Dateline: Indianapolis

Longshot driver Eric Estes has captured his first-ever iRacing win in no less a race than the Indy 500 itself.  Outlasting, outracing and outstrategizing a field of 30 other racers over 200 laps, Eric took the checkers with a full lap on the field. 

Having run second place most way since the halfway point; at the 3/4 mark Mark Mosler and Eric Estes were running one-two in lockstep, with the nearest competitor over 10 seconds back.  At lap 160, an incident involving Roger Homann and Dan Gradinaru brought out what was to be the last caution.  All of the lead lap cars except for Estes pitted, hoping to make the distance on fuel.  Upon the advice of his crew chief, Estes stayed out in a car that was clearly fast on older tires.  On the restart, Moser re-took the top position in turn one, but within 5 laps, Moser and Estes were again gapping the field. 

On lap 182, Estes took to the pits, diving off of turn 4 in a bid to minimize the time lost during the stop.  Unfortunately, he was unable to get the car slowed before the pit entrance line, and was black flagged with a 21 second penalty to be served on his stop.  On rejoining the track, he had fallen to fourth behind Moser, Ed Benson and Paul Langford.  At lap 190, the top 3 cars went to full fuel conservation mode, allowing Estes to unlap himself from Langford and Benson.  On lap 196, Langdon ran out of fuel entering turn 3.  Benson found the same fate a lap later, and Moser ran out between 3 and 4 on the penultimate lap, allowing Estes his first win.