Brooks/Jobes win eNASCAR Heat Pro League season-opener

The league, a collaboration among Motorsport Games, NASCAR and the Race Team Alliance, features 14 eNASCAR teams and is played on NASCAR Heat 4, the newest iteration of the NASCAR video game franchise. Each team features one Xbox player and one PlayStation 4 player.

Xbox One

The season kicked off with the Xbox One race. Justin Brooks of the JTG Daugherty Throttlers led the field to the green flag in the season-opener, which quickly went under yellow due to a first-lap crash on Lap 1. 

Diego Alvarado was able to get out front on the ensuing restart and led until he made a scheduled green-flag stop halfway through the race. 

The caution flag flew once more with 23 laps to go and it was Slade Gravitt who took control on the restart.

The battle from that point onward was fierce with nothing between the frontrunners as they sliced and diced for the top spot. Ultimately, Brooks would prevail and maintain control despite an attempt by Gravitt on the inside.

A late caution set up a two-lap shootout, which turned out to be no issue for Brooks. While Daniel Buttafuoco and Gravitt battled over second, Brooks was able to skip away and take the win for JTG.

Complete Xbox One Results:

1. Justin Brooks – mrTrackbar33 – JTG Daugherty Throttlers
2. Slade Gravitt – SladeG84 – Wood Brothers Gaming

3. Daniel Buttafuoco – LuckyDog385 – Germain Gaming

4. Nick Walker – wowTHATSgarbage – Roush Fenway Gaming

5. Matthew Selby – SHRe Slick 4 – Stewart-Haas eSports

6. Mitch Diamond – Diamond 20x – RCR eSports

7. Matthew Heale – RowdyMatt51 – Gibbs Gaming  

8. Brian Tedeschi – ShellVPower22 – Team Penske eSports

9. Diego Alvarado – DiegoxAlv – Petty eSports

10. Luis Zaiter – CGM x Rose – Chip Ganassi Gaming

11. Riley Ogle – Lil snaac – GoFas Gaming

12. Sam Morris – Mordog5 – Hendrick Motorsports GC

13. Tyler Dohar – JRM Dohar 88 – JR Motorsports

14. Jose Ruiz – JOSE 720 – Leavine Family Gaming

PS4

On the PS4 side, Leavine Family Gaming's Josh Harbin led the field to the green flag. The tempo of this 50-lapper was high from the get-go with the leaders thrashing over who would command the early laps. 

Brandyn Gritton (Stewart-Haas Gaming) claimed the race lead on the opening lap, but Brandon Hanna (Roush Fenway Gaming) would end up on top of the fight, followed closely by Josh Parker (Gibbs Gaming) and Joe Gornick (JR Motorsports). They are able to get away from the rest of the pack, but fuel conservation quickly became a factor.

Hanna returned to the race lead after the first set of stops, but he would need to make a second stop with 15 laps to go.

The lead changed hands several times over the next few laps, and only in the final seven laps did the picture become clearer. Nick Jobes was saving fuel all race and appeared to have enough in the tank as he took over the race lead. Ultimately, the Hendrick Motorsports GC driver was able to take the checkered flag and delivered the team their first victory.

Complete PS4 Results:

1. Nick Jobes – NJobes25 – Hendrick Motorsports GC

2. Mike Braas – MikeRPM44 – Petty eSports

3. Jason Mitchell – GoFasJason32 – GoFas Gaming

4. Mathew Billingsley – scoutbonk18-  – JTG Daugherty Throttlers

5. Maxwell Castro – MaxBoost27 – Chip Ganassi Gaming

6. Brandyn Gritton – SHRe_HotRod_14 – Stewart-Haas eSports

7. Corey Rothgeb – Wurth_2 – Team Penske eSports

8. Kyle Arnold – KyleArnold13 – Germain Gaming

9. Brandon Hanna – cheezuh – Roush Fenway Gaming

10. Joe Gornick – JRM Gornick 7 – JR Motorsports

11. Josh Harbin – ThAbEaR_95 – Leavine Family Gaming

12. Josh Parker – TheBolt_Parker18 – Gibbs Gaming

13. Joey Stone – Sloppy_Joe_YT – RCR eSports

14. Cody Giles – xX_Fluffy_Xx2 – Wood Brothers Gaming