iRacing Pro Invitational Power Rankings Post Richmond
1) William Byron
Hard to argue with back to back dominating wins. He has an incredible ability of keeping speed on the long run. Byron has led 320 of the 565 total laps through four races.
2) Timmy Hill
The Texas Winner has finished inside the top 3 in all four races. His 2.3 average finish is by far the best in the series.
3) Parker Kligerman
Kligerman has been a constant frontrunner in all four races. Late circumstances kept him from great finishes at Homestead and Texas but he has delivered well the last two weeks with a 7th and 3rd. Very well rounded as an iracer and will be a threat for top fives most weeks.
4) Ryan Preece
Preece has been very quick the last couple races even leading the first 59 laps at Richmond. His long run speed left something to be desired though as he dropped hard during the long green flag run at Richmond. His run-ins with Matty D were also not a good look but Preece does have elite speed.
5) Denny Hamlin
The Homestead winner has put together strong finishes of 6th and 4th the last two weeks. He seems to lack the elite speed and consistency but he is putting together some really strong finishes simply by racing smart and staying out of trouble.
6) Landon Cassill
Cassill is coming off his second 4th place finish in the last three races. With the time he is putting in with mid week practice and the results it is delivering he is one of top tier drivers to watch each week. Love the way he looked on the long run as well as his closing ability going from 8th to 4th in the last 19 laps at Richmond,
7) Dale Earnhardt Jr
He has put together strong runs of 2nd, 6th, and 8th so far through four races with Bristol being the lone finish outside the top 8. One of the cleanest drivers in the field which usually leads to staying out of trouble and scoring solid finishes
8) Garrett Smithley
Smithley started with back to back top 5s but has had to settle for a 9th and 17th the last two weeks. There is very little separation between 3rd and 8th currently but based on recent results I have Smithley a slightly below the others.
9) Alex Bowman
Bowman admitted he did little practice throughout the week and it showed. This can be the frustrating part of all this when playing DFS. It will be important to see the effort Bowman and others put in going forward. His 6th, 5th, and 14th to start the year were strong.
10) Brad Keselowski
Sometimes you have to ignore results and look at what a driver did during a race. Brad recently purchased a new sim rig which saw its first action at Richmond. He looked stellar on the long green flag run at Richmond going from 8th on lap 36 and passing Smithley, Kligerman, Cassill, Dale Jr and Preece on his way to 3rd by lap 74. Pit road incident hurt his day but he was able to salvage a decent 10th place finish. I expect Brad to become a force in these races going forward.
11) John Hunter Nemecheck
Not a good showing at all this week for JHN. Never spent a lap inside the top 10 and really didn’t seem to have the speed. However, top 10s in the previous two races show he can deliver good performances.
12) Erik Jones
Jones had connection issues at Bristol but has put together finishes of 10th, 21st, and 7th elsewhere. He did a solid job on older tires at Richmond and was running 11th at Texas before a very late incident relegated him to 21st
13) Kyle Busch
Busch has spent a ton of time on iracing the last two weeks and it showed with a 5th place finish. I am not going to overreact to this though as his previous best was 17th. It was a promising performance though he just has a little more work to do.
14) Matt Dibenedetto
Matty D got himself into a wrecking match with Ryan Preece that saw him get DQ’d. Before that, he was roughly a 10th-12th place car. His average finish of 11th before Richmond makes me believe he will be a fringe top 10 driver most weeks who lacks the consistency to contend with the top tier drivers.
15) Bubba Wallace
Bubba has scored two top tens but the bad has been really bad. The last place rage quit at Bristol wasn’t a good look. He isn’t the fastest but did a solid job this week at Richmond. Bowyer should definitely work on avoiding him though.
16) Bobby Labonte
Labonte has been solid but not elite. He put together back to back 13th place finishes at Texas and Bristol and was on pace for his first top 10 at Richmond. AT the lap 28 caution Labonte was 28th. He then drove through the field to 10th but a decision to pit before the GWC left Labonte with no time to secure a top 10 leaving him 14th. Big fan of his smooth consistency.
17) Tyler Reddick
Missed the first event and was shaky at Texas but a 12th and 8th the last two weeks were solid runs. He is a bit crash happy though with 14 incident points per race so we have to be careful with him especially if we are going to get races with only 1 or 0 fast repairs.
18) Michael Mcdowell
McDowell was coming off a 10th and 14th the previous two weeks but was forced to run in the LCQ race at Richmond. He failed to advance into the main event. Regardless of this he showed a solid ability to keep it clean and score solid finishes prior to last week and is a solid driver if he makes it back into the big show going forward.
19) Daniel Suarez
Suarez speed wise has been a fringe top 10 guy but he has yet to find a way to stay out of trouble. Because of this he is much lower than he probably should be.
20) Joey Logano
For lack of anyone else really deserving being talked about I went with a driver who has the better average finish. Logano has missed a race and scored a 17th and 15th which are decent enough finishes.
This will conclude this edition of The iRacing Pro Invitational Power Rankings. If you would like to reach out and talk NASCAR Follow me on twitter @Larkin8 You can also join myself as well as our other DFS Army NASCAR contributors (AuburnFan30, Taco, and NillyJay) in the NASCAR coaching channels.