Denny Hamlin Beats Dale Jr to Win iRacing Race at Virtual Homestead

Denny Hamlin passes Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series exhibition race on the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Earnhardt was second in the 100-lap race. Timmy Hill was third. Chase Briscoe placed fourth. Garrett Smithley was fifth.

Hamlin rallied from 14th in the final 20 laps, taking advantage of the top 13 not pitting under caution on Lap 81.

Hamlin pledged to donate $100 for every lap he led and $5,000 if he won the race. Those donations will be earmarked to assist Miami-area residents.

“It’s always fun when you win,” Hamlin said in a teleconference after the race. “Regardless, it was a great event for the racing community and the NASCAR drivers to come together to put 20-some drivers together on such short notice. I think it definitely was a success.”

Said Earnhardt: “We took tires with 30 laps to and Denny took tires with about 20 laps to go and I think that was certainly a big advantage for him. We were racing really hard up front, too, burning our stuff up. I didn’t expect Denny to get up there and he did. Went to the bottom because if I go to the top he can pass me a whole lot easier. Plus, he wanted to, he could take the whole lane and knock me out of the way and I don’t even finish in the top five.”

RESULTS

1. Denny Hamlin
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3. Timmy Hill
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Garrrett Smithley
6. Alex Bowman
7. Bubba Wallace
8. Ryan Preece
9. Ty Majeski
10. Erik Jones
11. Matt DiBenedetto
12. Landon Cassill
13. Parker Kligerman
14. Ross Chastain
15. Joey Logano
16. Clint Bowyer
17. Ryan Truex
18. Bobby Labonte
19. Ty Dillon
20. Justin Allgaier
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22. Austin Cindric
23. Michael McDowell
24. Chase Elliott
25. Brad Keselowski
26. Christopher Bell
27. Austin Dillon
28. Chris Buescher
29. Kyle Busch
30. John Hunter Nemechek
31. Jimmie Johnson
32. Anthony Alfredo
33. Kyle Larson
34. William Byron
35. Kurt Busch