While we all miss the roar of engines and on-track activity, the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series has been a sight for sore eyes, enough to whet our whistle on Sundays as we await the resumption of the 2020 NASCAR season. The racing has been compelling, drivers are super invested and the sport is picking up new fans left and right. One of the best things to come out of the first three races of the spectacle? The surprises along the way.
From Garrett Smithley and Timmy Hill becoming household names to Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. putting on a show in the closing laps of the inaugural event at Homestead-Miami Speedway we’ve found ourselves grinning for reasons we did not expect. So, with that said, which drivers have been the most pleasant surprises to come out of the series so far?
POWER RANKINGS: Who’s the top driver in the Pro Invitational Series?
NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and George Winkler offer their picks.
DeCOLA: I already had my eye on John Hunter Nemechek through the first four races of the NASCAR Cup Series season, as he had far exceeded my expectations. An 11th-place finish in the Daytona 500 boosted his start to the campaign, and he has gotten more out of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports entry already than we’ve seen the past few years.
It seems the talent has carried over to iRacing.
Nemechek was caught up in a wreck at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he has come on full force the past two races to catapult himself into the top 10 in the unofficial standings. The 22-year-old has handled himself like an iRacing veteran the past two weeks, leading 10 laps at Texas Motor Speedway and finishing eighth before winning his heat at Bristol Motor Speedway en route to a runner-up finish to William Byron.
A win for Nemechek feels like a legitimate possibility before this whole thing wraps up, and who knows how that’ll carry over to the real race track in the future — momentum is momentum, after all.
WINKLER: When you’re as good as Kyle Busch is at racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, it can be risky to try something relatively new to you like iRacing, because the only way to go might be down. But I don’t think Busch approaches it that way. He always has been a fierce competitor and tries to win no matter what he’s doing, so when at first he doesn’t succeed, he has the grit and determination to try, try again until he gets it right.
That’s basically what has transpired over the course of the first three races in the Pro Invitational Series. Although Busch has failed to register a top-15 finish yet, he has shown improvement — from finishing 29th in the opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway to 18th last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. His starting spots have gone from 34th at Miami to 19th at Texas Motor Speedway to sixth last week at Bristol when two heat races were used to decide everyone’s starting position.
Busch even resembled the driver who has racked up eight Cup Series wins at Bristol when he posted the fastest lap of any competitor in last week’s race on the high banks at virtual “Thunder Valley.” With virtual tracks the only option on the immediate horizon for Cup Series drivers, Busch will put in the practice time needed to keep improving and will score a top-10 finish — or even a top five, or heck, end up in virtual Victory Lane. I wouldn’t put it past him.