Keegan Leahy Returns to eNASCAR Winner’s Circle at Indianapolis
July 1st, 2020 by Chris Leone
Denny Hamlin Racing’s Keegan Leahy outdueled four-time eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Ray Alfalla and Letarte Esports’ Chris Shearburn to score his second win of the 2020 season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday night. In a race slowed by just one early caution flag, Leahy made the decisive pass in the race’s closing laps and found the winner’s circle for the first time since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti paced the field to the green flag, but challenges from Leahy and Alfalla in the first half of the race proved to be too much to overcome. Leahy took the lead before the first caution for Matt Bussa, Jeremy Allen, and Brandon Kettelle sent most of the field into the pits, but lost the top spot with a slow pit stop. Conti would reassume the point until Lap 24, when Alfalla made the pass for the lead.
From there, it was all about executing the right pit strategy. A handful of drivers, including Michael Guariglia and Blake Reynolds, stayed out a few extra laps in the lead in hopes that fresher tires would help them climb back through the field or on a restart, but the race stayed green the rest of the way. That allowed Alfalla to cycle back to the point with 18 laps to go, but Shearburn and Leahy were closing fast.
With 10 laps to go, Alfalla, Shearburn, and Leahy were separated by less than a second. Leahy found his way around Shearburn first before setting his sights on Alfalla for the winning move. Shearburn fought back to second place, but couldn’t quite catch Leahy in the closing laps, and brushed the wall on the frontstretch coming to the checkered flag.
Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Name |
Manufacturer |
Laps |
Led |
Interval |
Best |
Pts |
1 | 4 | 32 | Keegan Leahy | Toyota | 80 | 18 | 50.249 | 44 | |
2 | 20 | 36 | Chris Shearburn | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -0.247 | 50.563 | 39 |
3 | 6 | 2 | Ray Alfalla | Chevrolet | 80 | 36 | -2.617 | 50.41 | 40 |
4 | 8 | 21 | Garrett Lowe | Ford | 80 | 0 | -5.164 | 50.567 | 37 |
5 | 1 | 8 | Michael Conti | Chevrolet | 80 | 17 | -5.435 | 50.191 | 37 |
6 | 23 | 53 | Ryan Michael Luza | Ford | 80 | 0 | -8.992 | 50.503 | 35 |
7 | 9 | 18 | Graham A. Bowlin | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -9.346 | 50.595 | 34 |
8 | 15 | 23 | Casey Kirwan | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -9.536 | 50.37 | 33 |
9 | 36 | 83 | Bobby Zalenski | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -10.852 | 50.218 | 32 |
10 | 13 | 25 | Nick Ottinger | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -11.71 | 50.407 | 31 |
11 | 17 | 9 | Eric J. Smith | Ford | 80 | 0 | -11.769 | 50.415 | 30 |
12 | 2 | 46 | Jimmy Mullis | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -13.627 | 50.265 | 29 |
13 | 34 | 51 | Malik Ray | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -17.311 | 50.444 | 28 |
14 | 39 | 33 | Michael Guest | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -17.714 | 50.701 | 27 |
15 | 26 | 15 | Michael Guariglia | Ford | 80 | 5 | -17.945 | 50.787 | 27 |
16 | 28 | 41 | Dylan Duval | Ford | 80 | 0 | -18.252 | 50.456 | 25 |
17 | 38 | 4 | Santiago Tirres | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -18.506 | 50.182 | 24 |
18 | 31 | 10 | Justin Bolton | Ford | 80 | 0 | -18.951 | 50.564 | 23 |
19 | 12 | 88 | Brad Davies | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -19.458 | 50.073 | 22 |
20 | 33 | 55 | Caine Cook | Ford | 80 | 0 | -21.073 | 50.449 | 21 |
21 | 27 | 16 | Chris Overland | Ford | 80 | 0 | -22.253 | 50.199 | 20 |
22 | 3 | 77 | Ashton Crowder | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -22.316 | 50.638 | 19 |
23 | 11 | 79 | Brian Schoenburg | Ford | 80 | 0 | -22.509 | 50.68 | 18 |
24 | 16 | 6 | Nathan Lyon | Ford | 80 | 0 | -22.603 | 51.134 | 17 |
25 | 7 | 27 | Corey Vincent | Ford | 80 | 0 | -22.817 | 50.672 | 16 |
26 | 10 | 99 | Logan Clampitt | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -23.336 | 50.787 | 15 |
27 | 18 | 90 | Zack Novak | Toyota | 80 | 0 | -23.398 | 50.61 | 14 |
28 | 37 | 17 | Kollin Keister | Ford | 80 | 0 | -25.575 | 50.573 | 13 |
29 | 5 | 3 | Blake Reynolds | Chevrolet | 80 | 4 | -25.643 | 50.684 | 13 |
30 | 35 | 75 | Phillip Diaz | Ford | 80 | 0 | -26.746 | 50.645 | 11 |
31 | 25 | 24 | Jake Nichols | Ford | 80 | 0 | -26.808 | 50.849 | 10 |
32 | 24 | 37 | Christian Challiner | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -27.585 | 50.657 | 9 |
33 | 19 | 42 | Bob Bryant | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -31.925 | 51.075 | 8 |
34 | 29 | 54 | Alex McCollum | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -32.158 | 50.495 | 7 |
35 | 21 | 97 | John Gorlinsky | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -42.028 | 50.653 | 6 |
36 | 14 | 66 | Jarl Teien | Chevrolet | 80 | 0 | -42.555 | 51.076 | 5 |
37 | 22 | 47 | Jeremy Allen | Chevrolet | 79 | 0 | -1 L | 51.176 | 4 |
38 | 32 | 14 | Brandon Kettelle | Ford | 79 | 0 | -1 L | 51.252 | 3 |
39 | 30 | 5 | Matt Bussa | Ford | 65 | 0 | -15 L | 51.342 | 2 |
eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through nine rounds are as follows:
- Keegan Leahy, 308 (2 wins)
- Ryan Luza, 289 (3 wins)
- Garrett Lowe, 289
- Bobby Zalenski, 272
- Michael Conti, 264
- Ray Alfalla, 247 (1 win)
- Nick Ottinger, 245 (1 win)
- Brad Davies, 232
- Graham Bowlin, 226
- Chris Shearburn, 223
The 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season continues on July 14 with the series’ return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The race can be seen live at eNASCAR.com/live and on the iRacing eSports Network on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.