HAMPTON, Ga. – A day that was looking for motorsports entertainment value in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic found plenty of it thanks to Podium eSports and iRacing.
Filling the void left by the cancellation of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the virtual version of the 1.5-mile Georgia quad-oval played host to The Replacements 100 Sunday afternoon, with Team Penske spotter Josh Williams topping all.
Williams, the eyes in the sky for Ryan Blaney on Sundays with the NASCAR Cup Series, muscled past polesitter and NASCAR Cup Series star William Byron on the opening circuit of the 100-lap, 150-mile event and held all challengers at bay after that.
He wheeled his virtual No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang out in front of the field the entire afternoon and pulled away at the end, leading all 100 laps and taking the checkered flag in front of Byron by 2.127 seconds.
“It was tough,” Williams said after the race. “I was more setup-prepared to run the long run, so I was trying to take care of my stuff a little bit. We never really got long runs in the first half of the race, so you just had to defend pretty hard the first few laps until everybody got single file.
“I was worried with having to pit, and the restart stuff … if you lose the lead, I knew it would be pretty hard to pass again, so I just tried to defend the lead,” he continued. “Once we got 10 or 15 laps on our tires, I was pretty comfortable with it.”
Williams’ victory was a tale of two halves of the race, with six cautions dotting the first half of the race but the second half running clean and green all the way to the finish.
He bested all comers on each and every restart, then fended off a series of assaults by Byron that came from both high and low in the final third of the race en route to the win.
Byron finished second and, in a show of sportsmanship and good fun, noted after the race that he simply got “snookered” by Williams on the initial start and had to battle back.
Well dang congrats @joshtwilliams snookered me on that start! That was fun.
— William Byron (@WilliamByron) March 15, 2020
Steven Steffen, a travel liaison for JR Motorsports’ Xfinity Series program, crossed the line third ahead of T.J. Majors, the co-organizer of the event and spotter for Joey Logano on Sundays.
NASCAR on NBC analyst Parker Kligerman completed the top five, followed by Tyler Overstreet, Garrett Smithley, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bubba Wallace and Coleman Pressley.
Other notables in the race included Chase Briscoe (11th), Justin Haley (13th), Anthony Alfredo (21st), Harrison Burton (24th) and Chad Knaus (26th).
Xfinity Series veteran Justin Allgaier’s day was dashed in one of the early crashed, while the proverbial Big One struck just before the halfway point to bring out the last of the six yellow flags on the afternoon.
That incident began when Xfinity Series regular Justin Haley got into iRacing staff member Kevin Iannarelli and collected NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace, ARCA Menards Series driver Taylor Gray and more in its wake.
After that, however, the race ran clean to the finish, leaving Williams alone out front and Byron, Steffen and others with little choice but to try and chase him down, to no avail.
Sunday afternoon’s race featured six yellow flags for 24 laps and an average race pace of 127.702 mph.
To rewatch the broadcast, which featured SPEED SPORT’s own Jacob Seelman as part of the commentary crew, click here.
Competition in the eNASCAR realm continues Tuesday night, March 17, with the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series at the virtual Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
The finish:
1. Josh Williams, 2. William Byron, 3. Steven Steffen, 4. TJ Majors, 5. Parker Kligerman, 6. Tyler Overstreet, 7. Garrett Smithley, 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 9. Bubba Wallace, 10. Coleman Pressley, 11. Chase Briscoe, 12. Bryan Boris Cook, 13. Justin Haley, 14. John Theodore, 15. Kevin Iannarelli, 16. KC Heschel, 17. Kyle Long, 18. Anthony Pelican, 19. Tyler Truex, 20. Gary Sexton, 21. Anthony Alfredo, 22. Tim Dugger, 23. John Guidone, 24. Harrison Burton, 25. Myatt Snider, 26. Chad Knaus, 27. Ben Rhodes, 28. Matt Noyce, 29. Justin Allgaier, 30. Alex Bowman, 31. Taylor Gray, 32. Jonathan Davis, 33. Kevin Hamlin, 34. Tyler Ankrum, 35. Noah Gragson.
Lead Changes: One between two drivers.
Lap Leader(s): William Byron Grid, Josh Williams 1-100.
Laps Led: Josh Williams (100).
Caution Flags: Six for 24 laps.
Average Speed: 127.702 mph