Harrison Gains Ground Under the Lights

Richmond provided a dynamic setting for Week 24 of the NiS.

Last week the NASCAR iRacing Series was back in action at Richmond International Raceway for Week 24 of the 2013 season. Coming into the week points leader Tyler D Hudson found himself in the lead in a big way only 2654 points over 2nd place Landon Harrison. Hudson has been hot over the last few weeks leading up to Richmond and is looking to add to that lead with some wins this week.

Thursday was the first night of racing the week at the .75 mile oval and EJ ORourke grabbed the first pole of the week with Matt Bussa on his outside. Getting the pole did not go as planned for ORourke, as he only led one lap in the race and came home in the ninth spot. But the guy who started on his outside had the right call and the right mindset to pick-up the win in Race One of four for the week, holding off a late charge from Landon Harrison and NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Timmy Hill. Harrison gained a little ground on point leader Hudson with the great finish in Race One as the points leader was absent.

Bussa gets under ORourke on his way to Victory Lane.

There was online racing aplenty on Saturday for the NASCAR iRacing Series with a packed day of action with two events. When it came time to start racing in the early hours for the eastern US drivers, pro driver Simon Crochart grabbed the second pole of the week with Hill on his outside. When the race went green, third-starting Jordan Werth joined Crochart and Hill in a three-way battle for the top spot.  Alas, the race ended early for Werth as he got caught up in a Lap 38 crash that ended his race and saw him finish in the 24 spot.

But the battle for first between the two survivors — Hill and Crochart — continued unabated to the checkered flag, as Hill held-off Crochart for the win in Race Two of the Richmond week.

A few hours later it was time for the second race of the day for the NiS, with Michael Kuchinsky on pole alongside Jason Miller5. This race would prove quite different from the first race of the day in that is it was a one horse race most of the way, with Kuchinsky leading 183 laps of 200 and lapping everyone but the top five cars.

There was no shortage of action at Richmond last week.

Sunday night saw the last of the racing for the NASCAR iRacing Series at Richmond International Raceway for Week 24.  Hill continued his strong form by grabbing the pole with Jordy Lopez I on his outside, with Hudson back in P5 for his first start of the week.

Hill opened up a big lead over the pack straight out of the gate.   However, Hudson was on the move and found his way around Hill to take over the top spot on Lap 40.   However, Hudson was destined to come up a bit short in the race, as he would go on come home P7 after leading 35 laps.

The real story of the race unfolded on the last lap and featured a three-way battle Hill, Harrison and pro driver Michael Conti.  All three were going for the win, but only one could cross the line first and, in this case, it was Harrision picking-up the win.

Harrison’s was a big one, as it enabled him to record the top point score (332) at Richmond, some 64 points ahead of Hudson.  So much for the good news.  The bad news is that Harrison still trails Hudson by over 1000 points (6634 to 5510) heading into the home stretch, the final ten races of the season.  He’ll have to do even better than at Richmond to make Hudson sweat, but Harrison can start turning-up the pressure this week at Chicagoland.

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