Eighth eNASCAR Championship 4 field to be determined on Tuesday night at Phoenix
September 10th, 2024 by Justin Melillo
It may be the 15th season of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, but this will only be the eighth time that the title will come down to a winner-take-all, Championship 4-style finale. For the 12th time in series history, and sixth time in the Championship 4 era, the championship will be decided at Homestead-Miami Speedway, this year scheduled on October 1st. However, Tuesday night’s penultimate race of the season at Phoenix Raceway still sits between whoever will join M80’s Steven Wilson at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and who will be left behind in the fight for fifth place.
Wilson, the defending series champion, looks to become the second multi-time eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion ever, as only 4-Time Ray Alfalla has ever pulled off that feat in the previous 14 seasons. Two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, Wilson accomplished something that the previous five champions in the series haven’t been able to do—make it back to the Championship 4 the season after winning the title. The first and last to do it was Wilson’s teammate, Ryan Luza, who notably won the title in his rookie campaign in 2017, the first year of the Championship 4, and then went on to make the Championship 4 again, but finished second to Ray Alfalla in 2018.
There are nine other drivers still in the hunt for a Championship 4 berth. As it stands, Williams Esports’ Parker White, QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming’s Graham Bowlin, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski are in the three transfer spots on points entering Phoenix. On the outside looking in are the William Byron eSports’ duo of Tucker Minter and Nick Ottinger, Kanaan Esports’ Vicente Salas, the other Joe Gibbs Racing driver Daniel Faulkingham, Nitro Circus Sim Racing’s Dylan Duval, and BS+COMPETITION’s Garrett Lowe.
At least two spots in the Championship 4, possibly three, will be given to the drivers highest in points at the end of the night. If any one of those nine drivers win, however, they will claim a spot on stage in Uptown Charlotte next month. However, if Steven Wilson wins again, or another driver wins, like JR Motorsports’ Briar LaPradd did at Michigan, it will all come down to the points total exiting Phoenix.
PREVIOUS SEVEN SEASONS OF ENASCAR’S CHAMPIONSHIP 4
In total, 16 drivers have qualified for the Championship 4 over the last seven seasons of the format. Perhaps the most notable driver on that list is Bobby Zalenski, who has done it five times out of seven. Zalenski has also qualified for the playoffs in every season he’s ever run, since joining the series in 2017. The only two seasons that he hasn’t been a Championship 4 contender has been 2018 and last season, 2023.
Half of the drivers who have made a Championship 4 appearance have returned at least one more time, those drivers including eRacr’s Ray Alfalla, the now-retired Michael Conti, the man trying to un-retire—Logan Clampitt, and then a trio of champions of the format that include 23XI’s Keegan Leahy, Nick Ottinger, and Ryan Luza, a three-time appearance maker.
Some drivers have been one-and-done, so far, including OXYGEN Esports’ Zack Novak, the title winner in 2019, as well as Spire Motorsports’ Casey Kirwan, 2022’s champion. Other notable names that have raced for the title in the Championship 4 format include Mitchell deJong, Blake Reynolds, and Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Matt Bussa.
RACING FOR A TITLE AT THE NASCAR HALL OF FAME
Steven Wilson also has multiple appearances in the Championship 4, qualifying for it back in 2022, and winning it all in 2023. His berth into 2024’s makes him only the fourth driver with three or more appearances. Wilson is and will be the only driver in series history to race for a title there every year that it’s been a thing. It’s only been since 2022 that the champion has been decided live, on-stage, and in front of an audience within the foyer of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, with Glory Road as a backdrop.
Graham Bowlin did it in its first year, in 2022, and came scintillatingly close to winning over Casey Kirwan, as did Bobby Zalenski. Those drivers in the 2022 title fight fought on one of the few occasions that it wasn’t a Homestead-Miami Speedway finale. The other time was in 2021, when Keegan Leahy scored his title at Texas Motor Speedway. Regardless, both Bowlin and Zalenski are looking for their chance to get back after missing last year.
Garrett Lowe, Nick Ottinger, and Tucker Minter are also looking for their second trip to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. That trio went last year, and unless some real crazy things happen with the points, only one of them could potentially do it. Minter is close enough where he could possibly point in, but more or less, this trio will all need a win at Phoenix to get to the Championship 4 for a second straight season.
PHOENIX HISTORY
Tuesday night will mark the series’ 11th trip to the 1-mile, dog-legged oval in Avondale, Arizona. As previously mentioned, the track now famous for hosting NASCAR’s Championship Weekend in the real-world was once eNASCAR’s title fight, back in 2022. That race was won by Keegan Leahy, and the title was won by Casey Kirwan.
The other nine times, Phoenix Raceway has mostly been a regular race on the schedule, only playing the role of the penultimate race on two other occasions—2011, which was won by Kevin King, and last year’s race in 2023, which allowed Tucker Minter to advance to the title race.
Other winners at Phoenix include Josh Parker (2010), Nick Ottinger (2012), Michael Conti (2013) Ray Alfalla (2015), PJ Stergios (2016), Bobby Zalenski (2017), and Leahy in 2018.
Zalenski, Ottinger, and Minter will aim to reclaim that desert magic from previous seasons in hopes to advance back to the title fight in three weeks. The other six in the playoff field will aim to add their name to the winner’s list, all for a chance to race for $100,000 and the Dale Earnhardt Jr Cup.
Playoff Standings entering Phoenix:
- Steven Wilson, 2085 – ADVANCED WITH WIN
- Parker White, 2069 (+19)
- Graham A. Bowlin, 2067 (+17)
- Bobby Zalenski, 2063 (+13)
————————— - Vicente Salas, 2050 (-13)
- Tucker Minter, 2049 (-14)
- Garrett Lowe, 2043 (-20)
- Daniel Faulkingham, 2029 (-34)
- Dylan Duval, 2024 (-39)
- Nick Ottinger, 2020 (-43)
The quest for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series championship, and the road to $500,000, continues tonight at 8:00 pm ET, live on eNASCAR.com/live. Tune in to the pre-race Countdown to Green starting at 7:30 pm ET.
For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit eNASCAR.com or iRacing.com/eNASCAR. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit iRacing.com.
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