William Byron is enjoying his success in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series until he can get back to the track when the Cup Series season resumes.
Byron became a two-time winner in the virtual racing series by winning the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway this past Sunday. As has been the case since iRacing took center stage when NASCAR was forced to halt its real schedule due to the COVID-19 crisis, Byron was one of the most dominant drivers in the field and led the most laps of the day on his way to Victory Lane.
“I definitely enjoyed the race and I thought it went well,” Byron said on MRN’s “NASCAR Live.” “Had a tough strategy call there at the end of the race to stay out, but luckily it worked out for us and enjoying the Pro Invitational while we have it and it’ll be fun to go back to our normal real racing here soon. Hopefully, we can do that sooner rather than later.”
Audio: Byron on “NASCAR Live”
Until then, Byron will continue to keep heading in the right direction in the virtual racing world. He believes the experience will also pay dividends once he gets back behind the wheel of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet once the Cup Series returns to action. Byron learned things about Richmond in his Sunday win that can be applied to the real world when he hopefully returns to the track later this year.
“The biggest thing about Richmond is the fact that the yellow line has a good amount of grip, which is very normal and very indicative of what real life is there, you know, you kind of get into the corner and you try to arc it out,” Byron explained. “You have to be good under braking, that’s an important quality to have it Richmond. And then once you get to the corner, you have to wrap the yellow line really well and make sure you’re keeping the left side tires right on that line throughout the corner to get a good launch and exit off the corner.
“So you can also move your line around and kind of diamond the corner and drive in and wash up a little bit and drive straighter off and the guy in front of you and honestly, that’s how I made the pass on Ryan Preece was backing in my corner up, kind of in the center, and getting a big run off the corner to try and set up a pass. So kind of use that diamond line. So those things are all things that come into play at the normal real Richmond.”
See Also: More on Pro Invitational Series
Next up for the Pro Invitational Series is this Sunday’s visit to virtual Talladega Superspeedway, which Byron thinks will be a bit of a hybrid of real world racing and just having some fun.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “I think it’ll be a much different pace of a race and you know, you’re going to see some action, some carnage probably, but it’s going to be fun. I think it’s going to be a really fun event for everyone to watch with it being Talladega. I’m just looking forward to that honestly and kind of mixing it up and not having as much to do on the practice side of things this week.
“I’m honestly just going to kind of wait and see how it goes and see how it plays out, but it’ll be nice to have a little bit of a refreshing entry to this week and not have to worry so much about qualifying and race speed and all that.”
When he’s not working away behind his computer competing in the iRacing universe, Byron like all of us is just trying to make the best of the current situation and hoping the world gets back to normal as quickly as possible.
“It’s been definitely different, you know, but definitely thinking about all the people on the front lines that are really working hard during this time to get past this and get through it,” Byron said.
“So yeah, our life has been, you know, somewhat normal, I guess you could say. Just trying to trying to stay with family and we’ve had a lot more home cooked meals, I guess than I’m used to and a lot more time at home than I’ve ever been used to since I started racing. Unique but trying to enjoy it the best I can as well.”
