Wilson Adds Name to eNASCAR Road Course Elite With Road America Victory

July 6th, 2022 by

Move over, Mitchell deJong and Bobby Zalenski: there’s a new road course ace in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.

Stewart-Haas eSports driver Steven Wilson’s superb 2022 season continued on Tuesday night with a dominant victory over 25 laps at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America, the longest track on the schedule. Wilson outqualified 23XI’s deJong, last year’s top eNASCAR road course racer and one of the best road iRacers in the world, by .007 seconds, and it proved to be all the difference as he led every single lap.

The increased competition was a far cry from previous years, where Zalenski scored some of the most dominant victories in series history and deJong managed to top even that pace as a rookie last year. That duo still scored a pair of top five finishes, but they also had to deal with challenges for position from Charlotte Phoenix driver Graham Bowlin—the most recent eNASCAR road course winner at Watkins Glen last year, then driving the car that Wilson currently runs—and XSET’s Casey Kirwan, who would post the fastest lap of the race at 2:06.794.

Wilson’s victory may have massive implications on this year’s playoff race. Not only was it his second win of the season after a triumph at Atlanta in March, but it also kept both Zalenski and deJong out of the playoff grid at 11th and 13th in points without wins, respectively. With August’s return to Watkins Glen the only remaining road course on the schedule, the duo may need to find the checkered flag on an oval to get in, as Zalenski did at Pocono last year. As it stands, eight different drivers have won the first 11 races of the season, with Kirwan and 2019 series champion Zack Novak of Rise eSports the two drivers on the playoff grid by points.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Road America were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts
1 1 10 Steven Wilson Stewart Haas Racing 25 0.000 25 2:06.988 40
2 2 23 Mitchell deJong 23XI 25 -1.139 0 2:06.857 35
3 6 95 Casey Kirwan XSET 25 -5.563 0 2:06.795 34
4 3 48 Graham A. Bowlin Charlotte Phoenix 25 -5.887 0 2:06.803 33
5 5 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 25 -7.888 0 2:07.075 32
6 4 19 Vicente Salas Williams eSports 25 -9.471 0 2:06.850 31
7 14 31 Garrett Manes Elliot Sadler eSports 25 -20.427 0 2:06.925 30
8 10 15 Blake Reynolds Jim Beaver eSports 25 -21.692 0 2:07.265 29
9 17 8 Michael Conti JR Motorsports 25 -22.155 0 2:07.028 28
10 8 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 25 -26.955 0 2:07.680 27
11 20 21 Garrett Lowe Wood Brothers Racing 25 -33.048 0 2:07.718 26
12 16 20 Donovan Strauss Williams eSports 25 -36.732 0 2:07.634 25
13 15 55 Allen Boes Space Station Gaming 25 -38.432 0 2:07.889 24
14 18 46 Jimmy Mullis Rise eSports 25 -38.967 0 2:07.788 23
15 21 42 Darik Bourdeau eRacr 25 -39.246 0 2:07.377 22
16 36 97 Logan Clampitt William Byron eSports 25 -44.510 0 2:07.855 21
17 22 4 Ryan Luza XSET 25 -44.744 0 2:07.536 20
18 23 2 Liam Brotherton Elliot Sadler eSports 25 -47.823 0 2:08.154 19
19 13 75 Matt Bussa Mode Motorsports 25 -54.953 0 2:07.994 18
20 24 33 Taylor Hurst Team Dillon Esports 25 -55.800 0 2:08.308 17
21 28 88 Briar LaPradd JR Motorsports 25 -57.156 0 2:08.390 16
22 26 36 Brian Mercurio Letarte Esports 25 -57.942 0 2:08.334 15
23 29 5 Zack Novak Rise eSports 25 -1:00.018 0 2:08.331 14
24 31 6 Parker Retzlaff Roush Fenway Keselowski 25 -1:00.896 0 2:08.180 13
25 19 24 Cody Byus Mode Motorsports 25 -1:01.489 0 2:08.263 12
26 25 69 Collin Bowden eRacr 25 -1:02.137 0 2:08.353 11
27 39 79 Femi Olatunbosun Clint Bowyer Racing 25 -1:02.183 0 2:08.268 10
28 33 7 Malik Ray iRacing Motorsports 25 -1:02.693 0 2:08.329 9
29 27 17 Kaden Honeycutt Roush Fenway Keselowski 25 -1:11.314 0 2:08.491 8
30 11 3 Corey Vincent Team Dillon Esports 25 -1:12.974 0 2:07.466 7
31 30 16 Blade Whitt Wood Brothers Racing 25 -1:16.097 0 2:09.085 6
32 34 9 Michael Guest Jim Beaver eSports 25 -1:16.221 0 2:09.078 5
33 32 43 Kollin Keister Charlotte Phoenix 25 -1:16.315 0 2:08.894 4
34 12 40 Dylan Ault Letarte Esports 25 -1:50.537 0 2:09.179 3
35 35 51 Ray Alfalla Joe Gibbs Racing 25 -1:57.587 0 2:09.913 2
36 38 12 Derek Justis iRacing Motorsports 24 -1L 0 2:10.277 1
37 7 41 Dylan Duval Stewart Haas Racing 20 -5L 0 2:08.000 1
38 37 14 Nickolas Shelton Clint Bowyer Racing 17 DNF 0 2:10.699 1
39 9 45 Keegan Leahy 23XI 4 DNF 0 2:10.286 1

 

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoff grid through 11 rounds is as follows:

  1. Steven Wilson, 2 wins/312 points
  2. Nick Ottinger, 2 wins/279 points
  3. Michael Conti, 2 wins/246 points
  4. Matt Bussa, 1 win/296 points
  5. Graham Bowlin, 1 win/271 points
  6. Femi Olatunbosun, 1 win/245 points
  7. Garrett Lowe, 1 win/221 points
  8. Ray Alfalla, 1 win/196 points
  9. Casey Kirwan, 284 points
  10. Zack Novak, 249 points

The 2022 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season resumes in two weeks’ time at Pocono Raceway, a longtime staple of the schedule. Besides Zalenski, other past winners on the current Pocono track include Jimmy Mullis and Keegan Leahy. Broadcast coverage begins on Tuesday, May 31 at 8:30PM ET with Countdown to Green before the 9PM ET green flag. Live coverage of all the action 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.

Images via Justin Melillo

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