Theis wins iRacing Daytona 500

In typical Daytona fashion, the 2023 iRacing Daytona 500 ultimately came down to a last lap thriller. Using a daring move to the outside and a perfect side draft with one lap to go, Pascal Theis gathered the momentum needed to take the lead coming to the white flag.

The Frankfurt, Germany driver then held on to defend the top spot for the final lap on the 2.5-mile track to win his first-ever Daytona 500.

Team-mate Benjamin Fischer also had a comeback-type of a race, climbing all the way from P21 and one lap down with ten laps to go, to a fifth-place finish in the closing stages of the race, that was marred by three quick cautions.

© 2023 Fischer Motorsport Manuel Mayer had a tough race in the iRacing Daytona 500, being involved in multiple crashes

Manuel Mayer struggled with multiple crashes in the 500-mile NASCAR iRacing Series season opener and wound up P14 in the end, two laps down.

Arriving to Daytona’s victory lane, winner Pascal Theis celebrated his surprise win with the team and had this to say:

“I honestly did not expect this. To me, this came out of nowhere. I was quite frustrated with the couple of crashes I was in earlier in the race. One was my mistake, when I made a move below the double yellow line into the tri oval on a lapped car. But the other one was just bad luck.”

“But yeah, we caught some lucky breaks late in the race that we were able to use. The whole team did a great job, too. On that final restart I got a real good run, was able to get into second and was pretty much content with that to be quite honest. But then I got a run and I saw the high line build up just enough to allow me to make the pass. That worked out perfectly. This win is huge for me. I can’t believe it, really.”

While for Theis and Mayer, the Daytona 500 was a guest start, Benjamin Fischer is expected to run the full 2023 NASCAR iRacing Series schedule that continues next weekend with the 200-mile race at Auto Club Speedway.