William Byron scored back to back victories with his win at the virtual Richmond Raceway Sunday afternoon as he crossed the finish line .256 seconds ahead of Timmy Hill.
It was his second straight win in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, following up his first place at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago prior to the break for Easter.
NASCAR currently plans to continue the iRacing series after they can return to racing as it has received favorable response from both the drivers and fans. As most sporting events have been postponed indefinitely, fans can also enhance their experience by taking advantage of online wagers with a betfair promo code. This is something that is providing very popular, with these online services seeing near record numbers at present.
Byron dominated the race in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet leading 94 of the 154 laps in the Toyota Owners 150 presented by Toyota. His iRacing expertise (319 wins) is a result of his history in the sport and it eventually led him to a career in NASCAR.
“I wasn’t in a racing family growing up, so this was really my avenue to cut my teeth,” Byron said. “Obviously, a much different way than most guys grew up. But I feel like in my generation, it’s pretty normal. I’ve very thankful for what it’s done for me,” said Byron. “Now, driving the No. 24 car in real life for Hendrick Motorsports is a dream. It’s incredible. I was really just the kid on here that was excited to see a NASCAR face on a channel when I was racing against them. So, now to be racing in real life and everything kind of come full-circle during this tough time is neat, too.”
“It was fun,” he added. “Really enjoyed it. To go back‑to‑back is really cool. Having fun with it while we’re kind of in a hiatus here, but looking forward to getting back to real racing soon, too.’’
Timmy Hill, finished second and continued a streak of top-three results in all four of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series events.
“Just came up a little bit short there at the end,’’ Hill said on Twitter. Congratulations to @WilliamByron on the win! Looking forward to a bunch of fun at Talladega next week.’’
Parker Kligerman finished third and posted on Twitter after the race, ”MAN! P3 on the day. We had an awesome long run car there. When I was in position perfectly, I touched the apron out of turn two and let Timmy Hill get me (post a video of it soon). Stupid mistake on my part. But really fun race.”
Landon Cassill and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five finishers at Richmond. Denny Hamlin finished sixth while Erik Jones, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.
Ryan Preece, won the pole and led the first 59 laps, but began to lose momentum later in the race, making contact with Matt DiBenedetto to bring out the fourth caution on Lap 99. The two drivers continued to battle and DiBenedetto was eventually parked by the race officials for avoidable contact.
The next Pro Invitational Series race is scheduled for April 26 at virtual Talladega Speedway at 1 p.m. ET.
