Richmond Invitational Race Report Kyle Busch Finishes Fifth in Toyota Owners 150

Details:

•Race: Toyota Owners 150 (Round 4)

•Series: eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series

•Date: Sunday, April 19

•Location: Virtual Richmond Raceway (.75-mile oval)

•Distance: 150 laps (112.5 miles)

•Result: Started 27th, Finished 5th (Running, completed 152 of 152 laps)

•Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports

•Note: Race extended four laps past its scheduled 150-lap distance due to a green-white- checkered finish.

Kyle Busch, Driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry:

You drove from the back of the field to the front again this week. How were you able to get up there and stay there for your first top-five in the Pro Invitational Series?

“At the start I thought here we go, it’s Groundhog day with qualifying. We don’t have very good qualifying efforts, but once we get going into the race, you can kind of methodically, slowly pick you way off and get yourself more up to the front and run with those top guys. It would be nice to figure out qualifying and start up front and see if we have a shot to race inside the top three all day and race for the win. I’ve just been working hard at getting a little bit more and more out of our M&M’s Camry and trying to figure out some more iRacing tricks.”

Later in the race you took two tires instead of four. If you had taken four, do you think you could have gotten back up to the front?

“I don’t think four tires was getting you through the field as good as it should have. Brad (Keselowski) behind us had four tires on and he caught up to us from a little further back, but there was not much he could do once he got there. I think two was the right choice, but then if we would have had four for the very final restart I think that would have been better off with our strategy, but we had to get the track position earlier in the day to be in that position for later.”

Does it feel good to bring home a top-five finish?

“It does feel good to get a top-five. We’re just having fun out there and trying to do what we can and try to put on a good show for the fans watching on tv. It’s been interesting, that’s for sure. I’ve been trying to get better at this thing and pick it up. I don’t know what else there is to do for qualifying. I’m out of ideas, so if anyone has any idea what to do then let me know.”

Notes:

• This was Busch’s fourth appearance in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.

• Busch’s fifth-place finish at virtual Richmond topped his previous best finish of 17th from the second race of the series at virtual Texas.  

• The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is an exhibition esports series featuring a collection of past and present racecar drivers from the NASCAR Cup Series.

• The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series is a multi-week series emulating the original 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

• With the sports world on a necessary hiatus to combat the spread of the coronavirus, the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series exists in place of actual NASCAR events.

Next Up & Where to Watch:

The next event on the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series schedule is Sunday, April 26 at the virtual Talladega Superspeedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage via…

•  FOX network

•  FS1 (DIRECTV Channel 219 and Dish Channel 150)

•  FOX Sports app

•  FOX Sports Racing for fans in Canada

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