University of Maine at Augusta’s Parker White scores eNASCAR College iRacing Series victory in photo finish at Daytona

The first day of the 2024-25 eNASCAR College academic year is in the books.

After 60 laps of pack racing around Daytona International Speedway, the University of Maine at Augusta’s Parker White claimed a maiden victory in his first start in the eNASCAR College iRacing Series, defeating George Mason University’s Zach Sprouse in a photo finish at the line.

White, a Freshman who just started on a degree in Aviation, stayed grounded in his debut, leading 27 laps from the eighth starting spot. “I’ve got to be honest there, I was more nervous in that race than I was in the last Coke race,” White said post-race. “We had a very big fuel situation that (Logan Clampitt) and I were going through. They started wrecking there, at the front, one of those laps, and I told Clamp ‘we’ve got to go now, we have to get to the front’. We just played it perfectly, we got to the lead… we stayed side-by-side all the way until the white flag.”

On the final lap, White rode the inside line with Cal State Fullerton’s Logan Clampitt in the middle and Sprouse up top. Sprouse moved into the middle lane, and behind him and White, the field imploded, leaving the two to drag race to the line. “Zach and I, we kind of got glued together there in the middle of 3 and 4, and from there, I knew if I could stay side-by-side and not run out of fuel, it was just all mine,” White continued. The two flashed across the line, still in each other’s doors, the margin of victory at 0.020 seconds.

The University of Oklahoma’s Mario Merenda escaped the carnage to bring it home third. White commended Merenda for the pushes leading up to the checkers. Behind that, the results became a lottery as the rest of the field attempted to gather itself back up. Chattahoochee Tech’s Drew Jewah snuck through the pile to finish fourth while Wichita State’s Layne Graves worked through the track blocker to round out the top-five.

White, who will be traveling to Uptown Charlotte next week to compete for $100,000 in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship event, took home a cool $1,000 scholarship payout for his victory on Tuesday night. Over $60,000 in scholarships are up for grabs in the entirety of the season, with payouts through the top-10 finishing positions every race, and $10,000 going to the champion at Homestead-Miami Speedway at the end of next semester.

Polesitter Kaleb Bryan, racing for Missouri S&T, got collected in the fracas on the final lap, and fell out of a money spot. Bryan led the second-most laps on the day, 11, but limped back to the line to finish in 24th. On the start, Bryan led the way with Virginia Tech’s Jack Clemons alongside the front row. For the first 15 laps, things were mostly orderly, with the occasional third line forming on the top side, but for the most part, Bryan was in control on the bottom lane.

There was only one caution in the race, on Lap 13, that involved the University of West Florida’s Benjamin White, San Jacinto College student Abraham Vela, and Sinclair College student Cody Reed. Those three would be the only retirees on the night, although there were a couple more incidents that incredibly did not warrant a caution. The timing of the caution set up for an interesting fuel save strategy for the rest of the event, forcing most of the field into a conservative stance until the final laps.

In the middle of the event. two UCONN students, Jose Solis and Martin Roberg, were involved in a fracas with Purdue at Indianapolis student Jacob Bradley, Saddleback’s John Forbes, and Oklahoma’s John Hagen, that nearly sent Solis to the garage early. With no caution, Solis was unable to get back into the fight, and finished two laps down. Another late incident saw Embry-Riddle’s Colton Salek up and into the wall, with many around him scattering into the grass, but again, it stayed green until the end. The shake-ups forced drivers to adapt their saving strategies, but ultimately, everyone was able to make it back to the line.

eNASCAR College iRacing Series results from Daytona Int’l Speedway were as follows:

eNASCAR College iRacing Series standings through Round 1 at Daytona are as follows:

1. Parker White, 40
2. Zach Sprouse, 35
3. Mario Merenda, 34
4. Drew Jewah, 33
5. Layne Graves, 32
6. Alexander Heider, 31
7. Connor Trifari, 30
8. Jacob Bradley, 29
9. Dylan Ault, 28
10. Jonathan Evans, 27

Only the A-Main races score championship points towards the Championship Finale next spring. There will be drop weeks to account for, so drivers that had bad finishes, or didn’t even make the main event, will still have a chance to get into the run for the $10,000 scholarship.

The next race on the calendar is at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The Time Attack is open now, and will run through October 3rd. Once again, the top-40 eligible times will be invited to run the A-Main, scheduled on October 8th. That broadcast will be live on eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels. 

The eNASCAR College iRacing Series is presented by Playfly College Esports and Logitech G. For more information on the series, visit eNASCAR.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

About the Series: The eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Playfly College Esports and Logitech G gives college students from the United States and Canada the opportunity to compete for their share of $60,000 in scholarships. Using machines from the NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 40 drivers qualify for each event by posting their fastest lap times in a two-week Time Attack through the iRacing UI. With hundreds of schools represented in each Time Attack, and only a maximum of three representatives per school, drivers are competing not only against the greater iRacing community, but also their own classmates, for a spot on the prestigious grid.

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