Jimmy Mullis Dominates as eNASCAR Returns to New Hampshire
July 15th, 2020 by Chris Leone
Back in 2018, Jimmy Mullis scored his first career eNASCAR victory as iRacing’s premier championship for stock car drivers visited the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Two years later, the series returned to the Magic Mile, and it was once again Mullis on top.
The Richmond Raceway eSports driver dominated the caution-filled race, leading 116 of the 157 laps eventually completed after the 11th and final caution of the night sent the race into overtime. Williams Esports’ Matt Bussa finished a strong second, while Dover winner Nick Ottinger, polesitter Graham Bowlin, and two-time NHMS winner Michael Conti completed the top five. Mullis got past Bowlin on Lap 42 and never looked back, even as a green-white-checkered finish threatened to open the door for his competitors to make the winning move.
Although the Loudon, NH circuit technically isn’t a short track at 1.058 miles, it can certainly race like one, and such was the case on Tuesday night. In contrast to the relatively clean rounds at larger tracks, with even the season opener at Daytona International Speedway going caution-free, 53 of last night’s 157 laps were run under caution. Only the true short tracks at Bristol and Richmond have seen more caution laps in an event so far this year.
While a caution-heavy race from New Hampshire was expected, the incidents did plenty to jumble up the field. all the carnage proved valuable for former series champions Ryan Luza and Ray Alfalla. Luza started a disappointing 34th, but found himself in seventh place at race’s end. Alfalla came in behind him in eighth, working his way up from 23rd. The top-10 results only strengthened their respective playoff bids, as Luza sits just four points out of the championship lead and Alfalla is 35 points clear of Mullis in ninth place, the first driver currently out.
On the opposite side of the coin, incoming points leader Keegan Leahy fell to the back of the pack early after contact with Eric Smith, only clawing his way back to 22nd place at race’s end after having to make up two laps. But larger incidents also ended promising nights for defending series champion Zack Novak, who had fought his way into the top 10 from the 30th starting spot, third-place qualifier Christian Challiner, and the Roush Fenway Racing duo of Kollin Keister and Nathan Lyon, who were both poised to convert top-10 starting spots into strong results.
Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Name |
Manufacturer |
Laps |
Led |
Interval |
Best |
Pts |
1 | 2 | 46 | Jimmy Mullis | Toyota | 157 | 116 | 29.876 | 45 | |
2 | 4 | 5 | Matt Bussa | Ford | 157 | 0 | -0.296 | 29.800 | 39 |
3 | 9 | 25 | Nick Ottinger | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -0.460 | 29.887 | 38 |
4 | 1 | 18 | Graham A. Bowlin | Toyota | 157 | 41 | -0.931 | 29.982 | 38 |
5 | 7 | 8 | Michael Conti | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -0.931 | 29.942 | 36 |
6 | 8 | 99 | Logan Clampitt | Toyota | 157 | 0 | -1.038 | 29.907 | 35 |
7 | 34 | 53 | Ryan Michael Luza | Ford | 157 | 0 | -1.209 | 30.160 | 34 |
8 | 23 | 2 | Ray Alfalla | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -1.316 | 30.147 | 33 |
9 | 5 | 27 | Corey Vincent | Ford | 157 | 0 | -1.386 | 30.222 | 32 |
10 | 13 | 83 | Bobby Zalenski | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -1.545 | 30.236 | 31 |
11 | 12 | 21 | Garrett Lowe | Ford | 157 | 0 | -1.547 | 30.105 | 30 |
12 | 15 | 51 | Malik Ray | Toyota | 157 | 0 | -1.772 | 30.292 | 29 |
13 | 36 | 55 | Caine Cook | Ford | 157 | 0 | -1.887 | 30.130 | 28 |
14 | 39 | 33 | Michael Guest | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -2.113 | 30.217 | 27 |
15 | 25 | 97 | John Gorlinsky | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -2.445 | 30.279 | 26 |
16 | 26 | 23 | Casey Kirwan | Toyota | 157 | 0 | -2.796 | 30.241 | 25 |
17 | 11 | 3 | Blake Reynolds | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -2.929 | 30.323 | 24 |
18 | 32 | 16 | Chris Overland | Ford | 157 | 0 | -2.993 | 30.388 | 23 |
19 | 22 | 42 | Bob Bryant | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -3.072 | 30.283 | 22 |
20 | 24 | 14 | Brandon Hayse Kettelle | Ford | 157 | 0 | -3.369 | 30.206 | 21 |
21 | 16 | 10 | Justin Bolton | Ford | 157 | 0 | -3.637 | 30.234 | 20 |
22 | 17 | 32 | Keegan Leahy | Toyota | 157 | 0 | -3.744 | 30.248 | 19 |
23 | 27 | 1 | Steve Sheehan | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -3.955 | 30.361 | 18 |
24 | 37 | 54 | Alex McCollum3 | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -3.959 | 30.246 | 17 |
25 | 14 | 36 | Chris Shearburn | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -4.187 | 30.351 | 16 |
26 | 38 | 4 | Santiago Tirres | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -4.249 | 30.105 | 15 |
27 | 18 | 15 | Michael Guariglia | Ford | 157 | 0 | -4.285 | 30.444 | 14 |
28 | 35 | 41 | Dylan Duval | Ford | 157 | 0 | -4.473 | 30.351 | 13 |
29 | 19 | 24 | Jake Nichols | Ford | 157 | 0 | -4.476 | 30.258 | 12 |
30 | 31 | 75 | Phillip Diaz | Ford | 157 | 0 | -4.582 | 30.389 | 11 |
31 | 6 | 17 | Kollin Keister | Ford | 157 | 0 | -4.766 | 30.066 | 10 |
32 | 30 | 90 | Zack Novak | Toyota | 157 | 0 | -4.775 | 30.232 | 9 |
33 | 40 | 66 | Jarl Teien | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -4.831 | 30.512 | 8 |
34 | 20 | 9 | Eric J. Smith | Ford | 157 | 0 | -4.901 | 30.378 | 7 |
35 | 21 | 77 | Ashton Crowder | Toyota | 157 | 0 | -5.135 | 30.240 | 6 |
36 | 3 | 37 | Christian Challiner | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -5.164 | 30.161 | 5 |
37 | 28 | 79 | Brian Schoenburg | Ford | 157 | 0 | -7.101 | 30.347 | 4 |
38 | 33 | 88 | Brad Davies | Chevrolet | 157 | 0 | -7.567 | 30.031 | 3 |
39 | 10 | 6 | Nathan Lyon | Ford | 157 | 0 | -11.332 | 30.235 | 2 |
40 | 29 | 47 | Jeremy R Allen | Chevrolet | 25 | 0 | -132 L | 30.510 | 1 |
eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through 10 races are as follows:
- Keegan Leahy, 327
- Ryan Luza, 323
- Garrett Lowe, 319
- Bobby Zalenski, 303
- Michael Conti, 300
- Nick Ottinger, 283
- Ray Alfalla, 280
- Graham Bowlin, 264
- Jimmy Mullis, 245
- Logan Clampitt, 240
With exactly half of its races now in the books, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series continues its season in two weeks’ time from Michigan International Speedway on July 28. As always, the action can be seen live at 9PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live and iRacing.com/live. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.