PGRL S3 R9 Recap

18 October 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 9
Premier Series | Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Michael Chrobok with Loud Pedal Motorsports take the checkered flag tonight in the Galloping Horses 200 presented by Mane ‘n Tail at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Cody Dempster and Thomas George. “It was just a matter of running that 2nd to last stint close enough on fuel so you could make it to the end and then getting a little bit of an undercut on [Eckrich] and then getting the clean air up front and then kind of manage that gap to [George]”, Chrobok commented while celebrating his win.

Rich Jette took the green flag in control of the 22-car field and jumped out to a strong lead ahead of Chance Manning. Jordan Harnish struggled going into the first corner sliding up the track and fell from 2nd back to 19th. Jette was pulling away as Greg O’Berry and Cody Dempster overtook Manning pushing him back to 4th with Jonathan Cogswell directly behind him. 10 laps into the run, Jette had extended his lead out to almost 2 seconds, but Dempster was chipping away at the gap lap after lap.

Michael Chrobok broke into the top 10 and was making calculated moves through the field following Thomas George along the inside line. With only 15 laps behind them, several drivers were struggling with loose conditions and Dempster was able to overtake Jette for the lead with the rest of the field close behind. Time Winecoff lost his car on lap 17 coming out of turn 2 and had his night ended early as several drivers made hard contact unable to avoid Winecoff sideways on the backstretch bringing out the caution flag.

The entire field took the opportunity to come down pit road with Cody Dempster rejoining the track still in the lead. Dempster had a great launch off the start followed by Jette. George had a slower start falling back a few spots to 7th before slotting in line behind Manning and Chrobok was able to clear under Cogswell for 3rd. Jette took the lead back from Dempster and Wally Wilson climbed up into the top 5 running in 4th. On lap 35, Dempster was again able to close back in on Jette to take the lead away as Jette got loose chasing his car down to the apron before collecting himself back up to continue running from 5th.

A few laps later, Dempster had a similar situation falling back to 3rd allowing Chrobok to take the lead with Brian Yaczik in 2nd place. Going into lap 40, George was at the bottom of a 3-wide battle with Dempster and Manning when he clipped the apron and came back up the track. As Dempster and Manning moved up the track to avoid contact but Manning overcorrected and came back down into George sending himself around with only minor damage and bringing out the caution. George and Dempster were able to recover in 3rd and 4th while Manning fell back to 14th.

Chrobok was in control of the restart with Yaczik to his outside going into lap 45. Yaczik was able to overtake for the lead running along the highline with Dempster behind him as Saif Faries pushed up into 3rd with Dempster dropping back to 5th behind Wilson. Faries and Wilson battled each other around Yaczik and into the lead with Wilson claiming the position in the end. Wilson immediately started to pull away with the lead stretching the gap well over 2 seconds after only a few laps in clean air.

The front pack led by Dempster completely closed the gap to Wilson going into lap 60 similar to what happened to Jette early in the night. Dempster and Yaczik split around Wilson to overtake the lead with Wilson showing clear signs of tire wear and falling back further into the field. Yaczik cleared ahead of Dempster for the lead with George diving low for 2nd. Scott Eckrich was quietly moving up through the field throughout the night and was up to 4th pressuring Chrobok and George ahead.

Going into the second half of the night, Harnish was making a nice recovery back inside of the top 10 running behind Adam Jurski while Yaczik continued to hold the lead ahead of George. Chrobok saw an opening on lap 70 when George had to recover from getting loose and dove beneath him to take away 2nd place. Chrobok was able to close the 0.5 second gap to Yaczik and take the lead away with Eckrich moving around George into 3rd. The top 4 drivers had a 1.5 second lead ahead of Dempster in 5th with 56 laps remaining.

Going into lap 85, Eckrich was able to clear around both Yaczik and Chrobok holding the race lead for the first time of the night. Chrobok came down pit road on lap 91 with George under the green flag with Eckrich and Yaczik going down on the following lap. Chrobok was in control of the field again as the pit cycle completed with George in 2nd. Yaczik and Dempster were battling over 4th place ahead of Eckrich going into the final 40 laps. As the laps counted down, George and Yaczik were both closing in on Chrobok for the lead while Dempster and Eckrich ran further back seemingly pacing themselves to save their equipment for later in the run.

On lap 112, Yaczik was trying to make a pass high around George for 2nd place when George made contact with the apron sending him back up the track making hard contact and sending Yaczik hard into the inside wall resulting in night ending damage to his right front suspension. George was able to recover from the incident and continue running in 4th behind Eckrich and Dempster. Chrobok had more than 2 seconds between himself and Eckrich with less than 20 laps remaining. Eckrich got loose in the final moments falling back to 4th before the end as Michael Chrobok took the checkered flag with Cody Dempster, Thomas George, Scott Eckrich, and Jordan Harnish rounding out the top 5 drivers tonight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Thomas George holds onto the lead with 353 points over Brian Yaczik with 337 points. Michael Chrobok holds onto 3rd place with 316 points. Cody Dempster sits in 4th with 296 points as Woody Mahan rounds out the top 5 with 278 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 25th for the High, Wide, and Handsome 200 presented by The Joy of Driving with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!