Alfalla Survives eNASCAR Overtime to Claim Checkered Flag in Nashville

June 22nd, 2022 by

Four-time eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Ray Alfalla drove from 37th on the grid to score his first win of the 2022 season for Joe Gibbs Racing at Nashville Superspeedway on Tuesday night. Despite staying out on older tires late in the race, Alfalla got the jump on Jim Beaver eSports’ Blake Reynolds on two tires in the Restart Zone during eNASCAR Overtime to take the record-extending 27th win of his eNASCAR career.

After an immediate caution at the start of the race, things stayed green until the trickiest possible time for much of the field. During green flag pit stops just past the halfway point, RFK Racing’s Parker Retzlaff and Daytona winner Femi Olatunbosun made contact and spun through the tri-oval after trying to avoid Team Dillon Esports’ Taylor Hurst. Some of the drivers who had pit early, led by 23XI’s Mitchell deJong, stayed out, while early front-runners like Charlotte Phoenix driver Graham Bowlin were shuffled to the middle and others who were still a lap down after taking their pit stops needed to take wave arounds and start from the back.

While deJong had the oldest tires of anyone who stayed out, Atlanta winner Steven Wilson of Stewart-Haas eSports would take him side by side with 25 laps to go, and 2019 series champion Zack Novak of Rise eSports would make it a three-wide battle a lap later before eventually taking the spot. Soon after, a stack-up on the backstretch led to a multi-car incident, with polesitter and local hero Briar LaPradd of JR Motorsports getting the worst of it.

The field would only make it one lap before another multi-car wreck, this time including the two most recent eNASCAR race winners in Garrett Lowe and Bowlin, but not before Alfalla took the lead. He’d begin to pull away before another caution with four to go would lead to overtime. But despite having drivers behind him with two or four tires, Alfalla took advantage of the Restart Zone’s debut in the series to take control of the green flag in his own hands. Novak would get past Reynolds for second, while Michael Guest and two-time 2022 winner Michael Conti completed the top five.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Nashville Superspeedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 37 51 Ray Alfalla Joe Gibbs Racing 103 0.000 15 29.873 40
2 3 5 Zack Novak Rise eSports 103 -0.227 7 29.769 35
3 19 15 Blake Reynolds Jim Beaver eSports 103 -0.447 0 29.884 34
4 16 9 Michael Guest Jim Beaver eSports 103 -0.748 0 29.972 33
5 25 8 Michael Conti JR Motorsports 103 -0.944 0 30.039 32
6 21 10 Steven Wilson Stewart Haas Racing 103 -0.959 4 30.065 31
7 14 95 Casey Kirwan XSET 103 -1.033 0 30.046 30
8 20 3 Corey Vincent Team Dillon Esports 103 -1.441 0 30.053 29
9 39 75 Matt Bussa Mode Motorsports 103 -1.515 1 30.237 28
10 9 41 Dylan Duval Stewart Haas Racing 103 -1.575 0 30.149 27
11 7 55 Allen Boes Space Station Gaming 103 -1.848 1 30.117 26
12 5 48 Graham A. Bowlin Charlotte Phoenix 103 -1.880 37 30.119 25
13 29 69 Collin Bowden eRacr 103 -1.950 0 30.309 24
14 32 97 Logan Clampitt William Byron eSports 103 -1.989 4 30.239 23
15 15 6 Parker Retzlaff Roush Fenway Keselowski 103 -2.046 0 30.149 22
16 26 23 Mitchell deJong 23XI 103 -2.058 16 30.165 21
17 28 4 Ryan Luza XSET 103 -2.058 0 30.243 20
18 30 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 103 -2.151 0 30.151 19
19 22 42 Darik Bourdeau eRacr 103 -2.228 0 30.111 18
20 1 88 Briar LaPradd JR Motorsports 103 -2.367 18 30.135 17
21 4 24 Cody Byus Mode Motorsports 103 -2.379 0 30.106 16
22 17 79 Femi Olatunbosun Clint Bowyer Racing 103 -2.386 0 30.230 15
23 6 20 Donovan Strauss Williams eSports 103 -2.454 0 30.232 14
24 2 43 Kollin Keister Charlotte Phoenix 103 -2.472 0 30.121 13
25 33 36 Brian Mercurio Letarte Esports 103 -2.501 0 30.182 12
26 40 12 Derek Justis iRacing Motorsports 103 -2.637 0 30.111 11
27 36 16 Blade Whitt Wood Brothers Racing 103 -2.690 0 30.206 10
28 27 40 Dylan Ault Letarte Esports 103 -2.782 0 30.226 9
29 38 14 Nickolas Shelton Clint Bowyer Racing 103 -2.894 0 30.168 8
30 18 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 103 -2.997 0 30.119 7
31 34 2 Liam Brotherton Elliot Sadler eSports 103 -3.025 0 30.349 6
32 35 45 Keegan Leahy 23XI 99 -4L 0 30.340 5
33 31 54 Kyle Peddle Space Station Gaming 95 DNF 0 30.185 4
34 24 31 Garrett Manes Elliot Sadler eSports 95 -8L 0 30.236 3
35 23 21 Garrett Lowe Wood Brothers Racing 89 DNF 0 30.305 2
36 8 33 Taylor Hurst Team Dillon Esports 83 -20L 0 30.040 1
37 10 46 Jimmy Mullis Rise eSports 81 -22L 0 30.063 1
38 12 7 Malik Ray iRacing Motorsports 2 DNF 0 ——— 1
39 11 19 Vicente Salas Williams eSports 0 DNF 0 ——— 1

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through 10 rounds are as follows:

  1. Matt Bussa, 278
  2. Steven Wilson, 272
  3. Nick Ottinger, 252
  4. Casey Kirwan, 250
  5. Graham Bowlin, 238
  6. Corey Vincent, 237
  7. Femi Olatunbosun, 235
  8. Zack Novak, 235
  9. Michael Guest, 226
  10. Michael Conti, 218

The 2022 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season resumes in two weeks at Road America, where Mitchell deJong scored his second win of the season in 2021. Broadcast coverage begins on Tuesday, July 5 at 8:30PM ET with Countdown to Green before the 9PM ET green flag, and can be seen at enascar.com/live.

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.

Images via Justin Melillo

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