William Byron Dominates eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series Opener on Dirt Bristol

Hendrick Motorsports star and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series team owner William Byron seized the lead for good on Lap 49 of the feature and never looked back on Wednesday night, scoring the first win of the 10-race eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series program for 2021 on the virtual dirt banks of Bristol Motor Speedway. Not only did Byron score a $5,000 donation from iRacing to the charity of his choice, he also proved that he’s still one of the drivers to beat in the invitational events after posting a top-five qualifying lap, winning the second heat, and leading a race-high 38 laps in the 70-lap final.

Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick snuck past Byron for a single lap in the middle of the race and took home second, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell and the Rick Ware Racing duo of Garrett Smithley and James Davison to do so. Davison won the first heat and led the first 18 laps of the race, while Smithley almost won the third and final heat but lost the lead to JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ryan Preece with two laps to go. Only Roush Fenway Racing’s Chris Buescher joined Byron, Reddick, and Davison as a lap leader in the feature; he paced the field for 13 laps, but fell to 13^th place by race’s end.

Three cautions for multi-car wrecks foreshadowed what could be a very elbows-out NASCAR Cup Series race in the real world on Sunday, with Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie the final victim on Lap 55. That set up a shootout of less than 10 laps to the checkered flag, one that greatly jumbled the back half of the field as drivers fought for any positions they could make up in the closing stages. But nobody had anything to match Byron, who added his first win of the 2021 iRacing campaign to his three checkered flags from last year’s spring series.

In addition to the night’s racing festivities, which set the stage for the Cup Series’ first dirt race since 1970 this weekend, NASCAR and iRacing also announced that a Chicago street course will stage FS1’s final Pro Invitational broadcast of the year on June 2. The 2.19-mile, 12-turn layout runs through Grant Park, past Buckingham Fountain, and down Lakeshore Drive, and was created based on a scan that iRacing took in the city last fall.

Full eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational series results from Bristol Motor Speedway were as follows:

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Main Event

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series season continues on April 21 with a visit to Talladega Superspeedway (7PM ET, FS1), while the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for the world’s top sim racers will be in action next Tuesday at Auto Club Speedway (9PM ET, eNASCAR.com/live). For more information on the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit www.eNASCAR.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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