Alfalla Snaps Winless Drought, Scores 25th Career eNASCAR Victory in Atlanta

May 30th, 2020 by

Four-time eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Ray Alfalla become the first driver in series history to score 25 victories on Friday night when he took the checkered flag at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Virtual Racing School driver snapped a winless streak dating back to the end of his most recent title-winning season in 2018, and propelled himself into the thick of playoff contention.

For Alfalla, Friday night’s win may not have been much of a surprise. In last fall’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Series, the series that completes the eNCiS grid, he took his first win of the season here, on the way to winning that series championship and qualifying back into the premier division. After working his way up from the 26th starting spot, he led a race-high 75 of 167 laps, extending a lead of more than two seconds in the final green flag run on Garrett Lowe, his replacement for 2020 at Wood Brothers Racing.

While a stretch of four back-to-back cautions slowed down the early stages of the race, the lap 55 yellow flag for former Atlanta winner Steve Sheehan was the final one of the night. That left drivers with a stretch of well over 100 green flag laps to end the race, meaning green flag pit stops would play a factor. Alfalla, who took the lead from Dover winner on Nick Ottinger on lap 70, pit with just over 50 to go. He finally inherited the spot back from JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti on lap 138 and never looking back.

Lowe’s runner-up finish matched a season best and allowed him to climb to third in the championship standings. Renegades’ Caine Cook scored his own best finish of the season in third, while Letarte Esports’ Chris Shearburn and new points leader Keegan Leahy of Denny Hamlin Racing completed the top five. Kollin Keister, who won the series’ most recent round at Charlotte, finished sixth after leading 53 laps, while polesitter Corey Vincent led only the first lap and faded to 16th at race’s end.

Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at Atlanta Motor Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best Lap

Pts
1 26 2 Ray Alfalla Chevrolet 167 75 29.238 45
2 18 21 Garrett Lowe Ford 167 0 -1.976 29.464 39
3 12 55 Caine Cook Ford 167 0 -3.287 29.433 38
4 40 36 Chris Shearburn Chevrolet 167 0 -4.521 29.563 37
5 22 32 Keegan Leahy Toyota 167 14 -4.940 29.304 37
6 3 17 Kollin Keister Ford 167 53 -5.598 29.301 36
7 10 23 Casey Kirwan Toyota 167 0 -5.684 29.292 34
8 27 24 Jake Nichols Ford 167 0 -5.715 29.287 33
9 2 46 Jimmy Mullis Toyota 167 6 -6.315 29.232 33
10 7 6 Nathan Lyon Ford 167 0 -8.077 29.532 31
11 11 8 Michael Conti Chevrolet 167 5 -8.351 29.288 31
12 32 10 Justin Bolton Ford 167 0 -8.890 29.477 29
13 28 16 Chris Overland Ford 167 0 -9.037 29.341 28
14 33 41 Dylan Duval Ford 167 0 -9.472 29.374 27
15 20 99 Logan Clampitt Toyota 167 0 -9.697 29.300 26
16 1 27 Corey Vincent Ford 167 1 -10.166 29.332 26
17 13 25 Nick Ottinger Chevrolet 167 5 -12.396 29.270 25
18 23 75 Phillip Diaz Ford 167 0 -14.257 29.449 23
19 37 77 Ashton Crowder Toyota 167 0 -20.748 29.416 22
20 17 42 Bob Bryant Chevrolet 167 0 -21.065 29.615 21
21 36 14 Brandon Kettelle Ford 167 0 -21.729 29.262 20
22 19 5 Matt Bussa Ford 167 0 -22.990 29.591 19
23 14 66 Jarl Teien Chevrolet 167 4 -24.829 29.367 19
24 5 90 Zack Novak Toyota 167 0 -25.382 29.488 17
25 21 83 Bobby Zalenski Chevrolet 167 0 -31.698 29.430 16
26 34 79 Brian Schoenburg Ford 166 2 -1 L 29.304 16
27 25 33 Michael Guest Chevrolet 166 0 -1 L 29.517 14
28 15 3 Blake Reynolds Chevrolet 166 0 -1 L 29.677 13
29 16 97 John Gorlinsky Chevrolet 166 0 -1 L 29.530 12
30 9 88 Brad Davies Chevrolet 166 0 -1 L 29.559 11
31 6 15 Michael Guariglia Ford 166 2 -1 L 29.527 11
32 35 54 Alex McCollum Chevrolet 166 0 -1 L 29.379 9
33 29 9 Eric J. Smith Ford 166 0 -1 L 29.510 8
34 31 53 Ryan Michael Luza Ford 165 0 -2 L 29.692 7
35 8 37 Christian Challiner Chevrolet 162 0 -5 L 29.544 6
36 38 47 Jeremy R Allen Chevrolet 140 0 -27 L 29.548 5
37 30 4 Santiago Tirres Chevrolet 120 0 -47 L 29.615 4
38 24 51 Malik Ray Toyota 113 0 -54 L 29.606 3
39 4 18 Graham A. Bowlin Toyota 66 0 -101 L 29.452 2
40 39 1 Steve Sheehan Chevrolet 55 0 -112 L 29.514 1

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points after eight rounds are as follows:

  1. Keegan Leahy, 264
  2. Ryan Luza, 254
  3. Garrett Lowe, 252
  4. Bobby Zalenski, 240
  5. Michael Conti, 227
  6. Nick Ottinger, 214
  7. Brad Davies, 210
  8. Jake Nichols, 209
  9. Ray Alfalla, 207
  10. Graham Bowlin, 192

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series takes a month off of points-paying competition before returning to the track on June 30 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Until then, fans can look forward to the series’ all-star race on June 16, with race information to be unveiled soon. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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