BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 5, 2020) – Chris Buescher led 30 laps and Ross Chastain ran inside the top-10 in Sunday’s iRacing Pro Invitational Series event from the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, before going on to finish 23rd and 16th, respectively.
Buescher, who has just three iRacing starts in his career, used virtual strategy to stay out at one point during the 150-lap race, and led 30 laps before getting caught up in an unfortunate incident late. Chastain, piloting the Coca-Cola/Nutrien Ag Solutions Ford, battled back from a lap down to get inside the top-10, before being shuffled back in the last 10 laps.
Buescher rolled off 28th in his SunnyD eMustang, and was caught up in a multi-car accident at lap 45. From there, he used one of his two allowed resets on the day, before getting back up to 15th by lap 60.
As a series of varying strategy played out, Buescher stayed out, grabbing the lead by lap 80. As the caution came out again at lap 102, Buescher maintained the point on 61-lap old tires, twice that of any car in the field, and was second with 30 laps left.
But, as the laps wound down, the No. 2 and No. 22 machines were caught up in a wreck towards the back of the pack, as Keselowski was facing backwards on track, and Buescher had nowhere to go, ending his run inside the top five. He used his final reset before going on to finish 23rd.
Chastain rolled off the grid 20th in the No. 6 machine, and fought his way through a series of early cautions. After going a lap down by lap 60 in the 25th position, he got back on the lead lap a few laps later, powering his way to 10th by lap 106.
After staying out under a yellow, also playing strategy, Chastain fired off 15th with 30 laps to go. He sat ninth with nine laps remaining, before being shuffled back on the final pair of restarts to finish 16th.
