NBC eSports Short Track iRacing Challenge Preview – Lucas Oil Raceway
Tonight on NBCSN at 7PM, round two of the NBC eSports Short Track iRacing Challenge will commence at Lucas Oil Raceway. In this post I’ll refer to it as its more commonly known name, IRP.
IRP is a great short track that will challenge the six car field tonight. It’s a wide short track where the high-line is without question the fast line.
The six drivers racing tonight are Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Justin Allgaier, Chase Briscoe and Harrison Burton. I really think this race is a lot more wide open than Monday’s at Rockingham.
Here’s my Lucas Oil Raceway Driver Rankings
1) Christopher Bell – Christopher Bell won last Wednesday night in an Outlaw car on dirt in iRacing, and I think that’s great cross training to prepare for IRP. The high-line is the fast line around IRP, and he raced that groove masterfully en route to victory lane. Tonight’s race actually happened last week, so you have to think he was mentally prepared to run that groove. At Bristol on Sunday, Bell had his best eNASCAR result and finished 12th. Bell has done a lot of iRacing (over 1K starts) and has been to victory lane at least 238 times. You have to think a lot of those races happened at tracks that were great cross training for IRP.
2) Denny Hamlin – Denny Hamlin will be the popular pick to win at IRP, and you’re probably a little surprised I don’t have him at #1. He has the name recognition, and he’s been successful in eNASCAR. He won at Homestead and overall in 2 of the 3 races he’s finished in the top 4. I’m sure Hamlin will be well prepared for this race. He’s a true iRacer, and I would like to believe he loves short track racing in the virtual world.
3) Kyle Larson – Kyle Larson will be a driver who you don’t want to overlook at IRP. He’s shown improvement as an iRacer, and I really like how he performed last Wednesday in the dirt races. I believe those races were great training for IRP.
4) Chase Briscoe – Chase Briscoe has one eNASCAR start under his belt and he had a successful afternoon at Homestead where he finished 4th and led 7 laps. Overall in iRacing at ovals, Briscoe has 299 wins under his belt and has finished in the top five about 42% percent of the time.
5) Justin Allgaier – Justin Allagaier doesn’t have a lot of seat time in iRacing, and that’s certainly not a plus heading into a challenging track. Entering Homestead he only had 31 races under his belt and has only been to victory lane once. In eNASCAR when he made his lone start at Homestead he finished 20th. At Bristol in the lower series race he finished 7th.
6) Harrison Burton – Harrison Burton has a short iRacing resume. Heading into Homestead he only had 14 races under his belt, and he failed to make the main event. At Bristol in the lower series on Saturday night he finished last in the 24 car field.
