By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
Kyler Wynn narrowly took the victory in the Podium 500 after being nearly half a lap down and receiving minor damage midway through the event.
A nearly 100-lap green flag run in the middle of the annual Podium eSports promoted event at the virtual Daytona Int’l Speedway saw Kyler Wynn and many other contenders shuffled into a pack over 15 seconds behind the race leaders. The gap only increased until about 50 laps to in the 500-mile race. That was when the lead pack of eight cars had caught a third pack, slowing them.
All eight leaders pitted with 40 laps to go. Laps later a crash in the third pack brought out the caution. During that ordeal, Wynn’s No. 82 Factory Setups Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 picked up some minor nose damage. Luckily it was only 30-seconds worth of repairs, and it didn’t affect his overall performance.
“I was pretty demoralized (at that point) to be honest,” Wynn admitted. “I thought it was over, that we were going to go green (to the end). We started catching them and that gave me confidence the last 20 laps of that green flag run.
“We were reeling them in a lot and then they wrecked, and I got a little bit of nose damage, 30 seconds of damage from that wreck. I don’t really know what happened, but I got it all fixed. I was 25th in the pack when we went green, just tried my best to move forward.”
The race then took on a different personality as eight cautions waved over the final 40 laps, including three attempts at iRacing overtime. Through it all Wynn, Spencer E Burns, and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series drivers Briar LaPradd and Garrett Manes traded the lead back and forth.
Burns lined up in the lead on the final overtime restart with Wynn on his outside. Despite a multi-car crash mid pack that left the top-eight on their own once again, race control opted to let the race play out. Leading the draft, Burns was a sitting duck and was quickly passed by JR Motorsports’ eNASCAR driver LaPradd as well as Wynn.
The eNASCAR Sophomore and the superspeedway ace dueled it out over the final lap. They traded virtual paint exiting Turn 4 and all the way to the start-finish line. When the checkered flag waved, Wynn beat LaPradd by 0.004 seconds, winning $1,000 in the process.
“Everything worked, everything happened perfectly,” Wynn said. “What I did to Briar was what I call a speed match, get into his door and slow his momentum down. I did that to Briar, hate it, but it’s for $1,000, it’s worth it. It worked perfectly, slowed his speed down to mine.”
Garrett Konrath, Burns, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Rajah Caruth completed the top-five. Adam Garza, Barr Visuals FTF 500 winner Jack Mace, Manes, Lawson Peel, and JR Miller rounded out the top-10.
Both Caruth and Mace had completed their best Days of Thunder impressions, emerging from the final ‘big one’ unscathed. The British driver’s seventh-place finish marks likely the best average result to date for a driver that competed in both the FTF and Podium 500s.
Caruth wasn’t the only real-life pro in the race. Both him and NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Anthony Alfredo were among the eight cars that nearly ran away with their strategy call. Alfredo was swept up in one of the many late-race cautions.
In total the race was slowed 11 times by cautions. While the first two waved halfway into fuel runs, the final nine yellow flags took place in the final 40 laps of the event.
The results:
1. 82-Kyler Wynn [3] ($1,000), 2. 88-Briar LaPradd [26] ($500), 3. 9-Garrett Konrath [32] ($450), 4. 06-Spencer E Burns [18], 5. 71-Rajah Caruth [31], 6. 08-Adam Garza [4], 7. 07-Jack Mace [20], 8. 2-Garrett Manes [33], 9. 12-Lawson Peel [2], 10. 78-JR Miller [21], 11. 54-Shawn Conklin [14], 12. 02-Logan York [35], 13. 41-Alastair Topley [16], 14. 42-Eugene Mosgunov [39], 15. 1-Chris Parkman [23], 16. 11-Kenny Reel [24], 17. 6-Kodu Neagles [6], 18. 18-Arron Brown [27], 19. 04-Matthew Lee [37], 20. 37-Chase Pierce [28], 21. 49-Michael Meredith [25], 22. 17-Matthew Dula [22], 23. 89-Dustin Shepard [9], 24. 69-Randall Nichols [15], 25. 62-William Hale [12], 26. 70-Derek Fulton [41], 27. 38-Justin Champagne [17], 28. 5-Zack Novak [1], 29. 87-Austin Green [7], 30. 4-Jason Manes [40], 31. 74-Brian Hennings [30], 32. 98-Andrew Tefft [38], 33. 77-Bryan Noel [8], 34. 20-Kole Larson [10], 35. 3-Jayden Carter [36], 36. 57-Matt Quick [19], 37. 62-Matt Bussa [42], 38. 15-Anthony Alfredo [22], 39. 21-Patrick Gitter [11], 40. 92-John Ward [34], 41, 8-Justin Rideout [13], 42. 44-Anthony English [5].
Lead Changes: 40 amongst 19 drivers.
Lap Leader(s): Zack Novak 1, Adam Garza 2-5, Patrick Gitter 6, Adam Garza 7, Spencer E Burns 8-19, Kody Neagles 20-21, Zack Novak 22, Kody Neagles 23-48, Garrett Manes 49-52, Kody Neagles 53-59, Kyler Wynn 60-69, Kody Neagles 70-73, Justin Champagne 74-76, Garrett Manes 77, Kody Neagles 78-86, Spencer E Burns 87, Justin Champagne 88, Jayden Carter 89, Chris Parkman 90, Garrett Manes 91-126, Shawn Conklin 127, JR Miller 128, Kyler Wynn 129, Dustin Shepard 130, Matthew Lee 131-149, Rajah Caruth 150-152, Kody Neagles 153-160, Matthew Lee 161-162, Shawn Conklin 163, Austin Green 164-165, Eugene Mozgunov 166, Austin Green 167, Garrett Manes 168-169, Anthony Alfredo 170-172, Eugene Mozgunov 173-179, Briar LaPradd 180, Kyler Wynn 181-193, Garrett Manes 194-198, Kyler Wynn 199-205, Spencer E Burns 206-209, Kyler Wynn 210-211.
Laps Led: Kody Neagles 57, Garrett Manes 46, Kyler Wynn 34, Matthew Lee 21, Spencer E Burns 17, Eugene Mozgunov 8, Adam Garza 5, Justin Champagne 4, Anthony Alfredo 3, Rajah Caruth 3, Austin Green 3, Shawn Conklin 2, Zack Novak 2, Jayden Carter 1, Patrick Gitter 1, Briar LaPradd 1, JR Miller 1, Chris Parkman 1, Dustin Shepard 1.
Hard Charger(s): 9-Garrett Konrath (+29).
Tough Luck: 44-Anthony English (-37).
Caution Flags: 11 for 34 Laps.
Margin of Victory: 0.004 seconds.
Time of Race: Three Hours, 24 Minutes, 7.206 Seconds.
Average Speed: 155.056 MPH.
Pole Winner: 5-Zack Novak.
Fastest Lap: 6-Kody Neagles, Lap 89, 44.876 seconds, 200.552 MPH.
*Race Scheduled for 200 Laps, Extended Due to Overtime*