The moment so many have anticipated for so long is nearly upon us. People like car racing co-founders John Henry and Dave Kaemmer, who dreamed of the day when the world's best sim-racing would be sanctioned by NASCAR. And the late Bill France Jr. who, as NASCAR chairman, spoke more than a decade ago of a time when race fans would be able to race virtual stock cars on their computers under the auspices of NASCAR.
Josh Parker barged into the lead with 10 laps remaining to secure his first NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship victory at Phoenix International Raceway. Josh Parker out-muscled leader Josh Berry on a late restart and then cruised to the win in front of John Gorlinsky and Derek Wood when a multi-car crash resulted in the race finishing under caution. Prior to the rough-and-tumble finish, PIR produced some of the best racing action to date in the NiSWC, with no fewer than eight drivers swapping the lead 11 times. Although a dozen cautions disrupted the flow of the race, many of the incidents were for single-car spins resulting in little to no damage.
"On the second to last restart I got into Josh Berry, looks like he missed the corner a little bit and had to slow down way too much and caught me off guard. Real sorry to him. ... All-in-all I wish it turned out better." NASCAR iRacing Champion Josh Parker said.
On Lap 150, however, Josh Parker got a good restart, forcing Berry to take a defensive line into Turn 1. Contact ensued, sending Berry into the fence and ruining his chance for his first NiSWC win. When the desert dust settled it was Parker, Gorlinsky and Wood with Theo Olson from Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. in fourth ahead of Schoenburg, Chris Main from Germantown, Md., Lewandowski and Davies.
Although Theo Olson got the better of Wood on the Lap 154 restart, Wood returned the favor on the following lap with Main losing a couple of positions before the multi-car crash on Lap 156 seemingly ended the race. During the final caution period, Josh Parker inadvertently nosed ahead of the pace car. Although he was initially penalized two laps for the infraction, NASCAR and iRacing officials subsequently declared Josh Parker the winner and issued a stern warning to all NiSWC drivers that future pace car infractions could result in severe penalties, including the loss of laps.
Exactly what Davies didn't want to happen after the yellow, happened. Josh Parker took the lead and dominated the rest of the race, getting the win and the points he needed to take the championship lead for the first-ever lead change in iPSO points, while Davies came home a lap down in 12th spot. Derek Wood could not manage a win. He had a good run, finishing third, but nobody in his split had anything for Josh Berry, who started outside the top five, but picked them off one by one, found the lead and was never really challenged.
"First off, I want to applaud iRacing on a great inaugural Pro Road and Oval Series, before Pro Oval began, if you said I will be battling for the championship I would probably say, 'Uh, what?' Especially with some of the best racing against me. After 24 weeks of racing, and it coming down to whoever wins the last race between Brad Davies, Derek Wood and myself is just incredible. I have won a few big races but this is by far the most accomplished series championship I've won.” NASCAR iRacing Champion Josh Parker said in his interview.
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