By AMANDA VINCENT
William Byron won the first race of the 2021 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series season Wednesday evening at the virtual Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway dirt track. Wednesday’s win was Byron’s fourth, overall, in the series that began on iRacing last year during a break from real-world NASCAR racing, brought on by COVID-19.
As a result of Byron’s win, iRacing made a $5,000 donation to Big Brothers Big Sisters in Byron’s honor.
The virtual Bristol dirt race was a tune-up of sorts, ahead of Sunday’s Food City Dirt race on the real Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track, the first dirt race for the NASCAR Cup Series since 1970. Most drivers in the series participated in the virtual event, 21 of them advancing from three heat races to the 70-lap main event.
“I’ve got to be that good in the real car,” Byron said.
Byron dominated and won the second 20-lap heat race to advance to the 70-lap main and, then, took the lead about halfway through that race.
Participants including Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer failed to advance from their respective heats. The top-seven from each heat-race advanced to the main.
James Davison won the first heat that was dominated by Christopher Bell. Ryan Preece won the final heat after a battle with Garrett Smithley.
Davison started on the pole for the main after winning the first heat, but Chris Buescher took the top spot on a restart that followed a lap-10 caution for Alex Bowman and Corey LaJoie. LaJoie was involved in two more cautions — one on lap 40 when he was collected by a spinning Quin Houff and, again, a few laps later when he spun as a result of contact from Joey Gase.
Bell and Tyler Reddick battled back and forth for second late in the race, with Reddick winding up with the position, relegating Bell to third. Smithley and Davison rounded out the top-five. Finishing sixth through 10th were Bowman, Kyle Larson, Timmy Hill, Ross Chastain and Gase.
The 2021 Pro Invitational Series season will consist of 10 races. The next race is slated for April 21 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
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