Well, with no on-track racing due to the lovely Coronavirus taking away all we love that is good within the sports world. We still do have the Coca-Cola iRacing series which raced last night at Homestead. With a Denny Hamlin racing driver in Keegan Leahy winning the pole for the second consecutive race we would be underway in the digital Sunshine State.
The whole first half of the race was pretty easy going much like our ERSCA series race Monday night. The pole-sitter in the number 32 Keegan was able to lead pretty much the non-eventful first half. The biggest movers we really saw were the Roush Racing eSports driver Kollin Keister who started 36th was able to move up to 27th in the first 18 laps. Other than that unlike the week before at Fontana, we had single-file racing. Up until green-flag pit-stops occurred around lap 43 your pole sitter was pulling the train along at Homestead.
When lap 43 clicked off, we saw Ryan Luza and a few other cars initiate green flag stops for the field. This would then drag the leader down onto pit road, but very well possibly one lap too late at lap 44. Up until this point, Leahy had the dominant car and looked to be running away with this race. So the different strategy took that from him for the moment it appeared. Approximately four laps after the leaders came down pit road we saw the number one car have a mishap entering pit road and pretty much finished his day. In the process of that, he collected the Denny Hamlin racing number twenty-three car and ruined his day as well. However, after that, the race went off pretty cleanly for the rest of the race in Homestead.
Cautions or Lack of Cautions
Realistically we didn’t see a yellow thrown for the pit road incident that took out two contenders around lap 47. The first real yellow flag we saw came at lap 64. I bet you wouldn’t believe on the somewhat boring track of Homestead if the yellow came from a blown tire. Well, that’s right the driver of the number six Nathan Lyon blew a tire and brought out the yellow.
After that as if it was a real-life race at Homestead with real gas-burning cars, on a real asphalt track. Would you believe our next caution came from a driver getting loose and spinning out? Well, say it isn’t so that is the case. Cane Cook the driver of the number 55 spun out after getting loose causing the yellow to fly for only the second time. However, after that, we would go from lap 71 all the way to the checkered flag under green.
Strategy Won at Homestead
While we had some green flag stops, the decision to pit one lap earlier than Leahy gave Ryan Luza the jump to the lead. The strategy play wasn’t done though after the yellow flag that was brought out by Cane Cook. We had nine cars stay out in front of the two dominant cars of the number 53 and 32. That caused both those guys to be back in between 10th and 15th around 80 laps into the race.
While the strategy is always fun to see on tracks like Homestead. Eventually, the sheer mechanics of fresh tires and a fast race car won out. Because with about 30 to go Ryan Luza was able to take the lead. With that lead, he never looked back going onto snap a 343-day winless streak. Also giving Williams Esports their first career victory as a team in the series.
Onto Bristol Right?
Well, I have followed these guys kind of on and off since last year. The series that is not so much because I wasn’t interested, but because the on-track racing in the top three series kind of always took precedent with myself. Now that I don’t so much have that for at least the foreseeable future. I will be another one of the 43 plus thousand viewers watching these guys turn some laps. Along with the newly announced Pro Invitational series that NASCAR and iRacing will be working on together to add some of your three Major Series regulars.
What I am interested to see is where each of these drivers goes from here after Homestead. Especially your 2019 series champion Zack Novak. Novak made arguably the biggest team jump over the offseason and now sits 26th in points with no wins. Also, some of your big name cup series teams like Joe Gibbs racing whose highest finishing driver was 23rd last night. Do those guys have what it takes still or are they underperforming for their teams? Honestly, as of right now, I don’t know, but I am going to be watching for sure. Because I want to get a better understanding of this series and each of these drivers!
What I love about this series though is you look above at the top ten finishers. We have a lot of smaller teams. Mind you, each of these teams has only two-car teams. However, the league isn’t dominated by huge name teams. So I will be looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out of these guys!
As always, make sure you are following us for all your racing needs digital or real-life. Especially on twitter @bellyupracing and give me a follow as well over @Nascar4Every1. Also, don’t forget we have an iRacing series of our own we sponsor and cover seriously so take a look!
