University of Iowa’s Steven Wilson strategizes to eNASCAR College iRacing Series win at Indianapolis Raceway Park

The Hawkeye returned to the top of the eNASCAR College iRacing Series class on Tuesday night at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Last year’s champion, the University of Iowa’s Steven Wilson, managed to get the upper hand on Cal State Fullerton’s Logan Clampitt on the final round of pit stops in the second round of the season. With a plethora of yellow flags to finish out the exam, Wilson’s two-tire pit call to take the lead paid off for his eighth-career win in the series, his first of the 2024-25 academic year.

Utilizing the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks on the shortest track of the season, Wilson was stout besides the late race strategy. Wilson moved into second and was chasing Clampitt for the lead before the caution flew that enabled the pit call. “It’s pretty cool to come out here,” Wilson said post-race about racing at Indianapolis Raceway Park. “This is honestly a track that I don’t even know if I’ve raced in the past six or seven years that I’ve been on the service. It’s not one that I see very often, so it’s pretty shocking to me to be as fast as I was… It’s a lot of fun to be able to do these different combinations and it’s cool also to be fast in most of them as well.”

Wilson, who did not qualify for the opening round at Daytona, qualified fifth for the A-Main feature behind Clampitt, Daytona winner and new eNASCAR Coca-Cola champion Parker White (University of Maine at Augusta), The University of Oklahoma’s John Hagen, and the runner-up from Daytona, George Mason University’s Zach Sprouse. From the get go, Clampitt was stout, keeping the lead through each restart as the cautions piled on early. From laps 22 to 76, however, the race found some green flag pace, and the leaders eventually caught up to the rear-end of the field, being only a 0.686-mile oval.

As Clampitt caught the tail, Wilson had just finished making moves into second place. He fought hard against Hagen, eventually clearing on Lap 47. On Lap 59, he caught and passed White. A few laps later, he was on Clampitt’s rear bumper, but the two were entangled in heavy lapped traffic, at times going three-or-four-wide in the narrow groove. The fun eventually stopped on Lap 76, when a multi-truck incident forced the field to slow. On the ensuing pit stop, Wilson opted for two while Clampitt took four, a move that would have likely worked in Clampitt’s favor had the race gone back green and stayed green.

Instead, the cautions came back, and Wilson kept getting perfect restarts. Clampitt tried his best to time them, but was also looking to avoid a jump start penalty that would have taken him out of second place. The race was extended five laps for eNASCAR Overtime, but on the final return to action, Wilson played it perfectly once more to claim the checkered flag.

eNASCAR College iRacing Series results from Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park were as follows:

eNASCAR College iRacing Series standings through Round 2 at Indianapolis Raceway Park are as follows:

1. Parker White, 74
2. Zach Sprouse, 68
3. Jacob Bradley, 58
4. Mario Merenda, 58
5. Jonathan Evans, 54
6. Logan Clampitt, 49
7. Daniel Nanney, 49
8. Nick Luetje, 47
9. Connor Trifari, 44
10. Steven Wilson/Daniel Faulkingham, 40

Parker White maintains the points lead by six over Zach Sprouse after two races. Clampitt jumps up to sixth while Wilson sits in a tie for 10th with University of Maine at Machias’ Daniel Faulkingham. Only the A-Main races score championship points towards the Championship Finale next spring. There will be drop weeks to account for, so drivers that had bad finishes, or didn’t even make the main event, will still have a chance to get into the run for the $10,000 scholarship. This race also coincided with the start of the eNASCAR Contender iRacing Series, which raced at Las Vegas, and was won by Taylor Hurst, also by a bold pit strategy call.

The next race on the College calendar is Kansas Speedway. The Time Attack opens on October 15th and will run through October 24th. Once again, the top-40 eligible times will be invited to run the A-Main, scheduled on October 29th. That broadcast will be live on eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels. 

The eNASCAR College iRacing Series is presented by Playfly College Esports and Logitech G. For more information on the series, visit eNASCAR.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

About the Series: The eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Playfly College Esports and Logitech G gives college students from the United States and Canada the opportunity to compete for their share of $60,000 in scholarships. Using machines from the NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 40 drivers qualify for each event by posting their fastest lap times in a two-week Time Attack through the iRacing UI. With hundreds of schools represented in each Time Attack, and only a maximum of three representatives per school, drivers are competing not only against the greater iRacing community, but also their own classmates, for a spot on the prestigious grid.

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