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 last week's 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.
Byron is an iRacing veteran with 700 top-five finishes, so his most recent win comes as no surprise.
Practice on the simulator rig hasn't only paid off for Byron, however. Other less experienced sim drivers are beginning to catch up.
Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 37 car, started on the pole after qualifying with the fastest time 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 a 19th place finish.
"Honestly Preece has put a ton of time in and it's showing," Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s spotter Steven Steffen said over Twitch as Preece ran in the lead. "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 the last two races, Keselowski ran his way up to fourth place for part of the race and finished 10th.
No. 14 driver Clint Bowyer said that when he logged on for practice rounds at the three-quarter mile Richmond Raceway leading up to Sunday's race, 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 hung around on air as FOX NASCAR's in-race analyst.
"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."
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 new opportunity for drivers to either step up or crash out.
