Lowe clinches eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship 4 berth with Michigan win

August 16th, 2023 by Justin Melillo

Garrett Lowe will race for $100,000 next month at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC. The Jim Beaver eSports driver was the first to clinch his place in the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship 4 after winning the first round of the playoffs at Michigan International Speedway on Tuesday night. Perhaps the biggest win of his career to date, Lowe managed to hold off fellow playoff competitors in Stewart-Haas Racing’s Steven Wilson and 23XI’s Michael Guest after a late caution set up a pair of eNASCAR Overtime attempts at the two-mile oval in Brooklyn, MI. It’s the fourth win of Lowe’s career and his second at the big track, his first coming back in 2019.

Lowe started in the third position, behind fellow playoff contender Tucker Minter (Team Dillon eSports) on the pole and 23XI’s Keegan Leahy on the outside pole. Admittedly, Lowe didn’t have the best car on pace as he fell to run around the top 10 for the majority of the night. Up front, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Dylan Duval, XSET’s Casey Kirwan and JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti were the ones in the conversation for the battle for the win up until a caution around halfway.

With limited tire sets, some drivers such as Leahy opted to take their final pair of virtual Goodyear tires at that time, starting in the back and hoping for a clean and green race until the end. He and the other strategists almost got their wish. While drivers like Duval, Conti and others on older tires began to falter, the new tires were charging to the front as the race continued green. Collin Bowden took his eRacr Chevrolet to the top of the board by lap 46, less than 10 laps after the restart. Leahy, along with fgrAccel’s Joey Brown and XSET’s Ryan Luza, also managed to make their way to the top of the leaderboard as the laps continued to wind down.

But many playoff drivers were in trouble. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski, along with Kirwan and Minter, was one of three playoff drivers that were able to manage their tires to stay in the conversation and in the lead draft pack. Conti, along with Team Dillon eSports’ Jordy Lopez and William Byron eSports’ Nick Ottinger, were mired in the battle for 20th. Lowe found himself about in the middle of the two conversations as Leahy was heading towards the white flag and certain victory.

With just about 100 feet until the line, a caution flag flew and bunched the field back up. Conti and Ottinger were both taken out in the incident, and an eNASCAR Overtime attempt was now on the table. Lowe took two tires for track position, as did Guest and Lopez. Most people that had a set of tires came down pit road and bolted all four of them on. There were about 11 drivers who had no tire sets left and had to stay out, including Leahy and Luza, while drivers like Minter, Kirwan and Zalenski thought track position would be crucial and stayed out with a set still in the box.

The two-tire call was ideal for Lowe, as painted the white apron line through the first lap of the ensuing restart. Zalenski came down to slow Lowe’s momentum, but the move was seemingly too late and the two made contact. Zalenski, Minter and Kirwan would all be collected in the incident as Leahy and Luza were going at it for the top spot ahead. Those two also made forcing Leahy out of the running and handing the lead to Luza before another overtime attempt.

On the final restart, Lowe was able to get the jump from the second row, saving his car from slight contact with fgrAccel’s Garrett Manes. Lowe made the move on Luza into Turn 3 and the field was able to bring it around to take the white flag, making the race official. Wilson had four fresh tires and managed to claw his way to second, with the two-tire call from Guest placing him in third. But Wilson didn’t have quite enough momentum, as Lowe managed to hold on for the win and punched his ticket to the Championship 4 battle for the first time in his five year career and fourth playoff appearance.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Michigan International Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 3 15 Garrett Lowe Jim Beaver eSports 78 0.000 2 38.719 40
2 9 10 Steven Wilson Stewart-Haas Racing 78 -0.128 0 38.652 35
3 24 45 Michael Guest 23XI 78 -0.324 0 38.807 34
4 10 41 Dylan Duval Stewart-Haas Racing 78 -0.481 37 38.715 33
5 19 3 Jordy Lopez Team Dillon eSports 78 -0.476 0 38.868 32
6 25 12 Garrett Manes fgrAccel 78 -0.484 0 38.731 31
7 31 75 Zack Novak Rise eSports 78 -0.520 0 38.831 30
8 26 77 Ryan Doucette Pittsburgh Knights 78 -0.537 0 38.950 29
9 4 51 Donovan Strauss Williams eSports 78 -0.665 0 38.629 28
10 22 1 Darik Bourdeau Elliott Sadler eSports 78 -0.699 0 38.879 27
11 17 20 Wyatt Tinsley Kansas City Pioneers 78 -0.725 0 38.847 26
12 36 31 Derek Justis Kansas City Pioneers 78 -0.754 0 38.834 25
13 34 27 Cody Byus Elliott Sadler eSports 78 -0.816 0 38.745 24
14 16 95 Casey Kirwan XSET 78 -0.840 0 38.644 23
15 21 43 Femi Olatunbosun Charlotte Phoenix 78 -0.897 0 38.815 22
16 29 11 Parker White Tony Kanaan Esports 78 -0.935 0 38.847 21
17 13 7 Malik Ray Jim Beaver eSports 78 -1.015 0 38.894 20
18 23 6 Timmy Holmes RFK Racing 78 -1.035 0 38.844 19
19 18 4 Ryan Luza XSET 78 -1.349 4 38.734 18
20 32 34 Allen Boes Front Row Motorsports 78 -1.608 0 38.887 17
21 40 66 Tyler Garey Tony Kanaan Esports 78 -1.649 0 38.870 16
22 5 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 78 -1.847 0 38.777 15
23 11 42 Kollin Keister eRacr 78 -1.868 0 38.723 14
24 1 33 Tucker Minter Team Dillon eSports 78 -1.980 4 38.771 13
25 15 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 78 -1.988 0 38.675 12
26 38 46 Jimmy Mullis Rise eSports 78 -3.153 0 38.898 11
27 37 17 Kaden Honeycutt RFK Racing 78 -3.608 0 38.861 10
28 7 38 Michael Cosey Jr Front Row Motorsports 78 -3.765 0 39.044 9
29 33 88 Kevin King JR Motorsports 78 -4.360 0 38.858 8
30 12 69 Collin Bowden eRacr 78 -4.402 5 38.719 7
31 30 40 Dylan Ault LETARTE eSports 78 -4.679 0 38.864 6
32 6 8 Michael Conti JR Motorsports 78 -5.168 0 38.721 5
33 20 36 Brandon McKissic LETARTE eSports 78 -8.783 0 38.909 4
34 27 2 Corey Vincent Pittsburgh Knights 78 -9.114 0 38.861 3
35 8 54 Daniel Faulkingham Joe Gibbs Racing 78 -13.320 0 38.850 2
36 28 97 Matt Bussa William Byron eSports 77 -1L 0 38.833 1
37 39 48 Graham A. Bowlin Charlotte Phoenix 75 -3L 0 38.858 1
38 2 23 Keegan Leahy 23XI 74 -4L 22 38.726 1
39 14 14 Joey Brown fgrAccel 74 -4L 4 38.811 1
40 35 55 Vicente Salas Williams eSports 73 -5L 0 38.857 1

The 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points standings are as follows:

  1. Garrett Lowe, 1 win/2043 points
  2. Steven Wilson, 2038 points
  3. Michael Guest, 2037 points
  4. Jordy Lopez, 2035 points
  5. Casey Kirwan, 2029 points
  6. Bobby Zalenski, 2024 points
  7. Tucker Minter, 2019 points
  8. Jimmy Mullis, 2014 points
  9. Nick Ottinger, 2012 points
  10. Michael Conti, 2011 points

 

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series will head to the virtual Monster Mile at Dover Motor Speedway in two weeks. There are still two automatic Championship 4 berths available from winning in either of the next two races at Dover and later at Phoenix, while at least one spot in this year’s Championship battle will be earned on points. Meanwhile, the rest of the field continues their quest to make the Top 20 in points to stave off relegation and secure their spot on the 2024 grid.

Race coverage for Dover Motor Speedway will start on Tuesday, August 29 at 9 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live. The Countdown to Green, presented by Wendy’s, will kick things off at 8:30 p.m. ET.

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.

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