Talladega Invitational Race Report Kyle Busch Scores Top-10 Finish in GEICO 70

Details:

• Race: GEICO 70 (Round 5)

• Series: eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series

• Date: Sunday, April 26

• Location: Virtual Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2.66-mile oval)

• Distance: 70 laps (186.2 miles)

• Result: Started 19th, Finished 8th (Running, completed 74 of 74 laps)

• Winner: Alex Bowman 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 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry:

“Early on in the race, we decided to have a little bit of the lay back strategy with the Interstate Batteries Camry and see if we could miss some of those wrecks that we knew were going to happen. We hadn’t made more than six-to-eight laps under green in any of the practice races, so we figured it was going to happen. Guys actually did a pretty good job. It single-filed out a little bit, then there was one wreck that spread the field into two packs, and we were in the lower pack. All-in-all, we had our pit stops and got through those pretty clean and was able to get back towards the front there. Then another kind of split up happened and we got caught up in that crash with Jeff Gordon and a couple other guys. I came to pit road and fixed our minor damage. We didn’t want to use our reset yet. There were still 12 laps to go, so we figured we were going to crash again. Lo and behold, they did crash again. There was a caution, but by then it was too late. We were going to start too far back and not have a chance to run back though there. End up there at the end with just not quite a fast enough car to contend with the leaders. I got my brother (Kurt Busch) behind me, which was good to help us salvage a top-10 finish.”

Notes:

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

• This was Busch’s second consecutive Top-10 finish in the Pro Invitatational, as his eighth-place finish at virtual Talladega followed up his season best fifth-place finish last weekend at virtual Richmond.

• 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, May 3 at the virtual Dover International Speedway. 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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