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!

PGRL S3 R8 Recap

12 October 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 8
Premier Series | Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Scott Eckrich with GRAAFix LC Motorsports dominated the night to take the checkered flag tonight in the Make It Stop 125 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Thomas George and Brian Yaczik. “This race track, this year, this car, is the hardest track we’ve been to yet by probably a pretty considerable margin”, Eckrich shared with us as the night came to a close, “There was a lot of fine management about how you had to hit your bumps and stuff not to destroy the car and how to get speed and not throw it sideways off of it and there was a whole lot of time to be gained if you could get the minor stuff down.”

Greg O’Berry led the 17-car field to the green flag with Michael Chrobok to his outside. O’Berry and Chrobok quickly single filed out ahead of the field going through the first corner. Cold tires caught a few drivers off guard in the opening laps with drivers such as Chance Manning sliding through a chicane losing a lot of time. Scott Eckrich and Jeff Ward were quickly pushing up through the pack up to 7th and 8th respectively with only 3 laps completed while O’Berry still held the lead ahead of Chrobok.

Only 8 laps into the night, Eckrich and Brian Yaczik came down pit road together for fuel and rejoined the track in 11th and 12th place with O’Berry still holding off Chrobok for the lead. Cody Dempster and Woody Mahan were battling aggressively over 3rd. Dempster was able to move up to 2nd when Chrobok came down pit road on lap 10 and made a move for the lead 1 lap later with Jeff Ward close behind moving into 2nd and pressuring Dempster. Harley Moss was quietly making his way up through the field running in 3rd and closing on the leaders with 15 laps completed.

Ward got alongside Dempster a few times before Dempster aggressively slammed the door shut going through the backstretch chicane regaining the lead. Eckrich was back up to 4th running almost 9 seconds behind the leaders as the field became spread out around the course as a result of different pit strategies. Dempster made his fuel stop going into lap 22 handing the lead over to Moss with Eckrich in 2nd already within 1.5 seconds. Dempster rejoined the course in 8th behind Mahan who was battling with Chrobok ahead.

As the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night, Moss came down pit road and Eckrich took the lead over 14 seconds ahead of Thomas George in 2nd place. Moss came back on track in 5th with Dempster close behind and the two drivers started battling side by side making slight contact as Dempster cleared ahead. With 25 laps remaining, Eckrich had extended his lead out to over 24 seconds ahead of George with Yaczik maintaining 3rd place ahead of Ward. Dempster was struggling falling back to 6th behind Moss and pulling away by 2 seconds.

Several drivers started coming down pit road on lap 33 including Eckrich in the lead for the final fuel stop. George came down on the following lap as Eckrich regained the lead with a 27 second gap ahead of George rejoining the track in 2nd place. Going into the final 15 laps, Eckrich continued to lead with George 20 seconds back and Yaczik another 11 seconds behind George. Ward got to the inside of Moss going into turn 1, but contact was made when Moss got loose sending both drivers around blocking the track for a moment. Ward was the first to get corrected and continued running in 4th.

Dempster was able to clear ahead of Moss before Moss could get his car spun back around in the right direction and fell back to 6th place. With 9 laps remaining, Eckrich caught the curb wrong in the chicane on the back stretch and spun himself around on the track but had a strong enough lead ahead of George to get his car faced back in the right direction and back up to speed with over a 7 second lead. Scott Eckrich led the remaining laps to take the checkered flag tonight in the Make It Stop 125 at Charlotte with Thomas George, Brian Yaczik, Cody Dempster, and Michael Chrobok rounding out the top 5 drivers.

Thomas George took the lead away from Brian Yaczik tonight by 2 points with 312 points overall. Michael Chrobok holds onto 3rd place with 267 points. Cody Dempster moved up into 4th with 256 points as Woody Mahan slid back one spot to 5th with 253 points rounding out the top 5. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 18th for the Galloping Horses 200 with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

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!

PGRL S3 R6 Recap

27 September 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 6
Premier Series | Texas Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Thomas George with Steel Horse Racing took the checkered flag in the Almirola By Morning 250 after taking the lead on the final lap with the Pretty Good Racing League at Texas Motor Speedway ahead of Michael Chrobok and Mike Rasimas. “We had good short run speed. The car was good on the short run, fell off a little on the long run”, George commented as the action came to a close, “It’s time to put this Ford Mustang back in Victory Lane.”

Brady Cure was in control of the field as the green flag came out clearing ahead of Matthew Wheeler and leading 24-car line up speeding into turn one. Most of the field single filed out by the completion of the first lap with sporadic battles throughout. Woody Mahan and Brian Yaczik were able to get around Cure with only 5 laps completed with Cody Dempster pressuring Cure from 4th while Mahan and Yaczik pulled away from the rest of the field by over 1 second with 10 laps behind them.

Dempster took the 3rd position and found himself fighting to keep it against Thomas George getting his nose to the inside. George cleared ahead into 3rd with drivers all throughout the field struggling with loose conditions early on in the run. Yaczik took control of the field and built a 0.6 second lead over Mahan showing a strong pace with George slowly closing the gap to Mahan. Mike Rasimas was up into the top 5 going into lap 20 and gaining on Dempster ahead.

Dempster cleared around both Chance Manning and Mahan into 2nd place while Yaczik continued to lead the field. Manning put his nose to the inside of Dempster to take back the position but couldn’t complete the move settling back into 3rd ahead of George and Mahan battling over 4th directly behind him. Mahan slid up the track enough for Michael Chrobok to take advantage diving beneath him and moving up into 5th behind George on lap 47. Yaczik was slowly stretching out his lead running around 0.5 ahead of Dempster by lap 50 as the drivers started to find their grooves and check off some laps.

As the laps counted down, Yaczik showed his speed over the long run pulling further away from the rest of the field by over 1 second. Chrobok cleared into 2nd place ahead of George with Dempster falling back to 4th as the caution came out on lap 72. All drivers came into the pits with Yaczik winning the race off pit road and retaining the lead for the restart with George to his outside on the front row. Manning and Greg O’Berry battled side by side over 5th while the top 4 drivers single filed out quickly as the green flag came back out.

With 90 laps completed, Chrobok closed the gap to George in 2nd and was able to get to George’s inside before quickly clearing into the position and running away with it showing a very strong pace. Manning overtook Yaczik for the lead going into lap 106 after another restart but wasn’t able to hold it as Yaczik quickly took it back and Chrbok closed on the battle pressuring Manning for 2nd and taking the position on lap 109 showing that Manning possibly used up too much of his equipment going for the lead while he continued to fall back behind George.

After a rough start to the night, Mike Rasimas was back into the top 10 with 50 laps to go as drivers started to push more aggressively with the laps counting down to the end. Yaczik maintained control of the field with a gap of 0.7 over Chrobok behind him in 2nd. Lap 128 saw drivers starting to come down pit road under green flag conditions for the first time of the night with Dempster and Rasimas leading the charge. Chrobok came down on lap 131 from 2nd place while Yaczik stayed out in the lead with Tommy Gossett up to 2nd.

Each lap saw another small group of drivers come down pit road while Yaczik and Gossett battled over the lead. Yaczik made his stop on lap 140 as Gossett took the lead and coming down pit road on the following lap. Rasimas was the leading car from the pit cycle ahead of Chrobok going into the final 25 laps. Chrobok closed the gap and took the lead away from Rasimas with Yaczik back in 7th over 12 seconds behind the leader but was climbing through the field quickly.

Gossett lost control of his car spinning sideways down the backstretch with 16 laps remaining and bringing out a race changing caution closing the gap between Yaczik and the leaders. As the drivers stacked back up for the restart, Chrobok control of the field ahead of Rasimas in 2nd and Yaczik in 3rd. The green flag came back out with 11 laps remaining and Chrobok fumbled the start allowing Rasimas to get around him off the jump. Chrobok dove beneath Rasimas and reclaimed the lead with 8 to go.

Yaczik was pressuring George looking for an opening as George sent his car aggressively to the inside of Rasimas and Yaczik used the opportunity to push Rasimas back to 4th as the top 4 drivers pulled away from the rest of the field. George was starting to struggle in the corners going into the final 3 laps while the leaders battled hard for every inch. Thomas George took the lead for the final lap and held of Michael Chrobok to take the checkered flag with Mike Rasimas, Brian Yaczik, and Isaiah Dupre rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Texas Motor Speedway.

Brian Yaczik continues to lead in the point standings with 229 points. Thomas George maintains 2nd place only 5 points behind the leader with Michael Chrobok in 3rd with 213 points behind him. Woody Mahan sits in 4th with 198 points after a rough night and Code Dempster jumps up 2 spots to 5th place with 192 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Talladega Superspeedway on October 4th for the Chuckles I’m in Danger 250 presented by MC2 Editing Services with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

PGRL S3 R5 Recap

20 September 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 5
Premier Series | Bristol Motor Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Scott Eckrich with GRAAFix LC Motorsports came away with the checkered flag in the Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Month 250 after a long, hard-fought night at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Thomas George and Mike Rasimas. “Just really happy to get a win here”, Eckrich commented as the night came to a close, “It’s been a little bit of bad luck, so it feels good to get one to go my way.”

Jonathan Cogswell led the field to the green flag to kick off the 250-lap night race around Bristol with Greg O’Berry to his outside. Cogswell cleared ahead into the lead as O’Berry battled Seif Faries for 2nd. 5 laps into the night, Faires overtook Cogswell and started to pull away from the field running a very high line along the outside wall. By lap 14, Faires had already caught the rear of the field and was putting drivers a lap down as he extended his lead out to over 1 second over Cogswell and O’Berry.

Cody Dempster was quickly pushing up through the field and was running in 2nd with Thomas George following him through traffic before making an attempt on 2nd place himself 30 laps into the night getting his nose to the inside of Dempster and able to clear into the position several laps later using lap traffic to block Dempster’s path. George closed in on the leader and overtook Faries soon thereafter taking control of the field while Scott Eckrich was quietly moving up through the field and running in 7th, from a 27th place starting position, behind Michael Chrobok going into lap 43.

Faries cleared back around George into the lead with Dempster following him into 2nd place, but in a shocking upset, Faries had a hardware malfunction that ended his night on lap 64 giving the lead to Dempster with Cogswell in 2nd. O’Berry closed the gap to the leaders and overtook Cogswell before running to the outside of Dempster to battle for the lead. Dempster stayed low and the two drivers fought over the lead for lap after lap slowing both of their paces overall and allowed the top 7 to close up on the battle with Mike Rasimas running in the back of the lead pack before Dempster was finally able to clear into the lead for the moment before Chrobok took advantage of the situation to take away the lead as they crossed the 100-lap mark.

Eckrich has caught the back of the lead pack and started pushing through running the low line and quickly moving up to 3rd behind Jette. O’Berry and Dempster were showing signs of excessive wear as they fell back into the field far off the leading pace after running side by side for so long. Rasimas and George closed up on the leaders making a 5-car pack for the lead as Jette cleared around the outside of Chrobok. Eckrich took control of the field going into lap 127 with Rasimas challenging him from the outside. Brian Yaczik joined the battle up front battling with Jette for 3rd place.

Rasimas cleared ahead of Eckrich with Jette moving up and trying to take the lead for himself running the inside line. Chase Manning and Cogswell caught the battle and Manning wasted no time getting his nose to the inside of Rasimas going after 2nd place. Manning was able to hold the position for a few laps before Rasimas reclaimed 2nd running up along the outside wall. Jette was able to stretch his lead out to over 3 seconds as he seemed to be aggressively pushing his pace to get as far out front as possible while others were running more conservatively saving their stuff expecting a long green flag run.

With 100 laps remaining, Eckrich was leading a long train of cars from 5th place running a very consistent pace lap after lap and Jette was showing the first signs of wear as his pace started to fall off with Rasimas closing the gap quickly. Eckrich’s group of cars had reached the rear of the lead pack and started pushing past Cogswell and Manning. Rasimas caught the leader and quickly cleared ahead of Jette on lap 169 with Eckrich and Yaczik running in 3rd and 4th respectively and closing on the leaders quickly. Rasimas was aggressively negotiating through lap traffic putting as many cars between himself and Eckrich as possible while Eckrich and Yaczik continued to gain lap after lap.

Eckrich was in control of the field going into the final 50 laps of the night with Rasimas in 2nd place ahead of Yaczik and Chrobok battling over 3rd. The drivers were being much more aggressive as the laps counted down pushing their cars to the limit with several drivers having close calls getting loose coming out of the corners. Rasimas got a nose to the outside of Eckrich challenging for the lead as Manning moved up to 3rd with George directly behind him. Eckrich was holding to the inside and stayed side by side with Rasimas for several laps before clearing back into the lead with 27 laps remaining.

With 15 laps remaining, George cleared around the outside of Rasimas into 2nd place. George was able to close up on Eckrich and tried to get to his inside but couldn’t get complete the move with Eckrich running along the outside wall using the corner exit momentum to maintain the lead. Extending his lead out to 0.6 seconds, Scott Eckrich took the checkered flag tonight in the Muscular Dystrophy Awareness month 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway with Thomas George, Mike Rasimas, Chance Manning, and Michael Chrobok rounding out the top 5 finishers.

Brian Yaczik continues to lead in the point standings with 187 points. Thomas George moved up to 2nd place with 175 points with Michael Chrobok moving up into 3rd only 2 points behind him. Woody Mahan fell back to 4th with 172 points after a rough night and Adam Jurski holds onto 5th place with 160 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Texas Motor Speedway on September 27th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

PGRL S3 R4 Recap

13 September 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 4
Premier Series | Kansas Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Woody Mahan with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the It’s Pretty Good 200 at Kansas Speedway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Scott Eckrich and Michael Chrobok. “I feel great, to be honest with you right now. That was awesome.”, Mahan shared with us as the night came to a close at Kansas Speedway, “I was very confident that I was going to make it on fuel… I knew that once the tires started to wear [we were] gaining on people”

Cody Dempster led the 28-car field out of turn four to take the green flag and cleared ahead of James Moore going into the first turn as drivers started moving up toward the preferred line up along the outside wall. Brian Yaczik was quickly pushing up through the field already within the top 10 from a starting position near the back of the field as the drivers put the first 10 laps behind them. Scott Eckrich almost had his night ended early and had to nearly come to a stop to avoid Christopher Dewald who got loose and made contact with Jonathan Cogswell collecting several other drivers and that essentially created a parking lot coming out of turn two with drivers scattering in all directions on the backstretch.

As racing resumed, Michael Chrobok pushed forward into the 2nd place running on the low line with Yaczik following him closely while the field went 3 wide in several battles as drivers started experimenting with different lines. The caution came back out on lap 26 when Eckrich lifted to avoid a checkup ahead catching Chance Manning off guard directly behind him. Eckrich was sent around with minor damage to his right rear that he was able to take care of while nearly the entire field came down pit road for fuel and tires with Adam Jurski, who did not opt to take a pit stop, taking control of the field for the restart.

Mike Rasimas was battling with Chrobok for 2nd behind Jordan Harnish approaching the 50-lap mark before Chrobok used the inside line to get a nose ahead of Harnish clearing for the lead. Rasimas got to the outside of Harnish pushing him back to 3rd and Chrobok stretched his lead out to over 0.5 on the field. Eckrich was holding 13th place 1 lap off the leaders after his earlier incident and trying to make up what he could still early enough on in the night to have a decent finish for points.

Vincent Crow climbed back up to the front getting around Rasimas and closing on Chrobok quickly taking the lead away coming out of turn four going into lap 56. The 21 drivers still on track had become spread out around the track with Yaczik the last driver on the lead lap from 11th place. Eckrich moved up into 12th, the first car off the lead lap and in a great position for a potential caution later on in the night to have another chance to go after the win as the field crossed the halfway point.

Crow seemed to use up his tires prematurely allowing Chrobok to close back in on his bumper pressuring for the lead again as the caution flag came back out on lap 72 for a minor one car incident further back on track giving Eckrich the wave around back onto the lead lap for the restart. Crow won the race off pit road maintaining the lead with Chrobok in 3rd behind Woody Mahan. Chrobok and Harnish battled for 3rd place while Eckrich cautiously pushed up through the field up to 8th making consistent forward progression as the laps counted down going into the final stretch.

With 35 laps remaining, Chrobok was running side by side with Mahan fighting over the lead as Yaczik watched for 3rd place. Mahan was defending hard against Chrobok aggressively fighting for the lead as Eckrich moved up into 4th with a surprise move clearing Harnish and Manning. Going into the final 10 laps, Eckrich had cleared ahead of Chrobok for 2nd place and was reeling Mahan in for the lead. As the white flag came out, Mahan still held a 0.5 second lead over Eckrich and Woody Mahan took the checkered flag in the It’s Pretty Good 200 at Kansas Speedway with Scott Eckrich, Michael Chrobok, Isaiah Dupre, and Brian Yaczik rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight.

Brian Yaczik holds on to the lead in the point standings with 160 points altogether. Woody Mahan jumped up 3 spots to 2nd place, now only 10 points behind the lead after tonight’s strong run. Thomas George slid back to 3rd with 135 points ahead of Michael Chrobok who also jumped up 3 spots into 4th place with 133 points. Adam Jurski rounds out the top 5 drivers of the season after four rounds with 126 points. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on September 20th for the Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Month 250 with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

PGRL S3 R3 Recap

06 September 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 3
Premier Series | Darlington Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Brian Yaczik with Loud Pedal Motorsports claimed his first victory of the season tonight in the “The Joy of Driving Darlington 250” with the Pretty Good Racing League at Darlington Raceway ahead of Jeff Ward and Thomas George. “We had the gap and the pace, and it was going to be smooth sailing”, Yaczik shared with us regarding his strong lead before the late race caution, “You always know there’s a risk of a caution at the end of these things so you kind of factor that in, so I wasn’t really trying to drive stupid aggressive.”

Jonathan Cogswell was in control of the 28-car field alongside Saif Faries on the front row as the green flag came out and the track came alive. The field quickly went single file as Drew Carroll moved up a few spots off the start and closed in on Cogswell’s rear bumper. Carroll was able to get around to the inside of Cogswell to take the lead away early on going into lap 9. Jeff Ward and Scott Eckrich, both drivers being previous season champions and must start every race from the back of the field, were making fast moves through the field both drivers up around 10 spots each.

Cogswell continued to drop back further into the field as Jordan Harnish and Chance Manning had gotten around him put him back to 4th. 15 laps into the night, Harnish got loose and lost all of his progress as the caution came out allowing many drivers to come down pit road very early on. Eckrich was one of the drivers who chose to stay out on track and was in 7th place for the restart. Trouble soon found the current points leader, Cody Dempster, sending him hard into the inside wall as well as making slight contact with Ward sending Ward into Eckrich. Eckrich was forced down pit road for repairs to his right front from the incident.

Woody Mahan was in control of the field as the running order settled and the green flag again came out over the field going into lap 26. Manning made a quick move to the inside to take the lead away while more drivers had bad luck down the front stretch far enough off the racing surface to not bring out the caution. Carroll and Manning battled back and forth over the lead for several laps with Carroll holding the position 30 laps into the run. Going forward, the field started to spread out around the track as the drivers settled into a groove making more calculated moves for position as opportunities presented themselves.

Ward had broken into the top 10 for the first time in the night with almost 50 laps completed. Brian Yaczik was running in 3rd and slowly reeling the leaders in. Yaczik was able to clear ahead of Thomas George for 2nd place on lap 54 as he continued to push to the front. Lap 63 showed Yaczik making his move for the lead. Manning battled him for it from the outside, but eventually was forced to concede falling back to 2nd place ahead of Carroll as Ward quietly moved further up through the field running in 6th. As the race approached the 100-lap mark, Yaczik had run away with the lead and Ward got up to 3rd running over 2 seconds behind the lead while drivers throughout the field started making the first round of pit stops under green flag conditions.

Lap 99 saw Ward losing the car trying to get slowed down for pit road entry spinning around and losing a lot of time on his stop a dropping back several spots in the field as he rejoined the track. Rich Jette was the final driver to come down pit road as the cycle completed on lap 112 with Goerge in control of the field ahead of Yaczik and Michael Chrobok. Ward was running in 9th still working to slowly make up the positions he lost with his earlier mistake. Yaczik caught up to George and took away the lead with 66 laps remaining with both drivers having to take drastic action to avoid contact with a lap car that got loose directly ahead of them.

Ward came down pit road under the green on lap 126 in an attempt to regain track position by jumping the field as the pit cycle began again and rejoined the field in 13th place 2 laps behind the leaders. Several drivers took notice of Ward’s strategy and began coming down pit road in small groups lap after lap. With 40 laps remaining, Yaczik was still running in the lead stretching his fuel run out further while George was in 4th as the last car on the lead lap. Ward was running in 5th and 1 lap behind the leaders. Yaczik came down pit road on lap 148, well within the fuel window to finish out the race without needing to stop again.

Yaczik’s stop put Ward back on the lead lap and running in 3rd still behind George. Yaczik was back in 7th and quickly moving up through the field as Woody Mahan, the leader at the time, came down pit road giving the race lead to George over 12 seconds ahead of Ward with 30 laps to go. George had to give up the lead soon thereafter for his final pit with Ward coming down on the following lap. Chrobok inherited the lead from them with Yaczik closing the gap quickly now in 2nd place. Yaczik reclaimed the lead on lap 158 with George the final driver on the lead lap in 9th place. The different pit strategies had separated most of the drivers around the track going into the last 25 laps.

A late race caution came out with 19 laps remaining restacking the field together and drastically changing the ending of the race. The majority of the drivers chose to come down for a final set of tires as Ward rejoined the lead lap. Yaczik was still in control of the field as the green flag came back out with 14 laps to go but contact between Carroll and Chrobok resulted with another caution as Chrobok got sent around. This gave Ward, who stayed out through the last caution to rejoin the lead lap, an opportunity to get fresh tires to be on an even playing field with Yaczik for the last stretch.

The green flag came out for the final time with 9 laps to go. Yaczik maintain control of the field with Ward up to 5th off the jump. George was pressuring Yaczik for the lead and Ward was aggressively pushing through the pack as the leaders went side by side. Yaczik cleared himself back into the lead while Ward struggled to get around Manning for 3rd. Ward took 3rd going into the last 3 laps as George continued to look to the inside of Yaczik but wasn’t able to complete the move. The battling between the leaders allowed Ward to close the gap as the white flag came out. George made hard contact with the outside wall allowing Ward to clear into 2nd as Brian Yaczik took the checkered flag tonight at Darlington Raceway. Jeff Ward, Thomas George, Chance Manning, and Woody Mahan rounded out the top 5 finishers.

Brian Yaczik jumped up two positions into the points lead with 124 points. Thomas George moved up three spots into 2nd with 108 points ahead of last week’s leader, Cody Dempster, in 3rd with 101 points. Adam Jurski stays in 4th with 99 points ahead of Woody Mahan by 1 point rounding out the top 5 drivers in the points standings. Next week, the Pretty Good Racing League heads to Kansas Speedway on September 13th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

PGRL S3 R2 Recap

30 August 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 2
Premier Series | Daytona International Speedway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Cody Dempster took the checkered flag tonight in the “The J Stands for Junked 200” presented by Thomas J George for Clown HQ Re-Election 2023 with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Wally Wilson and Jeff Ward. The Patriot Media and Marketing Services drivers were stealing the show tonight as Dempster jumped out front in the final moments to take the win, as Dempster shared with us afterwards, “Once we got together you know we were pretty dominate and just able to do what we needed to do and get where we needed to get to get all of the cars good finishes and a strong run for all of us.”

Isaiah Dupre led the 30-car field to the green flag as the action kicked off tonight around Daytona International Speedway. Greg O’Berry led the outside line and momentum was pushing him ahead into the lead going down the backstretch as the field struggled to get organized resulting in some early race chaos bringing a quick end to the night for many of the drivers. The Saif Faries jumped out front being pushed on the inside line by Michael Chrobok as the field settled into a groove going into lap 11 with O’Berry still leading the outside line.

The lead traded hands multiple times as the drivers shuffled using the highline to pull ahead before dropping down to lead the low line and then being overtaken by the new leader on the high side. Cody Dempster was quietly moving up through the field and into the top 10 with 15 laps completed while his teammate, Wilson, was battling for the lead being pushed by Brian Yaczik. Jeff Ward was running cautiously through the early stages to make sure he’d be in a position to go for the win when the checkered flag came out.

Dempster was continuing his charge to the front running in the top 5 with the first 20 laps completed. A coalition of the Patriot Media and Marketing Service drivers, to include Jordan Harnish, Grant Brown, Cody Dempster, Wally Wilson, and Pete Baskins, were organizing up front taking control of the field. With the Patriot Media drivers all running together on the low line, the high line fell apart and the majority of the field went single file to ensure they wouldn’t be off pace and left behind.

A caution flag came out on lap 32 from an incident between Yaczik and Dupre further back in the pack giving the field an opportune chance for their first pit stops safely under caution. Mike Rasimas rejoined the track in the lead with Jeff Ward up to 4th. Racing resumed going into lap 34 as the Patriot Media drivers quickly grouped back together quickly taking control of the field back from Rasimas. Going into the second half of the night, Thomas George was battling Norm Pelletier for the lead racing side by side with the Patriot Media drivers split up for the moment.

With 30 laps remaining, a smaller group of the Patriot Media drivers led by Grant Brown again changed to the front taking control of the field pulling away from the rest of the field while drivers were still struggling to get organized. Some drivers appeared to take notice and a group led by Michael Chrobok went to work breaking up the Patriot Media group trying to prevent them from taking advantage again. Woody Mahan was leading the top line being pushed by Ward as Chrobok dropped down into 3rd between Brown and Baskin with Dempster in control of the field.

As the laps counted down, the drivers started making more aggressive moves to be in a good position to go for the win in the end. O’Berry was leading the top line racing for the lead against a line of Patriot Media cars in control of the inside line led by Dempster with 20 laps to go. The top line seemed well organized compared to earlier in the night using the momentum to take the lead as both lines were inconvenienced by lap traffic forcing the inside line to lose ground.

Going into the final 10 laps, the Patriot Media drivers had broken apart again and lost more ground with O’Berry continuing to lead the field being pushed by Mahan and Dupre staying connected to each other. Dempster and Wilson found each other again and made a push for the lead with Ward running with them. O’Berry fell back to 4th before dropping in line behind Ward. A late race caution resulted in a 1 lap shootout with Ward in the lead as the green and white flags came out together. Wilson pushed Dempster out front as the field started wrecking from 4th place back. Cody Dempster took the checkered flag with Wally Wilson, Jeff Ward, Norm Pelletier, and Mike Rasimas rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight at Daytona International Speedway.

With tonight’s win, Cody Dempster jumped to the top of the point standings with 86 points. Mike Rasimas holds onto 2nd place with 78 points. Brian Yaczik fell back to 3rd with 72 points while Adam Jurski jumped up 2 spots into 4th with 70 points. Thomas George rounds out the top 5 in the points with 69 points. The Pretty Good Racing League now heads to Darlington Raceway for the “The Joy of Driving Darlington 250” on September 6th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

PGRL S3 R1 Recap

23 August 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 3 | Round 1
Premier Series | Watkins Glen International
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Scott Eckrich with GRAAFix LC Motorsports started the new season off strong taking the checkered flag in the My Name Isn’t Glen 110 presented by The Joy of Driving with the Pretty Good Racing League at Watkins Glen International ahead of Mike Rasimas and Thomas George. “It was an exciting race. There was lots of action to have right off my nose, but we were able to keep it clean and bring it home”, Eckrich commented as the night came to a close, “The temperature was dropping. The tires were getting better. It kept going faster and faster and we just kept pushing it and I was just hoping we wouldn’t mess up.”

Cody Dempster with Total Advantage Academy was in control of the 29-car field as the green flag came out and the drivers sped into the first corner with a few drivers to include Harley Moss starting the night off on the wrong foot overshooting the corner entry and making hard contact with the wall. Scott Eckrich was quickly pushing through the field up 16 positions going into the second lap with Jeff Ward only a few places behind him. Mike Rasimas was up 2 spots to 2nd place and was closing in on Dempster in the lead with 4 laps completed.

Going into lap 6, Eckrich broken into the top 10 ahead of Brian Yaczik. Adam Jurski was holding onto 3rd place running around 1 second behind Rasimas and matching pace with the leaders as the top 6 drivers were building a gap ahead of the rest of the field with Chance Manning running in the back of the lead pack. Eckrich was in 7th and slowly reeled the leaders in lap after lap with 10 laps completed. Yaczik was leading the next large group of drivers 8 seconds behind Eckrich as Ward still struggled to get himself into the top 10, running in 12th place behind Saif Faries.

Going into lap 15, the field seemed to settle into a groove with Eckrich overtaking Jurski for 6th after Jurski fell off the back of the leading pack. Dempster continued to control the field ahead of Rasimas and Carroll. Ward climbed up to 10th and was running over 18 seconds behind the leader. Eckrich cleared ahead of Thomas George into 4th and was within 2 seconds of Dempster with 25 laps remaining and quickly approaching the fuel window. Manning was the first driver to go down pit road with 23 laps to go in an attempt to undercut the rest of the field. Dempster led the majority of the field down pit road on the following lap while Rasimas stayed out in the lead with Eckrich in 2nd.

Going into the second half of the night, Rasimas and Eckrich both came down pit road while an incident coming out of the pits caught several drivers sideways in turn one including Ward taking a hard hit from Chris Lanini who wasn’t expecting to find a parking lot as he rejoined the track and ending Ward’s night early. Rasimas held onto the lead ahead of Dempster as the pit cycle completed with Eckrich running in 3rd. Dempster got loose going through turns two and three getting sent around and collecting Manning as Eckrich moved up into 2nd with 16 laps left. Dempster and Manning were able to recover soon thereafter and continue racing in 6th and 7th respectively.

Eckrich closed up tight on Rasimas’s bumper keeping the pressure high as the laps counted down. Thomas George was running in 3rd 7 seconds behind the battle for the lead. Eckrich quickly overtook for the lead and slowly started to pull away from Rasimas with 14 laps remaining. Scott Eckrich continued to stretch his lead out further going into the final moments of the night taking the checkered flag 8.28 seconds ahead of Mike Rasimas. Thomas George, Brian Yaczik, and Adam Jurski rounded out the top 5 finishers tonight at Watkins Glen International.

Scott Eckrich starts the new off strong in the point standings taking home the first win while Jeff Ward ended his night early and finished in 22nd place putting a lot of distance between the two prior season champions. The Pretty Good Racing League now heads over to the iconic Daytona International Speedway for the “The J Stands for Junked 200 presented by TJG for Clown HQ 2023” on August 30th with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!

PGRL S2 R12 Recap

16 August 2022
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 2 | Round 12
Premier Series | Richmond Raceway
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Brian Yaczik with Loud Pedal Motorsports took the checkered flag tonight in the Todd Kirkwood Memorial 200 at Richmond Raceway with the Pretty Good Racing League ahead of Scott Eckrich and Mike Rasimas. “The car looks good, drove fantastic tonight. I don’t know if I necessarily did anything amazing but I just kind of stuck to what’s been kind of working for me lately and having to unlearn a lot of bad habits”, Yaczik commented as the commotion around track started to subside. Jeff Ward took the title of Season 2 Champion after dominating in the points over the past 12 weeks.

James Krahula led the field to the green flag to start off the final round of season 2 tonight at Richmond Raceway with Isaiah Dupre alongside him on the front row. Scott Eckrich started in the rear of the 24-car field with Jeff Ward starting inside of the top 10 after a rough race last week at Michigan. Ward quickly moved up through the pack getting up to 4th within the first few laps to ensure he would be clear of any potential incidents early on. Mike Rasimas was also moving toward the front quickly jumping several spots and running in 7th with only 10 laps completed.

Krahula continued to control the field approaching the 20-lap mark as Ward climbed up to 3rd behind Greg O’Berry and Eckrich broke into the top 10 running in 8th place. O’Berry overtook Krahula for the lead on lap 26 and started to pull away as Eckrich and Ward were both caught up in an incident within the front of the field involving many drivers and bringing out the caution. Ward’s resulting damage was minor enough that he was able to stay out on track and only fell back to 4th while Eckrich dropping back to 20th after running down pit road to take repairs.

O’Berry took the green flag as racing resumed going into lap 34 as Brian Yaczik battled Krahula for 2nd place. Eckrich again pushed up through the field as he broke back into the top 10 with 50 laps completed while Yaczik was being pressured by Ward for 2nd place up ahead. O’Berry got out of shape and that allowed Yaczik to take the lead away with Ward following him around and Mike Rasimas was close behind working on closing the gap to the leaders. O’Berry continued to fall back through the field to 6th place and under pressure from Michael Chrobok.

Yaczik continued to control the field ahead of Ward as the drivers crossed the halfway point of the night as the two leaders built up over a 2 second lead over Woody Mahan in 3rd place. Eckrich was back up to 6th and closing on Chrobok ahead. The second half of the race was plagued with cautions while the drivers struggled to get through a clean restart and many drivers had their nights ended early before the race got back underway going into lap 125 with Yaczik still in control of the field and Eckrich up to 2nd place with 13 cars still on the lead lap.

Ward was up to 3rd behind Eckrich with Adam Jurski trying to get a nose beneath him as the field tried to single file out. Ward was looking to the outside of Eckrich as Rasimas took 4th place away from Jurski with Drew Carroll close behind keeping the pressure up. Yaczik was able to maintain a strong lead over Eckrich as the 24-car field started to spread out around the track with 65 laps remaining. Jurski fell back to 7th slowly being overtaken by Carroll and O’Berry.

Ward was starting to fall off from Eckrich’s pace going into the last 50 laps of the night and was falling back within reach of Rasimas while Yaczik held his lead over Eckrich with a consistent 0.4 second gap between them. The gap between Eckrich and Ward had stretched out to over 2 seconds as Rasimas overtook for 3rd and O’Berry closed up close on Ward’s rear bumper clearing for the position a lap later. Ward seemed to be running cautiously and wasn’t putting up much of a fight for position also allowing Carroll to go by with 40 laps to go.

With 20 laps remaining, only 9 drivers were still on the lead lap and Yaczik had stretched his lead over Eckrich out to almost 1 second as the two drivers were preparing to potentially make a green flag pit stop for fuel in the final moments. Eckrich fell far off the pace trying save fuel with Yaczik over 3 seconds ahead still in control of the field with only 6 laps to go. Brian Yaczik took the white flag and coasted around the final lap on fumes to take the checkered flag with Scott Eckrich, Mike Rasimas, Greg O’Berry and Jeff Ward rounding out the top 5 finishers tonight in the Todd Kirkwood Memorial 200.

Jeff Ward with GRAAFix LC Motorsports took the championship for season 2 with the Pretty Good Racing League with 406 points. “All year we were just focusing on consistency”, Ward shared with us as he celebrated the championship, “Race wins are cool, but this is what it’s all about right here. Big picture and we got it done.” Brian Yaczik finished the season in 2nd only 15 points behind Ward. Drew Carroll took 3rd place with 368 points ahead of Scott Eckrich by only 1 point. Thomas George rounds out the top 5 in the points with 336 points as season 2 comes to a close tonight at Richmond. Season 3 kicks off next Tuesday on August 23rd at Watkins Glen with all of the intense action broadcast live at 8:50PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!