PGRL S3 R10 Recap

25 October 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 10
Premier Series | Homestead-Miami Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Scott Eckrich with GRAFFix LC Motorsports took the checkered flag by 0.056 seconds tonight in a shootout to the end in the High, Wide, and Handsome 200 presented by The Joy of Driving at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Michael Chrobok and Brian Yaczik. Commenting on the late race caution, Scott shared with us, “You never like to see that especially after such a long green flag run… It’s never fun when a giant saving race turns into a hot lapper because you know you gotta like find the edge immediately or you’re going to lose.”

Woody Mahan took the green flag on the pole of the 20-car field with James Moore to his outside. As Mahan cleared ahead of Moore, Brian Yaczik pushed to the inside overtaking both drivers on the 2nd lap. Moore stayed with Yaczik challenging for the lead knocking Yaczik back to 3rd behind Jonathan Cogswell. With 10 laps behind them, Cogswell became the 4th different leader early in the race with Moore looking to take the position back. Scott Eckrich was quietly climbing up through the field up 8 positions from his 20th place start.

Coming off a restart, Yaczik was able to charge back to the front to battle for the lead with Moore with 20 laps completed. Jordan Harnish took advantage of the restart making up several positions and was pressuring Moore for 2nd place. Yaczik was in control of the field ahead of Cogswell as another caution came out when Moore who was in the lead got loose and spun around 35 laps into the run. The field came down pit road before restacking to again take the green flag.

Yaczik had a good launch off the restart pulling out to a strong lead. Mike Rasimas was up to 3rd with newcomer Barrett Polhemus battling with him. Michael Chrobok climbed up into the top 5 and was looking to challenge both drivers going forward. Yaczik seemed to be relaxing his pace to save his equipment for a longer run as he gave up the lead and fell back to 3rd ahead of Rasimas with 50 laps completed. Cogswell moved up into the lead with Polhemus close behind.

65 laps in the night, Polhemus and Chrobok were running side by side battling for the lead with Chrobok to the inside and Eckrich overtook Rasimas for 3rd as Eckrich started pushing much more aggressively going into the 2nd half of the race. Polhemus reached the first lap traffic on lap 72 with Chrobok and Eckrich single file directly behind him keeping the pressure high. Eckrich was able to overtake Chrobok for 2nd closing in on Polhemus before diving deep to take away the lead with 80 laps completed.

Drivers started coming down pit road under green flag conditions in small groups of few cars at a time going into the final 50 laps as the field settled into a groove and were spreading out around the track. As the pit cycle completed, Polhemus was again in control of the field with almost 1 second between himself and Rasimas in 2nd and Eckrich several seconds back in 3rd. Chrobok and Yaczik were over 3 seconds behind Eckrich and were battling hard over 4th place as the laps counted down.

With 30 laps remaining, Eckrich had completely closed the gap to the leader and was aggressively pressuring Polhemus. Eckrich stayed tight against Polhemus for nearly 20 laps before seeing his opportunity on lap 122 to dive beneath Polhemus to take away the lead with 12 laps to go. A late race caution came out a lap later setting up a sprint to the end. Eckrich was in the lead ahead of Chrobok and Polhemus as the field came back together after the pit cycle to take the green flag once again.

Eckrich had a good jump off the start with Chrobok close behind holding off Thomas George. Yaczik got a nose beneath George to take 3rd place while Chrobok tried to get a good enough run to make a pass attempt with 4 laps remaining. Chrobok clear into the lead but Eckrich was still pushing and reclaimed the position before taking the white flag. Chrobok lined up for another attempt coming out of the final corner, but it wasn’t enough as Scott Eckrich took the checkered flag ahead of Michael Chrobok by 0.056 with Brian Yaczik, Thomas George, and Barrett Polhemus rounding out the top 5 tonight at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Thomas George holds onto the lead with 363 points over Brian Yaczik with 349 points. Michael Chrobok holds onto 3rd place with 339 points. Scott Eckrich moved up 2 spots into 4th with 299 points as Cody Dempster rounds out the top 5 with 296 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Martinsville Speedway on November 1st for the Joy of Driving Martinsville 250 with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!