Steven Wilson takes hometown eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory at Iowa

June 12th, 2024 by

Steven Wilson refused to lose at his home track on Tuesday night.

The M80 driver scored his third win of the 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season at Iowa Speedway after withstanding a late-race battle with Graham Bowlin of QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming and Parker White of Williams Esports. Wilson walks away with his eighth career win in 64 starts, and his points lead continues to grow with only four races remaining in the regular season.

With the laps dwindling late, Wilson ran in second behind Bowlin, with White stalking in third. While all three drivers race for separate official teams, they do share an alliance on the backend, and test regularly throughout the week for each event. That didn’t matter as they came around Turn 4 to take two laps to go in regulation, as Wilson collided with Bowlin, the two sliding and saving as they crossed the line. This allowed White to get alongside, a three-wide battle into Turn 1, but a caution would throw a wrench into the chaos.

Wilson was ahead at the time of the yellow, with White moving into second and Bowlin dropping back to third. On the final restart, Wilson made quick work of the others, establishing a lead before the final corner of the final lap. White was able to get second, and sent one last shot in at Wilson to move him out of the groove, but Wilson held on.

“I guess it’s my reputation now,” Wilson joked post-race. “We’re racing for the win, and it’s hard to win these things. I’m doing all I can. It’s the first-ever race here at Iowa Speedway. (It was) a little bump and run, short track racing, as they say. It’s nothing crazy, (Bowlin) finished still P3 in the race. It was going to be close there if it went green, I was running him down. I just really wanted that one.”

Bowlin, on the other side of the contact, was less enthused about it, essentially needing a win to keep his eNASCAR Playoff chances alive. “Points don’t matter,” Bowlin said. “I’m already top 20, so I was aiming for the win. I don’t know what I could have done differently, to be honest. I drove a pretty good race, and I passed (Wilson) around the outside cleanly. Then I was holding a steady gap at the end, before the caution came out. I was probably going to win if it went green… Then (Wilson) just throttled up into my left rear. Like, I don’t know.”

HEAT RACING RETURNS

Iowa featured a special Heat Racing format, just as Richmond Raceway, the other short track on the schedule, did earlier in the year. The field split in half after qualifying, with the odd-numbered qualifiers in Heat 1 and the evens in Heat 2. Wilson scored the pole position, while Bowlin took second. Both drivers would hold on to win their respective heats, collecting 10 additional points towards the regular season standings, as well as the start of Segment 3.

The top 10 in each heat race earned points, similar to how NASCAR awards stage points in the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck series. With that in mind, both Wilson and Bowlin had the opportunity to walk away with 50 points in hand for a victory as opposed to the regular 40.

Heat races did not include caution periods. In the first heat, Quami Scott (Letarte eSports) was bit by this, spinning from the middle of the pack to finish last, resulting in no additional points and a 39th place starting spot in the main event. The second heat had slightly more drama, as the two Kanaan Esports drivers, Vicente Salas and Kollin Keister, who were gridded third and fourth after qualifying, collided early and finished in the final two positions of their heat. They also both lost out on points and it made both of their nights exponentially harder in the main race.

MAIN EVENT

While each heat was 30 laps of uninterrupted racing, the Main was set for 90 laps, with cautions enabled. The drivers wouldn’t need a pit stop for fuel, but tires were available, should they need them in case of a well-timed yellow.

Wilson led early, but right before the 20th lap, Bowlin took control of the field. His reign continued up until the first caution of the race at Lap 67. The entire field opted to pit, and the overwhelmingly utilized call was for two tires. Bowlin continued to lead, but White had jumped Wilson for second place. Another caution flew on the ensuing restart, which triggered the new restart procedures put into place after Darlington; the next restart would be single file, as opposed to the regular double.

It nearly allowed the race to stay green until the end, but one last caution with two to go jumbled up the field for one last double file restart attempt. Just before the caution, Bowlin and Wilson had their scuffle, and for the final restart, Wilson was in control. Wilson held on and takes another leap towards defending his title with another bank of five playoff points to add to his lead.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Iowa Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 1 10 Steven Wilson M80 96 0.000 26 24.048 50
2 3 53 Parker White Williams Esports 96 -0.088 0 23.990 44
3 2 48 Graham A. Bowlin QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming 96 -0.272 70 24.117 44
4 4 20 Wyatt Tinsley QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming 96 -0.506 0 24.048 42
5 9 5 Zack Novak OXYGEN Esports 96 -0.550 0 24.096 38
6 26 77 Casey Kirwan Spire Motorsports 96 -0.602 0 24.053 31
7 11 97 Tucker Minter William Byron eSports 96 -0.686 0 23.979 35
8 10 90 Jordy Lopez BS+COMPETITION 96 -0.861 0 24.140 35
9 15 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 96 -0.943 0 24.148 31
10 25 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 96 -1.009 0 24.072 27
11 5 51 Donovan Strauss Williams Esports 96 -1.033 0 24.166 34
12 21 41 Dylan Duval Nitro Circus Sim Racing 96 -1.120 0 24.116 25
13 20 22 Femi Olatunbosun OXYGEN Esports 96 -1.131 0 24.059 25
14 19 12 Garrett Manes fgrAccel eRacing 96 -1.213 0 24.011 24
15 27 29 Jimmy Mullis Kevin Harvick Inc. 96 -1.287 0 24.064 22
16 13 54 Daniel Faulkingham Joe Gibbs Racing 96 -1.467 0 24.057 25
17 7 80 Ryan Luza M80 96 -1.833 0 24.164 27
18 14 14 Seth DeMerchant fgrAccel eRacing 96 -1.888 0 24.189 23
19 35 27 Cody Byus Pittsburgh Knights 96 -1.872 0 24.081 18
20 33 69 Ray Alfalla eRacr 96 -1.933 0 24.138 17
21 12 89 Garrett Lowe BS+COMPETITION 96 -2.063 0 23.923 21
22 8 38 Michael Cosey Jr Front Row Motorsports 96 -2.070 0 24.109 22
23 23 7 Malik Ray Spire Motorsports 96 -2.463 0 24.166 14
24 38 11 Vicente Salas Kanaan Esports 96 -2.763 0 24.142 13
25 29 55 Ryan Doucette Pittsburgh Knights 96 -2.848 0 24.133 12
26 31 3 Jonathon Dulaney Team Dillon Esports 96 -2.920 0 24.174 11
27 36 6 Timothy Holmes RFK Racing 96 -2.930 0 24.092 10
28 30 45 Michael Guest 23XI 96 -3.189 0 24.150 9
29 37 34 Darik Bourdeau Front Row Motorsports 96 -4.519 0 24.103 8
30 24 42 Tyler Garey eRacr 96 -5.323 0 24.148 7
31 22 8 Kaden Honeycutt JR Motorsports 96 -6.230 0 24.212 6
32 16 40 Dylan Ault Letarte eSports 96 -6.620 0 24.125 8
33 34 17 Collin Bowden RFK Racing 96 -10.235 0 24.335 4
34 32 33 Taylor Hurst Team Dillon Esports 96 -12.110 0 24.101 3
35 17 99 Matthew Zwack Nitro Circus Sim Racing 96 -12.358 0 24.056 4
36 40 66 Kollin Keister Kanaan Esports 96 -18.595 0 24.164 1
37 18 88 Briar LaPradd JR Motorsports 96 -19.505 0 24.093 3
38 39 36 Quami Scott Letarte eSports 94 -2L 0 24.462 1
39 6 62 Matt Bussa Kevin Harvick Inc. 74 DNF 0 24.374 9
40 28 23 Keegan Leahy 23XI 72 DNF 0 24.603 1

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Driver’s Standings through Round 10 are as follows:

  1. Steven Wilson, 316 (3 WINS)
  2. Parker White, 286
  3. Vicente Salas, 273 (1 WIN)
  4. Nick Ottinger, 271
  5. Bobby Zalenski, 255 (1 WIN)
  6. Casey Kirwan, 252
  7. Tucker Minter, 243
  8. Kaden Honeycutt, 231
  9. Zack Novak, 222
  10. Jordy Lopez, 214
    12. Garrett Lowe, 205 (1 WIN)
    14. Dylan Duval, 203 (1 WIN)
    17. Wyatt Tinsley, 193 (1 WIN)
    19. Malik Ray, 178 (1 WIN)

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Segment 3 Standings after Round 1 of 5 are as follows:

  1. Steven Wilson, 50
  2. Parker White, 44
  3. Graham A. Bowlin, 44
  4. Wyatt Tinsley, 42
  5. Zack Novak, 38
  6. Tucker Minter, 35
  7. Jordy Lopez, 35
  8. Donovan Strauss, 34
  9. Casey Kirwan, 31
  10. Bobby Zalenski, 31

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Team Standings through Round 10 are as follows:

  1. William Byron eSports (#25/#97), 514
  2. Williams Esports (#51/#53), 488
  3. M80 (#10/#80), 486
  4. Spire Motorsports (#7/#77), 464
  5. Kanaan Esports (#11/#66), 464

With only four races to go, seven of the eight winners on the season find themselves within the top 20 in the standings. This leaves only three playoff spots open for winless drivers, and those belong to White, Nick Ottinger (William Byron eSports), and Casey Kirwan (Spire Motorsports) after Iowa. There could be four new winners in the final four Regular Season races, which could mean that

Bowlin sits tied for 15th in the standings, 50 points behind Kirwan leaving Iowa. While the points gap is not insurmountable, a win would be the easiest solution. Also, there could be no points spots available, depending on who wins these next four races. If each race features a new winner, some race winners won’t race for a title this year.

The 40 top-rated eNASCAR drivers will head to Nashville Superspeedway in two weeks for the 11th race of the 2024 season. Last year, Jimmy Mullis and Garrett Lowe turned rivals after a late bit of contact worked in Mullis’s favor and at Lowe’s expense. Could we see more drama unfold between Wilson and Bowlin as well?

Tune in on Tuesday, June 25th, at 7:30 p.m. ET for the Countdown to Green. Race coverage for the event 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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