The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series will be in action on Sunday at virtual Dover International Speedway for the eNASCAR Finish Line 150.
Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won the last three races with Alex Bowman winning last weekend at Talladega and William Byron at Richmond and Bristol. For advice when it comes to iRacing, Bowman has turned to Byron, who has over 290 wins on the online racing simulation and has led 327 laps in the Pro Invitational Series.
“I definitely lean on William quite a bit,” Bowman said. “I text him quite a bit just asking him about tips and how much to do burnouts for qualifying to warm your tires up and stuff like that. I think he’s really probably been the biggest help out of anybody that I’ve worked with.”
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The format for Sunday will see Bowman and the Talladega second and third-place finishers, Corey LaJoie and Ryan Preece, not make a qualifying attempt and have to start at the rear of the field. LaJoie made his first iRacing Pro Series start at Talladega and led seven laps from the pole en route to a second-place finish. Ryan Preece’s third-place finish was his fourth top 10. After qualifying the plan is to invert the top 10. The race will be 150 laps and drivers will have one reset.
When it comes to average finish among drivers that have competed in the all five races, Texas winner Timmy Hill continues to show the way with a 4.0 average. Garrett Smithley (7.6), Preece (7.6), Landon Cassill (9.0), Bowman (9.6), Byron (9.8), Parker Kligerman (10.2), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (13.6), Denny Hamlin (14.8) and Kyle Busch (15.4) round out the top 10.
“I’ve practiced quite a bit and have been able to improve with where I’ve been running and my results, so that’s been fun,” said Busch, who has two top 10s in his last two starts. “However, sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day with qualifying. We don’t have very good qualifying efforts but, once we get going into the race, you can kind of methodically, slowly pick your way along and get yourself more up to the front and run with those top guys. Dover is probably another track where it would be nice to start closer to the front and have some track position to start instead of having to claw my way back up toward the front.”
Denny Hamlin, winner of the first Pro Invitational race at Homestead-Miami, will be looking to bounce back from a 39th-place finish at Talladega.
“Talladega was a mess of a race,” Hamlin said. “We got damage early, lost our track position, got spun and then had technical issues with my monitors to take us out. My daughter accidentally turned them off during the race at the end. We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
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Jimmie Johnson, an 11-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at Dover, is one of nine drivers that have competed in all five iRacing Pro that have yet to post a top 10.
Along with Johnson, Busch and Kevin Harvick are the only drivers with multiple Cup wins in the field.
Sunday’s race will start at 1 p.m. ET on FOX (where available), FS1 and the FOX Sports App.
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