Dylan Duval breaks eight-year drought with eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win at Talladega

May 8th, 2024 by

Nearly eight years ago, Dylan Duval scored his maiden eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his rookie campaign in 2016. It took longer than he would have hoped, but on Tuesday night, Duval broke back into the virtual winner’s circle after triple eNASCAR Overtime ended under caution at Talladega Superspeedway. The win not only marked Duval’s second career victory, but also comes as Nitro Circus Sim Racing’s first win as an official eNASCAR team in just their seventh event.

On the final restart, Duval lined up on the outside of the front row, alongside RFK Racing’s Collin Bowden on the bottom. As the field rounded Turn 2, as it played out in the previous three cautions, the field fell apart, triggering a race-ending caution flag. Bowden was sent spinning in the fracas, while Duval was sent up into the outside wall. William Byron eSports’ Tucker Minter and BS+COMPETITION’s Garrett Lowe both got alongside Duval as the field wrecked behind. While both Minter and Lowe passed Duval, scoring at the time of the caution determined Duval remained ahead of them both.

“Man, it’s been a long time coming,” Duval said post-race. “Last year was a huge confidence boost for me. I felt like I could have, and maybe should have, won a couple of races last year, and it just didn’t happen. I’m happy that we were able to turn it around and win tonight. I don’t know if this puts us in the top 20, but it sure helps. I feel like I called my shot this week… Well, damn right, we did it.”

The victory does place Duval above the cut line, which makes his first victory in 2,841 days currently count for a spot in the 2024 eNASCAR Playoffs. He’s only eight points ahead of another winner on the season, Spire Motorsports’ Malik Ray, in 21st. To utilize a win towards playoff contention, drivers must finish the regular season above 20th. Duval is also the sixth different winner in seven races, so should there be more than 10 winners, he’d have to be ahead of a couple of them to also take a place in this year’s fight for the title.

Duval started in the 24th position, but if there was one constant through the night at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, it didn’t matter where you ran up until the very end. Malik Ray scored his first career pole position, but by the end of the first lap, he fell to seventh. The pack was volatile, with the running order in constant flux. As a result, a single-race record number of drivers led at least one lap, a total of 24 drivers. There were even a few drivers that made their way to the front of the field, but were unable to lead the lap. Virtual chess at 200 miles per hour.

The event went caution-free for the first 58 laps, which included a round of green flag pit stops around halfway in the scheduled 70-lap contest. Once the yellow rag came out, it didn’t stop. Treacherous Turn 2 turned into the hot spot for incidents, with the deck shuffling after every demolition derby. Ahead of the fray was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Faulkingham, who led right up until the final restart. Bowden and Duval both managed to sneak by before the second-to-last caution set the field up for a final attempt.

The third and final attempt at eNASCAR Overtime was not a guarantee that the race would finish under green flag conditions. Sure enough, the field exploded one final time on the backstretch, involving Bowden and many more. Duval was barely ahead when scoring was taken for the caution, and after a lap and a half of pacing under yellow, Duval crossed the line for his first win of the year.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Race 7 at Talladega Superspeedway results were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 24 41 Dylan Duval Nitro Circus Sim Racing 80 0.000 2 47.688 40
2 28 97 Tucker Minter William Byron eSports 80 -0.145 0 47.404 35
3 26 89 Garrett Lowe BS+COMPETITION 80 -0.456 0 47.516 34
4 27 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 80 -0.713 0 47.995 33
5 29 54 Daniel Faulkingham Joe Gibbs Racing 80 -0.850 14 48.290 32
6 1 7 Malik Ray Spire Motorsports 80 -1.415 6 48.047 31
7 5 29 Jimmy Mullis Kevin Harvick Inc. 80 -1.608 2 47.668 30
8 36 45 Michael Guest 23XI 80 -1.834 0 47.984 29
9 4 66 Kollin Keister Kanaan Esports 80 -2.269 1 47.947 28
10 32 11 Vicente Salas Kanaan Esports 80 -2.900 0 47.108 27
11 37 69 Ray Alfalla eRacr 80 -3.224 1 47.816 26
12 35 8 Kaden Honeycutt JR Motorsports 80 -3.519 0 47.342 25
13 14 53 Parker White Williams Esports 80 -4.112 4 48.385 24
14 18 80 Ryan Luza M80 80 -5.062 0 48.250 23
15 17 90 Jordy Lopez BS+COMPETITION 80 -5.310 0 48.099 22
16 19 3 Jonathon Dulaney Team Dillon Esports 80 -6.047 1 48.046 21
17 31 12 Garrett Manes fgrAccel eRacing 80 -6.515 1 48.188 20
18 7 6 Timothy Holmes RFK Racing 80 -7.282 1 48.463 19
19 20 42 Tyler Garey eRacr 80 -7.635 1 47.882 18
20 21 33 Taylor Hurst Team Dillon Esports 80 -8.717 0 48.114 17
21 9 20 Wyatt Tinsley QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming 80 -9.056 2 48.086 16
22 3 99 Matthew Zwack Nitro Circus Sim Racing 80 -9.873 2 48.255 15
23 16 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 80 -10.559 0 48.364 14
24 10 88 Briar LaPradd JR Motorsports 80 -10.963 3 47.381 13
25 22 62 Matt Bussa Kevin Harvick Inc. 80 -11.267 0 48.128 12
26 23 48 Graham A. Bowlin QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming 80 -11.792 7 48.086 11
27 30 10 Steven Wilson M80 80 -12.349 14 48.268 10
28 33 17 Collin Bowden RFK Racing 80 -12.555 6 47.353 9
29 6 38 Michael Cosey Jr Front Row Motorsports 80 -13.098 3 47.236 8
30 34 22 Femi Olatunbosun OXYGEN Esports 80 -13.777 2 48.139 7
31 11 36 Quami Scott Letarte eSports 80 -14.269 1 47.507 6
32 12 40 Dylan Ault Letarte eSports 80 -14.660 0 48.317 5
33 8 27 Cody Byus Pittsburgh Knights 80 -14.962 0 48.414 4
34 25 14 Seth DeMerchant fgrAccel eRacing 79 -1L 0 48.168 3
35 39 51 Donovan Strauss Williams Esports 77 -3L 0 48.323 2
36 15 5 Zack Novak OXYGEN Esports 76 -4L 2 48.188 1
37 13 77 Casey Kirwan Spire Motorsports 74 -6L 2 48.351 1
38 38 34 Darik Bourdeau Front Row Motorsports 69 -11L 0 47.952 1
39 2 23 Keegan Leahy 23XI 63 -17L 1 48.143 1
40 40 55 Ryan Doucette Pittsburgh Knights 57 -23L 1 48.013 1

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Driver’s Standings through Round 7 are as follows:

  1. Steven Wilson, 204 (2 WINS)
  2. Vicente Salas, 198
  3. Nick Ottinger, 194
  4. Parker White, 183
  5. Bobby Zalenski, 181 (1 WIN)
  6. Tucker Minter, 177
  7. Casey Kirwan, 177
  8. Kaden Honeycutt, 160
  9. Donovan Strauss, 151
  10. Jimmy Mullis, 149
    T-18. Wyatt Tinsley, 135 (1 WIN)
    T-18. Dylan Duval, 135 (1 WIN)

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Segment 2 Standings through Segment Race 3 are as follows:

  1. Bobby Zalenski, 109
  2. Tucker Minter, 107
  3. Vicente Salas, 93
  4. Parker White, 92
  5. Steven Wilson, 86
  6. Jordy Lopez, 83
  7. Nick Ottinger, 78
  8. Dylan Duval, 75
  9. Ryan Luza, 74
  10. Daniel Faulkingham, 70

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Team Standings through Round 7 are as follows:

  1. William Byron eSports (#25/#97), 371
  2. Kanaan Esports (#11/#66), 341
  3. Spire Motorsports (#7/#77), 338
  4. Williams Esports (#51/#53), 334
  5. Joe Gibbs Racing (#18/#54), 326

Talladega marked the final superspeedway-style event for 2024. From here on out, the series will visit a multitude of intermediates, such as Charlotte Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway later this month.

M80’s Steven Wilson didn’t have the result he had hoped for, even after tying for leading the most laps at 14. Regardless, he maintains the overall points lead over Kanaan Esports’ Vicente Salas by six points. Salas, who spent most of the race lapped after serving a pit road start penalty due to a pit road infraction at Dover, made his way back to finish 10th.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski wound up finishing fifth to keep his Segment 2 lead heading to Charlotte, but just barely. Minter, who is second in the segment points, is only two points behind after knocking off yet another podium finish. He was victorious at Charlotte last season, so the remaining two races there and at Darlington could be pivotal to a possible segment victory. Minter’s recent successes, along with teammate Nick Ottinger’s consistent pace, places the William Byron eSports outfit on top of the team standings halfway through the 2024 regular season.

The 40 top-rated eNASCAR drivers will return in two weeks for the eighth race of the 2024 season at Charlotte. A week after that, the series will visit Darlington to conclude the month of May, along with Segment 2.

Tune in on Tuesday, May 21st, at 7:30 p.m. ET for the Countdown to Green. Race coverage at Charlotte begins at 8 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels.

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit www.enascar.com or www.iracing.com/enascar. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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