead Changes: 3
http://accesswdun.com/article/2020/4/892867/byron-dominates-for-enascar-iracing-bristol-win