Conti Takes First Win of eNASCAR Retirement Tour in Series Debut at Milwaukee

March 1st, 2023 by

Michael Conti has been a staple of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for more than a decade, scoring the 2014 championship and earning plenty of race wins along the way. When he announced earlier this year that the 2023 season would be his last, it didn’t just give him one more shot at that second title—it also left him with only one shot to score an eNASCAR win at a handful of tracks making their series debut for this year.

The first of those was the Milwaukee Mile for Tuesday night’s DBOX 100, and the JR Motorsports driver wasted no time. He took the lead from Jim Beaver eSports driver Malik Ray with 20 laps to go shortly after a restart, and after surviving one more yellow flag, hung on to score his 14th career eNASCAR win. It marked the third year in a row that Conti either won the first or second race of the season, after he won the opener at Daytona in 2021 and the second round of the season at Las Vegas last year.

With no eNASCAR history at Milwaukee, which drivers would excel was anyone’s guess coming into the night. Conti’s close friend and setup teammate, fellow former series champion Nick Ottinger of William Byron eSports, qualified on pole and led more than half of the race to kick things off. The race started with more than 40 green flag laps before the first caution came out for eRacr’s Collin Bowden, allowing most of the field to pit. That set off a flurry of yellow, with seven of the eight cautions on the night coming between laps 42 and 69 and the field eventually switching to single-file restarts.

Ray took the lead from Ottinger just as the fifth caution flew, using the bumper to unsettle Ottinger and nosing ahead coming out of Turn 2. He’d hang on up front for 18 laps before Conti finally made the winning pass on Lap 81, with Ottinger returning the favor for second a few laps later. fgrACCEL’s Garrett Manes would also sneak past for third with two to go, but with two top-fives to start the season, Ray would nonetheless leave Milwaukee with the points lead.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from the DBOX 100 at Milwaukee were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 10 8 Michael Conti JR Motorsports 100 0.000 20 29.518 40
2 1 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 100 -0.291 61 29.667 35
3 21 12 Garrett Manes fgrAccel 100 -1.417 0 29.770 34
4 9 7 Malik Ray Jim Beaver eSports 100 -1.972 18 29.695 33
5 8 48 Graham A. Bowlin Charlotte Phoenix 100 -2.001 0 29.755 32
6 6 95 Casey Kirwan XSET 100 -2.101 0 29.787 31
7 13 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 100 -2.203 0 29.864 30
8 31 75 Zack Novak Rise eSports 100 -2.313 0 29.812 29
9 27 40 Dylan Ault LETARTE eSports 100 -2.769 0 29.881 28
10 7 41 Dylan Duval Stewart-Haas Racing 100 -2.903 0 29.853 27
11 5 3 Jordy Lopez Jr Team Dillon eSports 100 -3.121 0 29.798 26
12 24 88 Kevin King JR Motorsports 100 -3.418 0 29.907 25
13 19 20 Wyatt Tinsley Kansas City Pioneers 100 -3.622 0 29.927 24
14 15 34 Allen Boes Front Row Motorsports 100 -3.908 0 29.899 23
15 23 4 Ryan Luza XSET 100 -4.007 0 29.889 22
16 36 33 Tucker Minter Team Dillon eSports 100 -4.019 0 29.837 21
17 26 66 Tyler Garey Tony Kanaan Esports 100 -4.438 0 29.910 20
18 18 17 Kaden Honeycutt RFK Racing 100 -4.665 1 29.879 19
19 25 46 Jimmy Mullis Rise eSports 100 -5.287 0 29.815 18
20 20 11 Parker White Tony Kanaan Esports 100 -5.549 0 29.812 17
21 17 38 Michael Cosey Jr Front Row Motorsports 100 -5.759 0 29.810 16
22 34 31 Derek Justis Kansas City Pioneers 100 -5.768 0 29.957 15
23 32 42 Kollin Keister eRacr 100 -6.138 0 29.894 14
24 30 45 Michael Guest 23XI 100 -6.310 0 29.922 13
25 2 97 Matt Bussa William Byron eSports 100 -6.359 0 29.762 12
26 16 2 Corey Vincent Pittsburgh Knights 100 -6.393 0 29.718 11
27 35 23 Keegan Leahy 23XI 100 -6.514 0 29.898 10
28 37 15 Garrett Lowe Jim Beaver eSports 100 -6.603 0 29.906 9
29 4 1 Darik Bourdeau Elliott Sadler eSports 100 -6.706 0 29.890 8
30 33 77 Ryan Doucette Pittsburgh Knights 100 -6.787 0 29.887 7
31 22 36 Brandon McKissic LETARTE eSports 100 -7.093 0 29.929 6
32 14 69 Collin Bowden eRacr 100 -7.312 0 29.953 5
33 38 51 Donovan Strauss Williams eSports 100 -7.450 0 29.963 4
34 3 27 Cody Byus Elliott Sadler eSports 100 -7.498 0 29.961 3
35 28 14 Joey Brown fgrAccel 100 -8.099 0 29.937 2
36 11 10 Steven Wilson Stewart-Haas Racing 100 -9.609 0 30.334 1
37 12 55 Vicente Salas Williams eSports 91 -9L 0 29.894 1
38 39 54 Daniel Faulkingham Joe Gibbs Racing 86 -14L 0 30.373 1
39 29 6 Timmy Holmes RFK Racing 48 -52L 0 30.439 1

 

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

  1. Malik Ray, 68
  2. Nick Ottinger, 66
  3. Michael Conti, 65
  4. Casey Kirwan, 64
  5. Tucker Minter, 61
  6. Graham Bowlin, 61
  7. Zack Novak, 53
  8. Allen Boes, 51
  9. Tyler Garey, 50
  10. Dylan Duval, 49

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway for its next event, but Round 3 of the 2023 campaign will mark the first time that the series has used its newer oval configuration. Race coverage begins on Tuesday, March 14 at 9 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live, with Countdown to Green kicking off at 8:30 to set the stage for the action.

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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