By Nicholas Sterling
When the caution flag flew with just under 15 laps to go, William Byron knew he had a big decision to make; pit for fresh tires and potentially lose the lead or stay in front on old tires. He went with the former, and that turned out to be the winning call.
Byron continued to show why he’s been proclaimed the best iRacing driver in all of NASCAR with his third win in the last four races. He led a race-high 79 laps at the virtual Dover International Speedway.
Byron did have to work his way up from 5th with 10 to go but quickly got to second. A few laps later, he made his move on iRacing rival Timmy Hill. Hill was no match on older tires as he settled for a 3rd place finish.
There were a few surprises in the finishing order.
Christopher Bell, who wrecked early in the race, came back for a season best second. Erik Jones and Michael McDowell rounded out the top five.
While controversy was generally absent here in contrast to the past weeks, there was one incident in which a driver wrecked then immediately quit.
John Hunter Nemechek came up on Denny Hamlin coming off turn four and sent Hamlin spinning into the wall. Nemechek’s car disappeared seconds after hitting Hamlin. If you recall, Hamlin saw his race end last week after his daughter turned off his monitor.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this race was the announcement of where next week’s race would take place. North Wilkesboro Speedway, which hasn’t hosted a NASCAR race since 1996, will host the final scheduled virtual race of the season.
A group of volunteers, including former driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, helped clean up the track so it could be scanned into iRacing.
That race will be next Saturday at 3 p.m. EST on FOX. Live NASACR will be returning to real racing in two weeks on May 17 at Darlington.
