VIRTUAL MOTEGI, Japan — The fourth round of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge started and finished with some memorable bangs at virtual Twin Ring Motegi’s oval.
There was a multicar pileup on Lap 3 involving several cars (including the No. 51 of Kyle Busch, who rebounded from the airborne flip pictured above to finish 13th).
A collision between frontrunners Will Power and Scott McLaughlin and the lapped car of Oliver Askew helped hand the victory to Simon Pagenaud.
And then runner-up Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves had a massive shunt as Dixon tried to chase down Pagenaud on the last lap.
In between, there was an entertaining collection of strategic twists during the 113-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval.
Courtesy of Getty Images’ Chris Graythen, here are a collection of screenshots from the Firestone 175 at Twin Ring Motegi:
Pole-sitter Robert Wickens (No. 6 Chevrolet) leads the field during the Firestone 175 at virtual Twin Ring Motegi (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
A series of images show Helio Castroneves (who finished 29th in his IndyCar iRacing Challenge debut) going airborne over Scott Dixon after the final lap of the Firestone 175 (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
Tony Kanaan finished 30th in a throwback 7-Eleven scheme (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
Will Power led a race-high 61 laps in his No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Takuma Sato made his IndyCar iRacing Challenge debut in his native country (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
Scott McLaughlin was on track for another podium or possibly win before a late incident (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
Marco Andretti finished a lap down in 25th and later tweeted he didn’t realize his No. 98 had been slowed by damage (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
Simon Pagenaud celebrates his second consecutive victory in the IndyCar iRacing Challenge (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
An overhead shot of the grandstands at virtual Twin Ring Motegi (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
