Movember 50 – Winter Heat Gets Spicy

The first in the four-race mini-series got under way on Sunday afternoon on the NASCAR Heat platform. In a slight departure from the regular eNASCAR Heat Pro League, this series has open qualifiers for all races other than the finale, allowing new names to shine through and take on the established Pro League racers.

The entertainment kicked off with the PlayStation drivers taking the field at virtual Dover International Speedway. They were led to green by Thomas Kohick who raised an impressive $1,215 for the Movember Foundation – just $1 more than fellow front-row driver Joey Stone.

The race got off to a fiery start, with Stone, Maxwell Castro and Cohick battling it out at the front. The field were generally well behaved until a fairly large incident involving the No. 62 of Joshua Watson flipping several times and bringing out the first caution of the day.

As they say in NASCAR, “cautions breed cautions” and the yellow flag was bought out just a few laps later with at 36 and then 29 to go, both with incidents toward the back of the field and unseen on the broadcast.

With pit strategies around the cautions making a big difference the order was quite different after the restart. Josh Parker, Josh Harbin and Chase Williamson were the top three with 25 to go and the early leaders were slightly further back but still within the top 10.

The final restart came with 15 laps remaining and the top five was led by Harbin and followed closely by a resurgent Castro then Williamson, Stone and Parker

On the restart Castro jumped Williamson for 2nd and began to put initial pressure on Harbin. With 10 to go however, Harbin (also known as “The Bear”) pulled away as Castro has to defend from newcomer Williamson and began to look comfortable.

Things move quickly in the NASCAR Heat scene and with just 8 laps remining, Harbin began to lose ground to Castro. Whilst under extreme pressure Castro makes the move on the frontstretch and Harbin can’t hold the car on the outside line, hitting the outside wall and dropping back further.

At the checkered flag, Castro took home a deserved victory (and celebrated in a quite emphatic manner). Williamson and Giles came home 2nd and 3rd respectively and secured their spot in the Daytona International championship finale in February.

The Xbox race was just as frantic. The drivers were led to the green by polesitter Matthew Selby, who managed to raise and incredible $1,118 (more than double that of his nearest Xbox competitor!). However, as the race began, the polesitter began to fade early on as Justin Brooks, Tyler Dohar and eNASCAR Pro League Season 2 driver champion Daniel Buttafuoco solidified themselves at the front early on.

The mid-race was plagued with cautions with the first yellow flag came out 11 laps into the race. That was then followed very quickly by cautions with 35 laps, then 27 laps remaining.

Meanwhile the audience were also kept entertained by a look at one of the best fake ‘stache we’ve seen in a while from Jeff Noe…

When the race resumed, Brooks and Dohar occupied the top two places, fighting hard. Newcomer Elijah White was impressing with a good run, taking 3nd from Dohar whilst also keeping champion Buttafuoco at bay.

As tire-wear became a factor in the final stages, Buttafuoco found a gap as White washed out wide to move into second place.

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The final laps saw White slip further as he struggled with his car. Buttafuoco piled the pressure onto the No. 37 of Brooks and as the white flag went out it was looking like a possible repeat of the eNHPL finale but Brooks kept tight and the racing was clean as the JTG Daugherty Throttlers driver took the victory.

By virtue of his 2nd-place finish, Buttafuoco booked his place into the finale. Luis Zaiter took the final qualification spot after pipping Jeff Noe and James Holtzer who both impressed as rookies at the top level.

Race Results

PlayStation

Position	Start Position	Driver	Team
1	3	Maxwell Castro	Chip Ganassi Gaming
2	22	Chase Williamson
3	15	Cody Giles	Wood Brothers Gaming
4	9	Josh Parker	Gibbs Gaming
5	10	Dylan Peninger
6	6	Matt Smith
7	20	Joe West
8	2	Joey Stone	RCR eSports
9	4	Jordan Dworaczyk
10	17	Avery Jarrett
11	8	Vinnie McDonnell
12	12	Scott Brown
13	16	Dylan Cardenas
14	18	Joshua Watson
15	1	Thomas Cohick
16	21	Isaac Smallwood
17	24	Brandon Hanna	Roush Fenway Gaming
18	11	Josh Harbin
19	19	TJ McGowan	JTG Daugherty Throttlers
20	23	Corey Rothgeb	Team Penske eSports
21	13	Mike Braas	Petty eSports
22	14	Trey Normile
23	7	Brandyn Gritton	Stewart-Haas eSports
24	5	Kyle Arnold

Xbox

Position	Start Position	Driver	Team
1	3	Justin Brooks	JTG Daugherty Throttlers
2	5	Daniel Buttafuoco
3	15	Luis Zaiter	Chip Ganassi Gaming
4	9	Jeff Noe
5	12	James Holtzer
6	10	Casey Kelley
7	17	Jordan McGraw	RCR eSports
8	13	Brad Herman
9	4	Elijah White
10	1	Matthew Selby	Stewart-Haas eSports
11	14	Tom Flitcroft
12	20	Perrin Huggins
13	23	Brian Tedeschi	Team Penske eSports
14	16	Slade Gravitt	Wood Brothers Gaming
15	18	Justin Anasogak
16	11	Timothy Moore
17	22	Diego Alvarado	Petty eSports
18	24	Nick Walker
19	6	Konner Cordes
20	2	Tyler Dohar	JR Motorsports
21	8	Jordan Bane
22	21	Matthew Heale	Gibbs Gaming
23	19	Josh Taylor
24	7	Cody Kelley