New Layout, No Problem as Wilson Goes Back-to-Back in eNASCAR Action at Atlanta

March 15th, 2023 by

An unlucky start to the season and a change to the track layout weren’t enough to stop Stewart-Haas Racing driver Steven Wilson from returning to the winner’s circle in Tuesday night’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action from Atlanta Motor Speedway. Wilson, who scored his first career eNASCAR victory in the last race for Atlanta’s old configuration last spring, returned to the winner’s circle after surviving an eNASCAR Overtime finish.

Wilson and Stewart-Haas teammate Dylan Duval combined to lead more than half of the 105 laps on the night, with Duval out front for a race-high 35 and Wilson adding 27 of his own. Also leading double-digit laps on the night were the two front-row starters, former series champion Ryan Luza of XSET and incoming points leader Malik Ray of Jim Beaver eSports, as many of eNASCAR’s top superspeedway racers took full advantage of Atlanta’s reconfiguration to show off their pack racing skills.

Unfortunately for Luza and Ray, though, finishes that reflected their pace weren’t meant to be. The race remained green and mostly clean all the way through Lap 76, but Luza found himself under eRacr driver Collin Bowden’s hood in the first major wreck of the night and was relegated to 24th at race’s end. Ray was caught in the third caution of the night on Lap 86, a major incident that also caught up former series champions Casey Kirwan of XSET and Nick Ottinger of William Byron eSports and also set up the series of two-lap finishes.

On the first, fellow Jim Beaver eSports driver Garrett Lowe appeared set to avenge Ray’s incident by getting out to the lead, but he, too, would go around while trying to defend against Wilson and Williams Esports’ Vicente Salas, collecting multiple cars as he went hard into the outside wall. The next overtime attempt would get to the finish line, though, as Wilson kept his nose ahead of eRacr’s Kollin Keister—who recovered from being a part of the second caution on the night—across the finish line.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Atlanta Motor Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 14 10 Steven Wilson Stewart-Haas Racing 105 0.000 27 29.090 40
2 35 42 Kollin Keister eRacr 105 -0.015 0 29.244 35
3 31 45 Michael Guest 23XI 105 -0.097 0 29.202 34
4 15 38 Michael Cosey Jr Front Row Motorsports 105 -0.146 0 29.026 33
5 9 48 Graham A. Bowlin Charlotte Phoenix 105 -0.176 0 29.183 32
6 33 66 Tyler Garey Tony Kanaan Esports 105 -0.156 0 28.980 31
7 20 20 Wyatt Tinsley Kansas City Pioneers 105 -0.228 1 29.119 30
8 23 41 Dylan Duval Stewart-Haas Racing 105 -0.230 35 29.221 29
9 25 11 Parker White Tony Kanaan Esports 105 -0.264 1 29.028 28
10 3 34 Allen Boes Front Row Motorsports 105 -0.345 3 28.947 27
11 16 77 Ryan Doucette Pittsburgh Knights 105 -0.353 0 29.173 26
12 4 23 Keegan Leahy 23XI 105 -0.370 0 29.214 25
13 11 6 Timmy Holmes RFK Racing 105 -0.372 0 28.893 24
14 34 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 105 -0.384 3 28.967 23
15 29 3 Jordy Lopez Jr Team Dillon eSports 105 -0.405 0 29.164 22
16 21 51 Donovan Strauss Williams eSports 105 -0.440 0 29.195 21
17 13 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 105 -0.491 1 28.982 20
18 7 8 Michael Conti JR Motorsports 105 -0.498 0 29.136 19
19 10 33 Tucker Minter Team Dillon eSports 105 -0.549 0 29.016 18
20 36 97 Matt Bussa William Byron eSports 105 -0.590 0 29.234 17
21 5 27 Cody Byus Elliott Sadler eSports 105 -0.646 0 28.921 16
22 12 88 Kevin King JR Motorsports 105 -0.671 0 29.115 15
23 30 54 Daniel Faulkingham Joe Gibbs Racing 105 -0.657 0 29.214 14
24 1 4 Ryan Luza XSET 105 -0.826 11 29.292 13
25 22 31 Derek Justis Kansas City Pioneers 105 -1.142 0 29.302 12
26 32 17 Kaden Honeycutt RFK Racing 105 -1.227 0 28.942 11
27 27 55 Vicente Salas Williams eSports 105 -1.741 1 29.267 10
28 8 15 Garrett Lowe Jim Beaver eSports 105 -1.814 1 29.205 9
29 18 36 Brandon McKissic LETARTE eSports 105 -1.981 0 28.985 8
30 24 40 Dylan Ault LETARTE eSports 105 -2.838 0 29.605 7
31 19 69 Collin Bowden eRacr 98 Disqualified 2 29.046 6
32 39 2 Corey Vincent Pittsburgh Knights 97 -8L 0 29.200 5
33 28 43 Femi Olatunbosun Charlotte Phoenix 96 -9L 0 29.085 4
34 26 12 Garrett Manes fgrAccel 96 -9L 5 29.075 3
35 2 7 Malik Ray Jim Beaver eSports 95 -10L 13 29.079 2
36 17 95 Casey Kirwan XSET 95 -10L 1 29.046 1
37 37 75 Zack Novak Rise eSports 95 -10L 0 28.683 1
38 38 46 Jimmy Mullis Rise eSports 94 -11L 0 29.143 1
39 6 14 Joey Brown fgrAccel 87 -18L 0 28.697 1

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through two rounds are as follows:

  1. Graham Bowlin, 93
  2. Nick Ottinger, 89
  3. Michael Conti, 84
  4. Michael Cosey Jr. 81
  5. Tyler Garey, 81
  6. Tucker Minter, 79
  7. Dylan Duval, 78
  8. Allen Boes, 78
  9. Malik Ray, 70
  10. Michael Guest, 68

Following Atlanta, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series heads back to Richmond Raceway, a staple of the calendar, for its fourth round of the 2023 season. Race coverage begins on Tuesday, March 28 at 9 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live, with Countdown to Green kicking off at 8:30 to set the stage for the action.

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.

Images via Justin Melillo

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