ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Ryan Doucette may not have had the fastest car in Tuesday night’s eNASCAR iRacing Road to Pro top-split event at Rockingham Speedway, but he found his way to victory lane anyway.
Doucette used a two-tire gamble to exit pit road with the lead under a lap-141 caution, then mastered a series of restarts in the closing stages to win at the 1.017-mile oval, notching his first Road to Pro triumph of the season.
The race-defining pit sequence – sparked after contact from Marcus Ruckman turned Garrett Manes around and ended a green-flag run of more than 100 laps – allowed Doucette to wrest control of the race away from a dominant Daniel Roeper.
Roeper, who paced a race-high 59 laps and led the field down pit road, came out of the stops in second but was quickly knocked out of contention after contact with Will Norton on the ensuing restart with 37 to go.
With the race’s dominant driver out of contention, that left the remainder of the field trying to stop Doucette, but to no avail as the driver of the No. 30 hit each subsequent restart to perfection down the home stretch – including two attempts at overtime.
Seth DeMerchant came the closest, but he couldn’t track down Doucette despite six extra laps beyond the scheduled 180-lap distance to try and mount a challenge.
DeMerchant finished second, .384 seconds adrift, followed by Steven Wilson, Will Norton and Daytona top-split victor Jordy Lopez Jr.
Jacob Hall, Brad Mahar, Carson Hocevar, Derek Justis and Dillon Raffurty completed the top 10.
Other split winners on Tuesday night included Mitchell Hunt (second split), Brodie Kostecki (third split), Ethan Lane (fourth split), Brandon Hauck (fifth split), Thomas Hazard (sixth split), Bryan Johnson (seventh split), Scott Crump (eighth split), Calvin Allison (ninth split) and Justin Kirby (10th split).
Also winning their respective splits were Vern Bradley (11th split), Shawn Kimball (12th split), Andrew Kotska (13th split), Leigh Overton (14th split), Michael Henry (15th split) and Jeremy Crandall (bottom split).
The next race for the eNASCAR iRacing Road to Pro is at Homestead-Miami Speedway on April 7.
The results:
1. Ryan Doucette, 2. Seth DeMerchant, 3. Steven Wilson, 4. Will Norton, 5. Jordy Lopez Jr., 6. Jacob Hall, 7. Brad Mahar, 8. Carson Hocevar, 9. Derek Justis, 10. Dillon Raffurty, 11. Cody Byus, 12. Garrett Manes, 13. Darik Bourdeau, 14. Braden Boulos, 15. Blake McCandless, 16. Patrick Mallet, 17. Markus Ruckman, 18. Andrew Faryniarz, 19. Jarrett Liebert, 20. Donovan Strauss, 21. James Mihlbachler, 22. Spencer Burns, 23. Blake Bryant, 24. Dylan Jones, 25. Ryan Kuhn, 26. Kaden Honeycutt, 27. Justin Trombley, 28. Eddie Kerner, 29. Daniel Roeper, 30. Casey Tucker, 31. Brandon McKissic, 32. Bryan Blackford, 33. Blake Near.