Images via Justin Melillo

Nick Ottinger dominated most of the race, but Stewart-Haas eSports’ Steven Wilson would outlast the field on old tires and hang on as the field wrecked behind him to claim his first career eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Tuesday night. Wilson would make a last-lap pass on Charlotte Phoenix’s Graham Bowlin in double overtime to punch his playoff ticket and punctuate a thrilling sendoff for the former Atlanta layout.

Ottinger qualified on pole alongside Matt Bussa of Mode Motorsports, whose team owner Kyle Long of the Kansas City Chiefs joined the broadcast for an interview about his love of sim racing. After a quick early caution, the field would push through a lengthy green-flag run, with most of the front runners holding their position throughout. The real drama came with green-flag pit stops, as Ottinger stopped first on his own and four-time series champion Ray Alfalla and Spacestation Gaming’s Allen Boes stayed out.

The race turned on its head with under 40 to go, through, when the damaged car of Derek Justis clipped the apron while letting the leaders by and collected Las Vegas winner Michael Conti of JR Motorsports, former series champion Ryan Luza, and others. While the field had started to get racy coming off pit stops, that yellow marked a clear line between conservative and aggressive driving. Still, the race stayed green until XSET’s Casey Kirwan spun Bussa with five laps to go, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

Bowlin, Bobby Zalenski, and Wilson led the handful of drivers who stayed out under caution, while Bussa and Donovan Strauss took two tires and Ottinger led the four-tire brigade from ninth. Strauss would spin to cause another yellow just before the leaders got to the finish line with Bowlin still scored in first to set up another restart. On the final lap, Bussa would make side contact with Ottinger that slowed the latter’s run while Wilson found his way around Bowlin for the lead; coming to the checkered flag, Wilson would block Bussa successfully as multiple spins happened behind him to avoid a photo finish.

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

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts

1 6 10 Steven  Wilson Ford 107 3 30.611 40
2 2 75 Matt Bussa Ford 107 -0.290 2 30.666 35
3 24 9 Michael Guest Ford 107 -0.329 0 30.676 34
4 1 25 Nick Ottinger Chevrolet 107 -0.440 48 30.751 33
5 29 88 Briar LaPradd Chevrolet 107 -0.480 0 30.846 32
6 3 18 Bobby Zalenski Toyota 107 -0.590 16 30.656 31
7 16 97 Logan Clampitt Chevrolet 107 -0.832 0 30.728 30
8 23 95 Casey Kirwan Chevrolet 107 -0.832 0 30.616 29
9 9 23 Mitchell deJong Toyota 107 -0.871 0 30.798 28
10 5 45 Keegan Leahy Toyota 107 -0.928 0 30.784 27
11 26 36 Brian Mercurio Chevrolet 107 -0.932 0 30.802 26
12 7 48 Graham A. Bowlin Toyota 107 -0.962 20 30.712 25
13 28 33 Taylor Hurst Chevrolet 107 -1.007 0 30.885 24
14 18 79 Femi Olatunbosun Ford 107 -1.088 0 30.833 23
15 37 14 Nickolas Shelton Ford 107 -1.109 0 30.930 22
16 14 55 Allen Boes Toyota 107 -2.023 9 30.840 21
17 21 16 Blade Whitt Ford 107 -2.845 0 30.761 20
18 25 31 Garrett Manes Chevrolet 107 -2.915 0 30.871 19
19 20 15 Blake Reynolds Ford 107 -3.276 1 30.740 18
20 17 20 Donovan Strauss Toyota 107 -3.297 0 30.823 17
21 8 19 Vicente Salas Toyota 107 -3.496 0 30.710 16
22 35 43 Kollin Keister Toyota 107 -6.589 0 30.876 15
23 10 24 Cody Byus Ford 107 -9.128 0 30.822 14
24 31 2 Liam Brotherton Chevrolet 107 -10.126 0 30.753 13
25 4 41 Dylan Duval Ford 107 -12.140 0 30.802 12
26 15 4 Ryan  Luza Chevrolet 107 -15.858 0 30.621 11
27 34 40 Dylan Ault Chevrolet 107 -16.303 0 30.877 10
28 36 3 Corey Vincent Chevrolet 107 -17.458 0 30.809 9
29 32 5 Zack Novak Chevrolet 107 -17.602 0 30.943 8
30 30 46 Jimmy Mullis Chevrolet 107 -17.889 0 30.820 7
31 19 6 Parker Retzlaff Ford 107 -18.112 0 30.778 6
32 33 51 Ray Alfalla Toyota 107 -20.888 8 30.717 5
33 27 17 Kaden Honeycutt Ford 105 -2 L 0 30.978 4
34 11 21 Garrett Lowe Ford 94 -13 L 0 30.810 3
35 12 42 Darik Bourdeau Chevrolet 69 -38 L 0 30.616 2
36 22 69 Collin Bowden Chevrolet 67 -40 L 0 30.892 1
37 13 8 Michael Conti Chevrolet 65 -42 L 0 30.808 1
38 38 12 Derek Justis Ford 63 -44 L 0 30.954 1
39 39 7 Malik Ray Ford 0 -107 L 0 1

 

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

  1. Femi Olatunbosun, 90
  2. Steven Wilson, 89
  3. Garrett Manes, 84
  4. Casey Kirwan, 84
  5. Bobby Zalenski, 80
  6. Nick Ottinger, 78
  7. Keegan Leahy, 75
  8. Blake Reynolds, 75
  9. Michael Conti, 74
  10. Graham Bowlin, 71

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season continues at Richmond Raceway two weeks from now, where Vicente Salas made history last season by becoming the first driver to lead every lap of an eNASCAR oval race. Broadcast coverage begins on Tuesday, March 29 at 8:30PM ET with Countdown to Green before a 9PM ET green flag, and can be seen at enascar.com/live.

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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