The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is back in action this weekend with the running of Sunday’s Toyota Owners 150 at the virtual Richmond Raceway.
Richmond will mark the fourth race since the series kicked off back on March 22. There have been three different winners with Denny Hamlin, Timmy Hill and William Byron visiting Victory Lane.
FOX Sports will once again air the race on Sunday (FOX, FS1) starting at 1 p.m. ET.
“To me the eye opening number from that first weekend – of the 900,000 about 20-25 percent of those households had not tuned in to a single NASCAR event in 2020, which remember would include the 2020 Daytona 500,” Larry McReynolds said on MRN’s “NASCAR Live” this past Tuesday. “So it’s almost like we are creating new fans as we do this, as we go along, that might come back and enjoy our sport when we’re back in the real world. To have over a million viewers as we carried it on FOX and FS1 the following week at Texas and the following week at Bristol.”
Sunday’s race will feature 30 drivers with four transferring in through a 25-lap qualifying race that morning. The top-two finishers will advance along with two drivers chosen by FOX. Thirteen drivers are currently on the qualifying race entry list that include Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Corey LaJoie and Landon Cassill.
See Also: Richmond Entry Lists
Kevin Harvick, who will make his first start in the Pro Invitational Series, is one of the 26 drivers locked into the main event.
“I’ve been trying to practice one hour a day,” Harvick said. “I’ve got Busch Light on my Ford Mustang and I’m going to have fun with it. I did win a street stock race this week (on iRacing)…after I wrecked in the first four. I won a Legends race by default because the whole field crashed. But those are really my only two iRacing wins. They’re not pretty. I did wreck the whole field in a Legends race the other day after starting on the front row on lap one. So, that was high entertainment.
“I figure the whole iRacing thing is really something that’s supposed to be fun for everybody, supposed to be filler for a gap in time during this crazy pandemic. The whole iRacing thing has introduced me to a whole new network of people and it’s opened my eyes to a whole new group of racers. It’s a different culture, but it’s still a racing culture.”
See Also: More On iRacing Pro Invitational Series
Hill leads all drivers with a 2.3 average finish in the three races after finishing no worse than third. Ryan Preece (5.3) and Garrett Smithley (5.7) rank second and third in average finish and are the only other drivers with top 10s in each race. Byron has led the most laps this season by far with 224.
Including his win, Hamlin has posted two top fives as he heads to his virtual hometown track of Richmond. This week Hamlin and FedEx donated more than 60,000 meals to the Chesterfield, Va., Food Bank. His No. 11 FedEx Toyota will also carry a special “Thank You” paint scheme to pay tribute to the FedEx team members working to deliver packages and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Chesterfield will always be my home, so during these unprecedented and difficult times, we wanted to provide assistance to people in the community,” Hamlin said. “I am grateful to FedEx for supporting a community that is so close to my heart. The people of Chesterfield are in my thoughts, and I know we will come through this stronger than before.”
NASCAR.com: Paint Schemes for Richmond
The Richmond weekend will also see the return of Saturday Night Thunder, which debuted at Bristol. Over 40 drivers from a number of series are on the entry list that will race for 26 spots through Heat races and a Last Chance race. Saturday Night Thunder will air on NASCAR’s YouTube channel and eNASCAR.com/live starting at 8 p.m. ET. (Update: Race Results)This weekend, Cup drivers not locked into the Toyota Owners 150 are eligible to race on Saturday night.
Cole Custer is one of the drivers that will race on Saturday night and in Sunday morning’s qualifying race.
“My goal is to just finish the race clean in my Haas Automation/Ford Project Apollo Ford Mustang,” said Custer, who is making his Saturday Night Thunder debut. “I haven’t done much iRacing before, so it’s definitely a little hard to get used to, but hopefully I can get some laps under my belt and get better as I go.”
