eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Race Preview: New Hampshire
July 24th, 2023 by Chris Leone
The 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season reaches its penultimate round of the regular season on Tuesday night, as New Hampshire Motor Speedway marks the first of back-to-back races to finalize this year’s playoff grid. As always, race coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels, while Countdown to Green will kick off at 8:30 p.m. ET to preview the action.
Last Race: The finishes of eNASCAR races are getting more and more contentious as the 2023 playoffs draw near. For some drivers, a win is their best shot at joining that 10-car grid, and two of them collided (quite literally) as Rise eSports’ Jimmy Mullis and Jim Beaver eSports’ Garrett Lowe fought to the line at Nashville Superspeedway in one of the most talked about final laps of the year. Mullis came out on top, although he’ll still need to get into the top 20 in series points for the win to count towards playoff eligibility.
As the race went to eNASCAR Overtime, Mullis had been holding the lead on old tires, while Lowe was one of the drivers who pit late in the race for fresh ones. The latter shot out like a rocket on the final restart, jumping to second. Lowe avoided a crossover from Mullis on the backstretch and pulled ahead on the outside, but he then took contact twice that eventually sent him into the wall. That gave Mullis the win and let Dylan Duval sneak past for second.
Last Year: New Hampshire isn’t an annual track on the eNASCAR calendar, usually making appearances every other season. The last time it showed up on the schedule was in 2021, where Mullis took the victory—his most recent until the win at Nashville two weeks ago.
Track Facts: A mile-long flat oval that many say races like a short track, New Hampshire Motor Speedway burst onto the national racing scene in 1990 with a pair of races in what is now known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Three years later, the track welcomed its first NASCAR Cup Series race, and it’s been a mainstay of the calendar ever since; the track even hosted a second Cup race each year from 1997 to 2017. Martin Truex Jr., who calls NHMS a home track, is the most recent real-world Cup winner there, winning a rain-delayed Monday race earlier this month.
Next Up: Following New Hampshire, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series will head to Pocono Raceway for its 2023 regular season finale on Tuesday, August 2 at 9 p.m. ET. Last year, Casey Kirwan beat Zack Novak to the line in a full-contact finish, punching his playoff ticket in what was eventually his first championship season. Because it’s the second leg of back-to-back race weeks, Pocono will also be a fixed setup race.
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.
Image via Justin Melillo
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