BRISTOL, Tenn. – Logan Seavey was the last man standing during the eNASCAR Saturday Night Thunder main event at the virtual Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
Piloting the No. 19 NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet, Seavey ran down and passed late leader Chase Cabre with 13 laps to go before motoring on to the victory.
The past USAC midget champion got the job done against a field that included stars from the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Pinty’s Series and NASCAR Peak Mexico Series.
Saturday night’s program – which utilized a true short-track format with heat races and a C- and B-main – was full of carnage, with nine yellow flags in the feature alone and even a wreck prior to the green flag in the B-main that took out the initial polesitter in that race.
It was Seavey’s second major iRacing Pro Invitational win in roughly two weeks, after he previously won the first World of Outlaws iRacing Invitational for sprint cars on March 26.
“It was a long, long race, but we all knew that was coming,” admitted Seavey. “I think we were all prepared for a lot of cautions there. I put myself in a good spot. We were in third on fresh tires, thought we were going to come out with the lead and ended up crashing.
“Thought that was going to be the end of our day, but we were able to switch strategies around, rode around in the back most of the day just to save tires. The last 50 or 60 laps, I knew we weren’t coming in, so I just saved until the last 20 or 30. I knew I had enough to run down Chase and Ty there. So, I went hard when I knew I needed to push. I can’t thank Chase Briscoe, Chris Wheeler, and Chase Raudman enough for helping me.”
For the eventual winner, it was a race he didn’t even know he was going to run until a few days ago.
“I didn’t even know I was going to run this race until two days ago. Austin Craven of Team Dillon (Management) got me connected with people at iRacing and I was able to get into this race,” Seavey explained. “I’ve started a couple of NASCAR races and I’ve raced against most of the field. To run with Ty and Chase and others who are pretty good on this sim was pretty cool.”
Cabre, carrying the banner for the ARCA Menards Series East, crossed the finish line in second. Past Pinty’s Series champion and current Xfinity Series driver Alex Labbe was third, followed by Anthony Alfredo and Kyle Weatherman.
Ty Majeski, Justin Allgaier, Blake Koch, Joey Gase and Jeb Burton filled out the top 10.
The results:
1. Logan Seavey [4], 2. Chase Cabre [7], 3. Alex Labbe [5], 4. Anthony Alfredo [3], 5. Kyle Weatherman [2], 6. Ty Majeski [12], 7. Justin Allgaier [9], 8. Blake Koch [1], 9. Joey Gase [19], 10. Jeb Burton [21], 11. Justin Haley [18], 12. Stewart Friesen [22], 13. Landon Huffman [14], 14. Myatt Snider [23], 15. Jesse Iwuji [11], 16. Will Rodgers [6], 17. Kaz Grala [10], 18. Brandon Brown [17], 19. Chandler Smith [24], 20. Josh Bilicki [8], 21. Ryan Truex [15], 22. Derek Kraus [13], 23. Ruben Garcia Jr. [16], 24. Harrison Burton [20].
Lead Changes: Three among four drivers.
Lap Leader(s): Blake Koch 1-67, Alex Labbe 68-86, Chase Cabre 87-137,
Logan Seavey 138-150
Laps Led: Blake Koch 67, Chase Cabre 51, Alex Labbe 19, Logan Seavey 13.
Hard Charger: Jeb Burton (+11)
Caution Flags: Nine for 45 laps.
Margin of Victory: 1.379 seconds.
Average Speed: 79.600 mph