Hendrick Motorsports star and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series team owner William Byron seized the lead for good on Lap 49 of the feature and never looked back on Wednesday night, scoring the first win of the 10-race eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series program for 2021 on the virtual dirt banks of Bristol Motor Speedway. Not only did Byron score a $5,000 donation from iRacing to the charity of his choice, he also proved that he’s still one of the drivers to beat in the invitational events after posting a top-five qualifying lap, winning the second heat, and leading a race-high 38 laps in the 70-lap final.

Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick snuck past Byron for a single lap in the middle of the race and took home second, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell and the Rick Ware Racing duo of Garrett Smithley and James Davison to do so. Davison won the first heat and led the first 18 laps of the race, while Smithley almost won the third and final heat but lost the lead to JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece with two laps to go. Only Roush Fenway Racing’s Chris Buescher joined Byron, Reddick, and Davison as a lap leader in the feature; he paced the field for 13 laps, but fell to 13th place by race’s end.

Three cautions for multi-car wrecks foreshadowed what could be a very elbows-out NASCAR Cup Series race in the real world on Sunday, with Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie the final victim on Lap 55. That set up a shootout of less than 10 laps to the checkered flag, one that greatly jumbled the back half of the field as drivers fought for any positions they could make up in the closing stages. But nobody had anything to match Byron, who added his first win of the 2021 iRacing campaign to his three checkered flags from last year’s spring series.

In addition to the night’s racing festivities, which set the stage for the Cup Series’ first dirt race since 1970 this weekend, NASCAR and iRacing also announced that a Chicago street course will stage FS1’s final Pro Invitational broadcast of the year on June 2. The 2.19-mile, 12-turn layout runs through Grant Park, past Buckingham Fountain, and down Lakeshore Drive, and was created based on a scan that iRacing took in the city last fall.

Full eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational series results from Bristol Motor Speedway were as follows:

Heat 1

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

1 3 15 James Davison Chevrolet 20 0.000 9 17.984
2 2 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 20 -0.151 11 18.049
3 4 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 20 -0.531 0 18.171
4 8 2 Timmy Hill Ford 20 -2.565 0 18.198
5 1 22 Joey Logano Ford 20 -6.830 0 18.461
6 10 18 Kyle  Busch Toyota 20 -9.352 0 18.542
7 9 77 Justin Haley Chevrolet 20 -13.401 0 18.697
8 11 1 Kurt  Busch Chevrolet 20 -15.643 0 18.659
9 13 41 Cole  Custer Ford 20 -16.605 0 18.851
10 7 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 19 -1 L 0 18.922
11 5 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 19 -1 L 0 18.861
12 6 10 Aric Almirola Ford 19 -1 L 0 19.495
13 12 14 Chase Briscoe Ford 8 -12 L 0 18.538

 

Heat 2

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

1 2 24 William Byron Jr Chevrolet 20 0.000 20 17.926
2 1 17 Chris Buescher Ford 20 -2.271 0 18.157
3 7 34 Michael McDowell Ford 20 -6.734 0 18.296
4 11 38 Anthony Alfredo Ford 20 -8.913 0 18.291
5 4 42 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 20 -10.412 0 18.302
6 9 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 20 -11.732 0 18.329
7 12 00 Quin Houff Chevrolet 20 -11.896 0 18.719
8 3 52 Joshua Bilicki Ford 20 -12.586 0 18.445
9 5 79 Clint Bowyer Ford 20 -15.107 0 18.612
10 10 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 20 -16.305 0 18.990
11 8 19 Martin Truex Jr Toyota 19 -1 L 0 19.016
12 6 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 19 -1 L 0 19.212
13 13 6 Ryan  Newman Ford 18 -2 L 0

 

Heat 3

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

1 3 37 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 20 0.000 2 18.205
2 1 51 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 20 -0.973 18 18.217
3 7 8 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 20 -1.744 0 18.262
4 5 48 Alex W Bowman Chevrolet 20 -3.235 0 18.147
5 2 7 Corey LaJoie Chevrolet 20 -4.099 0 18.400
6 4 53 Joey Gase Chevrolet 20 -9.989 0 18.316
7 6 21 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 20 -10.133 0 18.539
8 9 3 Austin  Dillon Chevrolet 20 -11.132 0 18.473
9 10 99 Daniel  Suarez Chevrolet 20 -19.410 0 18.581
10 8 43 Erik Jones Chevrolet 19 -1 L 0 18.624
11 12 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Chevrolet 16 -4 L 0 19.883
12 11 78 BJ Mcleod Ford 10 -10 L 0 18.516

 

Main Event

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

1 2 24 William Byron Jr Chevrolet 70 0.000 38 18.618
2 9 8 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 70 -1.334 1 18.942
3 4 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 70 -1.679 0 18.978
4 6 51 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 70 -1.873 0 19.056
5 1 15 James Davison Chevrolet 70 -2.270 18 18.469
6 12 48 Alex W Bowman Chevrolet 70 -2.674 0 18.980
7 7 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 70 -3.430 0 18.877
8 10 2 Timmy Hill Ford 70 -3.675 0 19.032
9 14 42 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 70 -3.764 0 19.274
10 18 53 Joey Gase Chevrolet 70 -4.643 0 19.383
11 20 00 Quin Houff Chevrolet 70 -4.934 0 19.381
12 16 18 Kyle  Busch Toyota 70 -5.805 0 19.123
13 5 17 Chris Buescher Ford 70 -7.995 13 18.912
14 13 22 Joey Logano Ford 70 -8.345 0 19.369
15 19 77 Justin Haley Chevrolet 70 -10.342 0 19.228
16 3 37 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 70 -14.442 0 18.513
17 21 21 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 70 -16.520 0 19.095
18 8 34 Michael McDowell Ford 70 -17.660 0 18.754
19 11 38 Anthony Alfredo Ford 66 -4 L 0 18.868
20 17 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 64 -6 L 0 19.169
21 15 7 Corey LaJoie Chevrolet 54 -16 L 0 18.924

 

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series season continues on April 21 with a visit to Talladega Superspeedway (7PM ET, FS1), while the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for the world’s top sim racers will be in action next Tuesday at Auto Club Speedway (9PM ET, eNASCAR.com/live). For more information on the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit www.eNASCAR.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

 

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