PGRL S3 R7 Recap

04 October 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 7
Premier Series | Talladega Superspeedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing took the checkered flag tonight under caution flag conditions in the Chuckles, I’m in Danger 250 at Talladega Superspeedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Brian yaczik and Pete Baskins. “Switching to this #6, I think there’s some good luck going on with it right now”, George commented after taking what he considered to be an unexpected win. Going forward in the season, George is competing with Yaczik for the championship with 5 races left on the schedule as he added, “We gotta keep performing well, keep doing what we’re doing”

Pete Baskins sat on the pole as the green flag waved over Talladega and the field tore down the front stretch. Woody Mahan was pushing Baskins along the inside line while Jordan Harnish struggled to get the top line organized and the field quickly split into 3 lines very early in the run leading to trouble as Harnish came together with Greg O’Berry putting both cars hard into the outside wall and bringing out the caution flag 4 laps in. Racing resumed going into lap 7 with Adam Jurski in control of the 34-car field with Thomas George alongside him on the front row.

Jurski dropped down in front of George with Baskins running in 3rd with the inside line again starting off strong. Again, several spots within the field went 3, almost 4, wide as drivers shuffled to stay as far up in the field as possible. Mahan found himself in the lead of the 3rd line along the outside wall being pushed out front by Scott Eckrich. With 15 laps completed, the field broke into two separate group with 17 cars still running in the lead pack. The lead continued to shuffle with Chrisopher Dewald leading the inside line several car lengths out front as the outside line started to fall apart and the leaders were mostly single filed out.

Yaczik and Eckrich continued to work well together, both drivers staying up near the front of the leading group as the pack split back off into multiple lines while the 2nd group of cars ran almost a quarter of the track behind them. Lap 27 saw the first round of drivers coming down pit road under green flag condition to include James Moore and Dewald. The majority of the leaders came down on lap 31 led in by Cody Dempster with Eckrich and Yaczik in the group. As the pit cycles completed, Travis McQuistion was in control of the field with Eckrich and Yaczik running in 2nd and 3rd.

The lead pack consisting of the front 12 drivers were aggressively swapping the leading car around as they battled amongst themselves with the slightest contact in the middle of the group between Jacob Bruff and Tommy Gossett brought the caution flag back out as the pack scattered to avoid further contact approaching the halfway point of the night. When the green flag came out again, 28 drivers were still on the lead lap and 32 drivers still running on track going into lap 45 with Yaczik getting a hard shove out front as another incident in the mid pack collected several drivers.

Racing again resumed on lap 49 with Yaczik out front leading the outside line. Jonathan Cogswell and Michael Chrobok teamed up with Chrobok successfully pushing Cogswell out front taking control of the field while Yaczik fell back outside of the top 5 as the top line started to fall apart for the moment. With 60 laps completed, Mahan was out front being pushed by Mike Rasimas with Eckrich in 3rd. Going into the final 25 laps, Eckrich started positioning himself to be pushed out front moving up to the outside line ahead of George and Yaczik.

Eckrich cleared into the lead by several car length for a brief moment before Chrobok was able to overtake him with Dempster pushing. Chrobok dropped down in front of Eckrich who seemed content to push him further out front away from the field as the laps counted down. With 9 laps remaining, Chrobok and Isaiah Dupre made contact sending Chrobok around into traffic bringing an unfortunate end to his run as the caution flag came out. When racing resumed there were only 5 laps to go.

All of the drivers were scrambling for position with multiple lines forming and falling apart rapidly. With 2 laps remaining, the final caution came out after contact in the middle of the leading pack collected several drivers completing for the win giving the win to Thomas George under caution flag conditions with Brian Yaczik, Pete Baskins, Don Runkle JR, and Scott Eckrich rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Talladega Superspeedway.

Brian Yaczik continues to lead in the point standings with 272 points. Thomas George maintains 2nd place only 2 points behind the leader with Michael Chrobok in 3rd with 231 points. Woody Mahan sits in 4th with 220 points and Code Dempster rounds out the top 5 with 217 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 11th to run the Roval with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!