The trend of first-time winners continued in the third round of the eNASCAR Heat Pro League Wednesday night with competition on Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
JTG Daugherty Throttlers Xbox driver Justin Brooks (mrTRACKBAR33) made a daring move on Lap 49 to go from third to first to take the lead.
Brooks was able to stay out front and led by more than 3 seconds with 10 laps to go in the race and cruised from there to his first win of the season.
“I’m speechless right now to be honest with you,” said Brooks. “Last week (Auto Club) was tough to swallow and so was Charlotte. I thought I had one of the best cars in the field and unfortunately circumstances (in those races) prevented me from showing what I had.
“Tonight I had a little bad luck but I rebounded and I finished on top where I was hoping to be.”
Brooks’ win didn’t come without some action on the track that almost cost him the victory.
“I knew I had a fast car to begin with and leader (Brian) Tedeshci checked up and I got plowed into from behind,” he said. “I pitted on the competition caution and I fixed the damage to my car.
“Once my car was fixed I made my way up through the field and made my way to Victory Lane.”
Roush-Fenway Gaming driver Nick Walker (wowTHATSGARBAGE) followed his win last time out at Auto Club Speedway by finishing second while Tedeschi (ShellVPower22) rebounded to finish third.
Hendrick Motorsports GC driver Sam Morris (Mordog5) missed last week’s race due to technical issues and used late-race pit strategy to score a solid fourth-place finish with SHG Slick 14x from Stewart-Haas Gaming completing the top five.
Xbox final results
Photo by: Uncredited
In the PlayStation 4 division, Stewart-Haas Gaming driver SHG_HotRod_14p built a sizeable lead through the first half of the race before a late caution sent the race into overtime.
SHG_HotRod_14p proved he had the best car of the race by holding off Week 1 winner and Wood Brothers Gaming driver Slade Gravitt (sladeg84) to pick up his first league victory and continuing the streak of different winners this season.
“When you guys are talking to me after the race it means we have won,” said the voice of Stewart-Haas Gaming Jake Morris. “We needed some luck tonight because we have had bad luck all year.
“We were able to get the win tonight on the PS4 with HotRod. It’s exactly what we needed as we’ve had a couple of rough races and looking forward to Watkins Glen (in a couple of weeks).”
Gravitt was able to recover from running low on the track early in the race and falling back as far as sixth to come home second, with JTG Daugherty Throttlers driver Zach Onson (RO5W1DY) third and Leavine Family Gaming driver Josh Harbin (ThAbEaR_95) fourth, his third consecutive top-five finish to kickoff the season.
Corey Rothgeb (Pennzoil2) completed the top five to equal Harbin as the only other driver in the division to finish in the top-five in every race.
JTG Throttlers was given the event win after Brooks won the Xbox race and Onson finished third in the PlayStation 4 race. The team joins Team Penske Esports and Roush-Fenway Gaming as event winners which guarantees those teams a spot in the playoffs later this season.
PlayStation final results
Photo by: Uncredited
Team Penske continues to lead the overall points standings with 225 points. Roush-Fenway Racing is second at 212 with Leavine Family Gaming and JTG Daugherty Throttlers tied in fourth with 211. JR Motorsports rounds out the top five with 206.
The next race event will be June 26 as the eNASCAR Heat Pro League will compete on a road course for the first time when it competes on Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. Coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET.
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