VRS Truck Series at Indianapolis Recap
The Crown Jewel Racing League kicked off its inaugural season with the Virtual Racing School (VRS) at Indianapolis Raceway Park. The 200-lap race was action-packed and featured more cautions than there are potholes on an interstate. But in a night filled with fresh faces, one driver looked familiar in victory lane. Johnny Avila captured his third consecutive VRS Truck Series win, reminding everyone that he’s still the man to beat.

During the qualifying session, as the sun set in the West, the new Sheriff in town Johnny Avila and his Deputy Cody Porter took control of the front row. They led for most of the race, covering 179 out of 205 laps. Porter took the lead early on and led 57 of the 58 laps to win Stage 1, with Avila coming in 2nd, and Nishil Condoor taking 3rd in the caution-filled stage. The fans were enjoying the race, but were eager for some green flag racing as 28 of the 58 stage laps were completed under the yellow flag.

“I tried to dodge Jim Mott and got spun around and luckily I got spun straight and didn’t get any head damage from the incident.”

Connor Wold #88 Black Rifle Coffee Chevrolet

During the stage caution, William Ransone chose not to pit and instead took the lead to lead the field at the start of Stage 2. As the stage commenced, Ransone engaged in a heated battle for the lead with Porter. Unfortunately, their intense competition led to contact in Turn 3, causing Porter’s car to spin out.

Stage 2 would get the early cautions out of the way and go green for the 2nd half to finally appease the fans for some green flag racing. Avila would take the Stage 2 win on Lap 120, with #82 Nathan Campbell in 2nd, and Condoor bringing home another 3rd place stage finish.

“Cory must have got the track workers to spray some caution be gone on the track cause this is some GREEN FLAG RACING.”

Cody Leach Season Ticket Holder

The green flag runs would continue into Stage 3 and would have some great green flag racing until Lap 167. Corey Schramm making his first start in the VRS Truck Series, was making his way to the front a little to fast and punted myself into the outside wall. Campbell was also involved in the incident sending all three to pit road to get repairs.

“It was an accident and those happen on short tracks. The same thing happened to me with 3 to go when I just clipped the outside corner of Kallhoff and sent him around. Hopefully we all understand these accidents happen on the short tracks.”

Garth Griswold #00 Lane Frost Chevrolet

It would be a caution filled final 20 laps with 3 different cautions. The final caution would come on lap 198 when Henry Kallhoff would get a push from Griswold and send Kallhoff around. The caution would send the race into overtime for a Green-White-Checkered Finish.

Avila would take green flag and run away with the lead on the green flag fighting off Porter, he would come around and take the white flag just before wrecks would start behind him. The race would stay green and Avila would come around to take the checkered flag and secure his third straight win.

The VRS Truck Series will be taking a break next week and will resume on August 5th at Rockingham Speedway. There are five races left in the regular season, and it looks like both Porter and Avila will have secured playoff spots, which will make the lead-up to the playoffs quite interesting. It will also be intriguing to see if Mike Burnett, who has been absent for the last few weeks, will make a comeback for the playoffs and attempt to regain his early season dominance.

For all of your sim-racing needs be sure to go checkout our sponsor Virtual Racing School for your sim-racing setups, coaching, and sim racing equipment. Don’t miss out on the Circuit Cup Series Crown Jewel race at the Brickyard 400. Racing action will begin at 8 P.M. EST and will be streamed by Mr. Christian Delgado and recasted to the Crown Jewel Racing Network.

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The Sportsman Truck Series traveled to Long Pond, Pennsylvania, to tackle 175 miles at the “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono Raceway. In the end, 175 miles wasn’t enough as some late cautions brought an exciting green-white-checkered finish. Johnny Avila emerged victorious and secured his second win in a row.

Pete Morales had the fastest time during the practice session but couldn’t manage a clean lap in qualifying, forcing him to start from the back in 25th place. Cody Porter secured the pole position with a time of 54.339, while Johnny Avila joined him on the front row with a time of 54.357. Both Porter and Avila, racing out of the Outlier Speed Company Shop, had their trucks perfectly tuned for the start of the race.

Porter took the green flag, but Avila captured the first of five lead changes on lap one and maintained the lead throughout the first stage. The first stage ended on lap 13 due to a caution issued for a collision between #66 Bill Martin and #28 Jonathan Leger out of Turn 3. Martin slid and made a frightening contact with the pit road entry wall. Fortunately, Martin was cleared from the Infield Care Center with no injuries.

“I feel like I just got hit by Mike Tyson. Leger and I were just fighting over real estate and that set off the fireworks. Looking forward to getting back in the #66 Eddie Van Halen Truck next week at Indianapolis.”

Bill Martin #66 Chevrolet

Porter regained the lead off pit road and maintained it throughout Stage 2, which ended on lap 29 due to a caution caused by the #55 Cameron Romano colliding with the Turn 3 wall. This corner proved treacherous for many drivers, as several crashed into the wall while trying to accelerate too early. Romano’s truck was taken to the garage, and he finished in 25th place.

Stage 3 went green for just one lap before a major wreck on lap 34 brought out the caution. The crash involved Matthew Owens, Thomas Villano, Henry Kallhoff, Ray Gill, and Michael Deitch, all of whom had to head to pit road for repairs. This incident triggered a wave of pit stops, with several drivers pitting for fuel in hopes of making it to the end if the race continued under green.

Oskar Jensen took the lead from Porter following a green flag restart after a caution on lap 40 caused by Nishil Condoor spinning into the inside wall out of Turn 1. Porter regained control on lap 64, just before Nishil spun again out of Turn 2, leading to the fifth caution of the night and setting the stage for an exciting finish.

CAUTIONS BREED CAUTIONS

Most of the field pitted for tires and fuel, aiming for a natural green-white-checkered finish. However, some drivers who had pitted earlier around the Lap 34 caution stayed out. Tyler Krawczyk led the field on 36-lap-old tires, with Haden Higginbotham, Ryan Taft, and Jonathan Leger behind him on 25-30 lap-old tires. Garth Griswold restarted 5th on 9-lap-old tires, trying to fend off the pack of fresh tires behind him.

Krawczyk got a big jump on the green flag with Higginbotham trailing. They led the pack around the track out of Turn 3 when chaos broke out behind them before they could cross the line for the white flag. Leger took a push from Connor Wold coming out of the turn, causing Leger to go headfirst into the outside wall before going airborne. As everyone took evasive maneuvers, Pete Morales’s Space X Ford commenced takeoff after hitting the pit road wall entrance, ruining what he had hoped to be a successful day after having the fastest car in practice.

Krawczyk once again led the field to green on the first restart of overtime. Higginbotham took the outside, while Avila and Jensen stacked up behind them after navigating through the field and avoiding the chaos out of Turn 3. Avila and Krawczyk went side by side until Avila took the lead coming out of Turn 3 and grabbed the white flag. Krawczyk fell back to 6th before making contact with Zack Saunders, causing him to lose control and spin out coming out of Turn 2. Avila took the checkered flag to remain unbeaten in the Sportsman Series, with his teammate Oskar Jensen finishing second and Nishil Condoor securing third.

Rumors around the garage were that a big change is coming soon to the Sportsman Truck Series and should be announced before next week’s green flag drop at Indianapolis Raceway Park!

Click here to check out the Sportsman Truck Series playoff battles and standings here.

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It was a beautiful Monday evening at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois to turn 134 laps to kick off Split #3 of the Sportsman Truck Series. Johnny Avila led 103 out of the 134 laps and won both stages, securing his second victory of the year.

Mike Burnett took the pole and would lead the first lap before Avila would take the reins and lead until a caution would come out on lap 13 due to Jonthan Leger getting into the wall in Turn 2 which caused him to collide with Robert Fraley and unfortunately myself.

A caution for Pete Morales spinning into the infield collecting Haden Higginbotham on the way would wind up being the last caution in the stage on lap 19. Matthew Owens, Sam Bennett, Allen Phillips and Nathaniel Campbell would try to mix things up by pitting in hopes to gain some positions after the stage. The first stage would end on lap 30 with Avila bringing home the stage win.

The early pit strategy from Sam Bennett would put him in the lead to begin stage two, but he quickly fell back in the field as Avila and Cody Porter would make their way back to the front by lap 37. Avila, Porter, and Zach Saunders would battle throughout stage 2 towards the front with some exciting side by side racing. Porter would give Avila a run for his money but was unable to capture the lead for the stage. Avila would take Stage 1 winning the stage by .044 of a second.

“Jim Mott told me to pit early, and if this restart doesn’t work out everyone should blame him.”

Sam Bennett #47 Top Tier Chevrolet

Avila, Porter, and Saunders would lead the pack into the final stage continuing their battle from Stage 2 until a caution flew on lap 71 which would set the trend for the rest of the race. From Lap 71 until the finish, 6 more cautions would keep the field bunched up and racing tight. Mike Burnett the pole sitter was involved in a caution on lap 77 with Oskar Jensen would move Burnett towards the rear of field. Burnett came into the race with the fastest truck, but it wasn’t fast enough to outrun the turmoil that was chasing him. Burnett would be involved in another incident on Lap 96 with Robert Fraley causing Burnett to take the truck to the garage.

Pete Morales worked his way back towards the front after the early spin in the race and was able to get back to 11th before an atrocious wreck on the front stretch on lap 102 involving Morales, Higginbotham, Aiden Schramm, and Ryan Taft. Morales sustained heavy damage after going airborne. He was cleared from the Infield Care Center, but the #95 Space-X Ford suffered fatal damage and will need a complete tear down and rebuild before next week’s race at Pocono.

A late caution with 5 to go involving Nathaniel Campbell would create for a thrilling Green, White, Checkered finish. Porter would lead them to the green flag and hold onto the lead to take the white flag, but Avila took the low line into turn one to take the lead and held off Porter for the win.

“I just like good, clean, close racing for the win.

It makes the racing fun which is why I joined the Crown Jewel Racing League.”

Johnny Avila #63 Xpress Esports Toyota

The Sportsmans Truck Series will travel to “The Tricky Triangle” of Pocono in Long Pond, Pennsylvania next Monday night July 15th.

If you are interested in racing come join us in our discord at https://discord.gg/cjracing

The Sportsman Truck Series is kicking off Split #3 on Monday night at Chicagoland Speedway, and the excitement is building. With just 8 races to go, this split will decide the last 6 drivers for the playoffs.

Who is Locked-In

Zach Saunders, Mike Burnett, and Nishil Condoor clinched their spots in Split #1, and Cory Mott, Henry Kalhoff, and John Connor locked their spots last week in Nashville to conclude Split #2. Everyone else is racing to fill the last 3 spots in Split #3 and the 3 wildcard spots based on overall standings.

Who is on the Bubble

“The next two tracks are a couple of my favorite to run and I feel like I have a decent possibility of making a run for the playoffs”

Ryan Taft, #86 Indy Auto Sport Chevrolet Silverado

“It has been a busy couple of months on the farm. I don’t plan on missing any more cup races now that things have calmed down, but I don’t think I will have the time to be able to run both series full time. I will catch a truck race here and there, but my main focus is on the Cup Series.”

Stephen Menke – Factory Motorsports #6 Ford F150

Tune in on Monday night to see who can start off the leg of Split #3 and find their way to Victory Lane at Chicagoland Speedway in Joilet, Illinois. Racing will begin at 8:30 EST and as always streamed on the Crown Jewel Racing Network. Click the link to start watching https://www.twitch.tv/crownjewelrn.