PGRL S1 R7 Recap

30 Mar 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 1 | Round 7
Premier Series | Richmond Raceway

Scott Eckrich with Graafix LC Motorsports took his fourth win of the season tonight in the Muscular Dystrophy 200 presented by Patriot Media & Marketing Services with the Pretty Good Racing League at Richmond Raceway ahead of Michael Strohl and Thomas George. “The setup was pretty tight tonight and it just made passing on the bottom super, super hard”, Eckrich told us after the race, “It just really punishes the tires… if you get stuck in one of those battles it kind of feels like you just get tight and you get stuck.”

Travis McQuistion started the evening on the pole taking the green flag and quickly clearing Rich Jette going single file. The first 20 laps proved to be frustrating for several drivers as the field struggled to get sorted out with contact sending many to the back. The battle for 3rd place between Django Matthews, James Krahula, and Scott Eckrich heated up quickly as they went three wide with Krahula coming away with the position and Eckrich close behind with a strong charge through the field already up 12 spots from his starting position going into lap 26.

Eckrich was wasting no time getting around Krahula and starting to work on Jette taking 2nd place away 40 laps into the evening. Eckrich took a very low line getting to the inside of McQuistion in the lead but wasn’t able to clear right away as McQuistion battled back from the middle lane and held a strong pace. After several tense laps battling side by side, Eckrich cleared for the lead 50 laps in as Brian Yaczik and Jeff Ward started to pressure McQuistion for position.

The caution flag was thrown out on lap 81 for contact between Krahula, Thomas George, and Ricky Hardin giving the drivers a safe pit opportunity as the fuel window for the run was getting close. Eckrich, Yaczik, and Ward were leading the field as the green flag came back out approaching the halfway point in the race. With 60 laps remaining, Eckrich stayed ahead of Yaczik in the lead and drivers were shuffling throughout the field for positions. A caution on lap 148 gave the leaders another opportune time to top off on fuel and get a fresh set of tires to run out the remaining 50 laps of the night.

Jeff Ward stayed out during the caution inheriting the lead from Eckrich who rejoined the track in 6th place. Yaczik, who fell back into the field in 7th, had a rough restart coming together with Mike Rasimas and causing a traffic jam on track that collected a large portion of the field. The incident sent Yaczik back to 19th as the green flag came back out with 40 laps to go after having a strong run up front all evening. Ward had a strong launch off the restart, but Eckrich had closed up the gap quickly clearing for the lead.

Eckrich controlled the lead all the way to the checkered flag with Michael Strohl, Thomas George, Tommy Rhyne, and Jeff Ward rounding out the top 5 finishers. Tonight was the first of five races sponsored by Patriot Media & Marketing Services who has pledged to donate $1 for each view on YouTube for the sponsored races in support of muscular dystrophy awareness at the end of the season. More information about muscular dystrophy, where the donations will be sent, or how you can contribute can be found at laps4md.blogspot.com, mda.org, and muscle.ca.

Scott Eckrich, now at 278 points total, took the points lead away from Mike Rasimas with his win tonight knocking Rasimas back to 2nd place with 265 points in the standings. Michael Strohl holds onto 3rd place 48 points behind the new leader. Thomas George and Jeff Ward moved past Brian Yaczik taking 4th with 223 points and 5th place with 222 points respectively. The next round for the drivers is at Martinsville Speedway for the “Hide the Pain and Celebrate the Joy of Driving 250” on April 5th and all of the action will be broadcast live at 8:50PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!