Zalenski Dominates eNASCAR Debut at DAYTONA Road Course

August 12th, 2020 by

Bobby Zalenski scored his fifth consecutive eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win on a road course, and set a new all-time record for the largest margin of victory in series history, with an unchallenged performance on the DAYTONA Road Course on Tuesday night. The Virtual Racing School driver checked out on the field by the time they made it through the International Horseshoe, and expanded his lead to a whopping 18.890 seconds over Jimmy Mullis by the end of the race.

“I’m happy that we were able to go here, because being at a new track is kind of an advantage,” said Zalenski, who was more than half a second faster than anyone else in the field in qualifying. “I took the final chicane a lot different than most people, and stuff like that, when you’re able to learn it before the rest of the field, it’s a huge advantage. What a team I’m on—I’m lucky to be with VRS, and glad it was a clean race, too. We’re just going to keep pushing. We need to get better, but we’re doing pretty good.”

The NASCAR version of the DAYTONA Road Course layout retained the International Horseshoe and Bus Stop from the traditional sports car layout, but added a new chicane before the tri-oval to slow cars down before starting the next lap. With the layout only seeing its first laps in the real world later this week, the eNASCAR drivers represented the first official NASCAR series to compete on the track.

It proved a challenge, as even past champions like Zack Novak and Ray Alfalla had off-track excursions, and only 26 drivers managed to finish the race on the lead lap. But even with Zalenski racing from far ahead of the field, the rest of the top 10 delivered some exciting battles. Second place came down to two of this year’s race winners, with New Hampshire winner Mullis outdueling Dover winner and outside polesitter Nick Ottinger for the position, while Christian Challiner had to fight hard to defend fourth place from Logan Clampitt in the final lap of the race.

The action from the DAYTONA Road Course continues tonight with iRacing Happy Hour, where eNASCAR drivers Ottinger, Justin Bolton, and Keegan Leahy will support real-world racers William Byron, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Majeski and their real-world crew members in a virtual practice session. Hosted by Daytona 500-winning crew chief Steve Letarte and NASCAR Cup Series race winner Regan Smith, the stream will give viewers a look at how real-world racers are utilizing iRacing to learn an unfamiliar layout that they won’t see for the first time until their respective races go green this weekend. iRacing Happy Hour will be streamed on NASCAR.com at 8PM ET.

Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at the DAYTONA Road Course were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best

Pts
1 1 83 Bobby Zalenski Chevrolet 45 45 1:47.360 45
2 3 46 Jimmy Mullis Toyota 45 0 -18.889 1:48.049 39
3 2 25 Nick Ottinger Chevrolet 45 0 -20.038 1:48.064 38
4 6 37 Christian Challiner Chevrolet 45 0 -25.379 1:48.186 37
5 5 99 Logan Clampitt Toyota 45 0 -25.600 1:48.265 36
6 9 27 Corey Vincent Ford 45 0 -30.684 1:48.232 35
7 8 8 Michael Conti Chevrolet 45 0 -32.300 1:47.953 34
8 4 21 Garrett Lowe Ford 45 0 -32.356 1:48.633 33
9 7 32 Keegan Leahy Toyota 45 0 -41.120 1:48.258 32
10 10 90 Zack Novak Toyota 45 0 -52.872 1:48.791 31
11 11 24 Jake Nichols Ford 45 0 -1:01.054 1:49.255 30
12 18 41 Dylan Duval Ford 45 0 -1:02.631 1:49.123 29
13 14 53 Ryan Michael Luza Ford 45 0 -1:04.179 1:49.314 28
14 12 18 Graham A. Bowlin Toyota 45 0 -1:09.674 1:49.540 27
15 15 3 Blake Reynolds Chevrolet 45 0 -1:12.253 1:48.947 26
16 21 77 Bob Bryant Toyota 45 0 -1:13.234 1:48.704 25
17 23 5 Matt Bussa Ford 45 0 -1:29.241 1:48.967 24
18 34 88 Brad Davies Chevrolet 45 0 -1:31.017 1:49.399 23
19 16 23 Casey Kirwan Toyota 45 0 -1:31.122 1:49.401 22
20 37 97 John Gorlinsky Chevrolet 45 0 -1:35.591 1:49.473 21
21 17 6 Nathan Lyon Ford 45 0 -1:36.960 1:49.503 20
22 22 55 Caine Cook Ford 45 0 -1:42.012 1:49.862 19
23 25 36 Chris Shearburn Chevrolet 45 0 -1:42.766 1:49.461 18
24 20 2 Ray Alfalla Chevrolet 45 0 -1:46.731 1:50.257 17
25 19 75 Phillip Diaz Ford 45 0 -1:50.685 1:49.685 16
26 36 4 Santiago Tirres Chevrolet 45 0 -1:51.060 1:51.090 15
27 29 15 Michael Guariglia Ford 44 0 -1 L 1:50.084 14
28 26 54 Alex McCollum3 Chevrolet 44 0 -1 L 1:50.374 13
29 32 14 Brandon Hayse Kettelle Ford 44 0 -1 L 1:51.063 12
30 33 1 Steve Sheehan Chevrolet 44 0 -1 L 1:50.156 11
31 28 51 Malik Ray Toyota 44 0 -1 L 1:50.590 10
32 30 33 Michael Guest Chevrolet 43 0 -2 L 1:50.392 9
33 31 9 Eric J. Smith Ford 39 0 -6 L 1:50.619 8
34 27 16 Chris Overland Ford 22 0 -23 L 1:50.822 7
35 24 17 Kollin Keister Ford 16 0 -29 L 1:52.041 6
36 13 66 Jarl Teien Chevrolet 15 0 -30 L 1:50.077 5
37 35 79 Brian Schoenburg Ford 5 0 -40 L 1:51.988 4

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series standings through 12 rounds are as follows:

  1. Keegan Leahy, 384
  2. Bobby Zalenski, 382
  3. Ryan Luza, 366
  4. Michael Conti, 360
  5. Garrett Lowe, 358
  6. Ray Alfalla, 336
  7. Nick Ottinger, 325
  8. Logan Clampitt, 309
  9. Jimmy Mullis, 304
  10. Graham Bowlin, 304

With only four of races left before the playoffs, eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action returns to the DAYTONA oval on August 25. As always, the race will be seen at 9PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live, iRacing.com/live, and the iRacing Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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