By Nicholas Sterling
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron dominated that last two weeks of iRacing. This week, it was teammate Alex Bowman who came out on top at Talladega.
Bowman narrowly stayed on the lead lap before catching a late caution that allowed him to catch back up to the field. He worked his way to the front and got out in front of Ty Dillion in overtime.
Dillon was wrecked by Corey Lajoie as they entered the tri-oval. Bowman swung to the outside as he held off Lajoie and Ryan Preece for his first virtual win.
Bowman was off to a strong start in the NASCAR cup series, having won the Auto Club race in March.
The biggest pre-race storyline was the return of hall of famer Jeff Gordon.
Gordon worked his way to the front but got involved in the big one on lap 16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr, notorious for starting the big wreck at Talladega, turned Dillon, triggering a big wreck in which saw Gordon’s car flip multiple times and even get stuck in the fence.
Gordon used his one reset for the race but was involved in a later incident that ended his day. He finished second to last in 38th.
Similar to what’d you see at Talladega, with a lot of passing, two and three wide racing, and drafting, the race also saw 14 different leaders and 27 lead changes. It was a nice change of pace from the usual races in which one of two drivers dominate.
One of the funnier moments took place when in-race reporter Clint Bowyer blew an engine while running second. Gordon, along with the other announcers in the FOX studio poked fun at Bowyer for the incident.
Denny Hamlin saw himself involved in a silly situation. Hamlin was trying to work his way to the front when his daughter, Taylor, walked into the room holding a remote. Taylor tried to ask her Dad something but he was trying to focus. That’s when Taylor hit the power button, turning off Dad’s monitor. He then crashed into the wall and finished last.
The NASCAR virtual series heads up north to Dover next Sunday. The race will be live on FOX at 1 p.m. EST.
