Vincent Dominant in Homestead Win

Vincent spent all but 18 of 134 laps out front at Homestead en route to the winner’s circle.

Corey Vincent redeemed himself from the disappointment of two weeks ago at Texas by putting-on a dominating performance at Homestead-Miami Speedway to earn his first career NASCAR iRacing Pro Series win. Vincent started on pole and was untouchable in clear air, leading 116 of 134 laps.

Justin Trombley finished second for his second top five of the season. Andrew Fayash was third thanks to some crafty fuel strategy despite starting way down in forty-first position and getting lapped on the first run of the race. Casey Tucker and Kevin King rounded out the top five.

The race began with a bang when Ashely Miller spun his tires and collected Steven Gilbert but, curiously, no caution was thrown even though Gilbert spun and other cars were damaged in the stack-up. One of the cars caught-up in the aftermath was last week’s winner Allen Boes, who retired from the race due to the damage and finished dead last. The incident also broke-up the pack and allowed the first 67 laps of the race run without a yellow flag.

From the drop of the green Vincent began building his lead. He was in front of second place Tyler Hudson by nearly half a straightaway by the time he pitted for tires and fuel on Lap 50.

Katelle spins avoiding Laughlin (51) and collects Davis (83) and Eszenyi.

The field got another shot at Vincent when the first yellow flew on Lap 68. Tyler Laughlin got loose off of Turn Two and Brandon Kettelle could not avoid him, sparking a crash that also collected Thomas Davis and Steven Eszenyi.

The leaders headed for the pits under the yellow but no one could beat Vincent off pit lane, which spelled trouble when the race went back green. After another quick caution when Kwame Adjei crashed off of Turn Two, the race went green to the finish. Once again Vincent showed he was the class of the field and pulled away from everyone. The only things that would stop him from winning would be fuel strategy or a mistake of his own.

Unfortunately for the rest of the field, Vincent ran a flawless final stint; even though he chose to short-pit halfway through the run Vincent was still able to run down and pass the sim racers who chose to stretch their fuel to the finish. Fayash made it close, however, and held the lead until giving way with four laps to go. He simply did not have the fuel to have any hope of battling Vincent for the win.

(77) Fayash’s fuel strategy was well-played but, in the end, he had nothing for Vincent (10).

Though sixth place was likely disappointing for Hudson after being in the runner-up spot for much of the night he did slightly extend his leading the standings to series to an even dozen points over Tyler Hill, who finished ninth. Trey Edison is still holding strong in third while Brian Schoenburg used his third straight top-ten finish to retain the fourth spot. King is fifth despite not having the long-run speed he had hoped for at either Texas or Homestead. Vincent’s win helped boost him to seventh, but he still has nearly a full race’s worth of points to make-up if he hopes to overhaul Hudson in the standings.

Next, the NASCAR iRacng Pro Series heads to Auto Club Speedway for Week Four of the season. With the season nearly a third of the way through, drivers are going to need to step it up if they hope to catch Hudson for the series title. The former NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series champion has shown flashes of his old ways through the first three races; a bad sign for the rest of the field. Will there be a third straight first time winner, or will the sim racing once again come down to Vincent and Hudson? Find out next Tuesday on LSRTV!

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