2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series | Focusing on returning to the Championship 4 | Feature #3

February 27th, 2026 by

Only four drivers can qualify for the Championship 4 Finale in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series—It’s just basic math. However, for Parker White, Tucker Minter, and Bobby Zalenski, their 2025 campaigns were most-definitely adding up to potential title runs, until they weren’t. Three drivers, all with Championship 4 experience, on the outside looking in. Surely, they will not be looking to miss out again in 2026, and all three of these drivers are surely championship caliber competitors.

Parker White, who began his career racing for Kanaan Esports in 2023, moved over to Williams Esports in 2024 and won the championship. That team changed over to Williams Sim Racing in 2025, and will likely have another iteration if the INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series was any indication, as they went by Williams F1 Team Gaming over there this year. Parker waited until the 17th race of the 2024 season to claim both his first career victory to ultimately lock his place in that title fight. Once again, White entered the penultimate battle inside the top-four in points and without a win, but this time, it was the current Kanaan Esports competitor, Vicente Salas, scooping the win at Phoenix, and that left that year’s defending champion on the outside looking in.

Tucker Minter dominated two races earlier at Michigan International Speedway. Even if he didn’t get the win at the end of the day, it would have been a huge points day for the William Byron eSports competitor. Minter, who made the Championship 4 on debut, racing for Team Dillon Esports in his 2023 rookie campaign, just missed out on making it back-to-back appearances in 2024 in his first season driving for WBeS. With three wins already on the year, at Rockingham, Charlotte, and Nashville, only Spire Motorsports’ Steven Wilson had more wins at this point. After losing the lead, then an inopportune caution, Minter’s Michigan only got worse as he wound up backwards on the backstretch on the final lap. This moment would be the catalyst for Minter missing out on the Championship 4.

The Road Course King, Bobby Zalenski, now dripped in ERA eSports Team colors in 2025, didn’t even collect a road win last year. His two wins coming into the playoffs were at the big ovals of Talladega and Pocono. Zalenski’s been in the series since before teams were even a thing. He was drafted to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019, ran for Team VRS and won a team title in 2020, raced for Letarte Esports in 2021, then returned to Joe Gibbs Racing from 2022 to 2024. With JGR out of the series in 2025, Zalenski was able to sign on with Jesse Iwuji’s ERA eSports Team for 2025, a new team that landed two of the hottest commodities in the series, also picking up Michael Cosey Jr.

In a playoff schedule including two fairly big ovals in Michigan and Texas, and the place where he won his first-career race at Phoenix, these three races were prime for Mr. Championship 4 (Bobby’s been around a while, and can claim multiple nicknames, especially considering that he’s had six Championship 4 appearances in the last eight seasons) to make a run at his first title. A crash at Texas would unravel his championship hopes. Ninth at Michigan and seventh at Phoenix just couldn’t propel him into a points position, either.

Disappointments, surely, but for all three, 2025 was a season where they stood among the greats and proved their mettle. In a season where one driver was able to break long standing records and separate himself from the rest, everyone from second on back, through the Playoff grid, looked to be on an equal enough level that to even make the Championship 4, they would need either a win, or absolute perfection to get the one spot in on points.

These three, along with Channel 199’s Dylan Duval, Jim Beaver eSports’ Kollin Keister, and BS+COMPETITION’s Jordy Lopez, would be the six of the 10 Playoff players on the outside looking in. We’ll catch up with the other three next week, but this week, we’ll dive into what Parker, Tucker, and Bobby have been up to since their 2025 season ended, plus their outlook on the upcoming 2026 Championship Series season.

Tucker Minter overlooking a sim rig at the Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois in July of 2024 (Photo by Cisco Scaramuzza)

NOT MAKING THE CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT

Reflecting on shortcomings is never easy, but Parker, Tucker, and Bobby are all good enough with what they do to realize where they can improve, and knowing all three of them, it’s a good chance that they’ll put it into practice and grow from it.

In White’s case, his season to-date in 2025 was on par, or arguably better than how it was in 2024. “Getting some wins and bonus points in the regular season is a very big advantage in the playoffs,” White explained. “In 2024, I had a winless regular season, I finished every single race in the top-five, and was able to get in on points. Getting top-fives in every single playoff race is very hard, and I didn’t quite do that in 2025.” Indeed, two fourths to start off the Playoffs was ideal, but the 16th at Phoenix would be his undoing. “I am going to have to approach every race with a clear mindset. I have always been very good at being consistent and collecting points, but this year I want to do my best to get some wins in the regular season to build up some bonus points for the playoffs. With there being fewer races in the regular season, there will be more spots available on points. With that in mind, I will also do my best to points race.”

Minter knew exactly what cost him—unnecessary mistakes. However, he was still satisfied with the speed he brought through those three races. “I would say there are two big takeaways from last year’s playoffs,” Minter stated. “The first being the speed we brought to the track in both qualifying and race. I qualified on pole at Michigan, and led almost every lap except the one that matters. I charged forward into the top-five en route to a second place finish at Texas, and stormed back from a mid-race pit road penalty to just outside the top-10 at Phoenix. The second takeaway is that I did not focus on the big picture enough. I was frustrated that I lost the lead at the end of Michigan, and pushed too hard trying to get one more position in the top-10 rather than taking home a solid finish, and that derailed my playoff run from the start. Then, speeding on pit road trying to get a little more when I didn’t need to left me with no real chance of advancing. It’s impossible to come back from silly mistakes like that without luck in such a short run. (In 2026) it’s going to take the same amount of effort from myself and everyone else on my team to bring fast cars to every race. From there it is about eliminating the small mistakes that turn into big points losses and hopefully finding a little bit of luck along the way.”

Zalenski, meanwhile, lamented in both his single lap qualifying ability, as well as an inopportune moment during the Texas round. “I regressed a bit in my qualifying consistency last year, and it was the biggest flaw for my playoff run,” Zalenski explained. “At Texas, we were in the fight for the win and got nose damage from someone else’s mistake, which put us in a bad spot for the last restart in which we got crashed. Even with my bad qualifying, we still could’ve pointed our way in without the bad luck at Texas. With these short races, I just have to be better in qualifying, simple. I simply must perform to what I’m capable of, that’s it.”

As mentioned before, all three know what it’s like to partake in the Championship 4 Finale, at varying levels. Zalenski has more Championship 4 appearances than any other driver in history, competing twice from the NASCAR Hall of Fame as well in 2022 and 2024. Minter did it once in 2023, his rookie season, and came up just one spot short of being the first rookie champion since Ryan Luza in 2017. White made it once, in his second season, and is the only of this group to hoist the Dale Jr Cup.

As such, all three had varied mindsets entering the finale, with less to fight for than the four that would go for the championship that night.

Parker had two missions on that night. “My mindset during the Championship Finale last year was just to maximize my day, to finish fifth in the standings,” he said. “While it was a priority to get Steven the Championship for us at Norse Force Racing, I really wanted to finish the season strong to show that I was there and deserved a spot in the Championship 4.”

On the flip side, Tucker just wanted to finish the year on the right side of momentum. “I was just looking to finish the year off with a solid run, but I had absolutely no skin in the game,” Minter rationalized. “Everybody on my backend team was frustrated that we didn’t have anybody in the Championship Finale, so we put in a lot less effort for Homestead. I felt like I ran an excellent race to bring home a top-five finish, ahead of all of finale drivers but Steven, and ended the year on a positive note.”

As for Bobby, his competitive nature didn’t keep him from rolling over despite being out of it. “I was trying to win the damn thing,” Zalenski exclaimed. “I wanted to get fifth in points, and winning was my only real shot at getting that. Once I realized Steven and Norse Force Racing had rocket ships, I pivoted to an alternate strategy to try to get lucky with cautions. I ended up getting half-spun out, and didn’t get a caution anyways. The pressure was off, and it was nice to go racing with very little personal expectations, so I just had some fun racing versus the tryhards.”

Parker White flashes his 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship ring during eNASCAR Media Day in January 2025.

OFFSEASON TRIPS, PLANS, AND NOT RACING IN FEBRUARY

Racing is embedded in all three of these drivers’ genes, so their time since the season ended has naturally included some form of racing, whether it be at a real track, or on the sim. It also makes sense that all three would have plans involving racing during this Qualifying Series section of the schedule.

“Most recently, I’ve been doing a bit more coaching with Virtual Racing School, working on the Team VRS NASCAR program,” Bobby said. “It will be fun to work with a lot more people doing that. Other than that, a lot of chilling with friends and just having a good time. It’s been quite nice. I don’t mind it (the extended break) much, it’s more peaceful than anything. I always have plenty to do on the sim, primarily with coaching and content creation with VRS. It does feel weird not starting the season right now though.”

“Since the season ended, I have been traveling a lot,” Parker said. “I went to NASCAR Championship Weekend in Phoenix, and was a photographer for Toby Christie. I’ve also done a lot of traveling just to take some time off from the sim. I went to Las Vegas with one of my friends in January on a planespotting trip.” Parker also mentioned that he will be in St. Petersburg this weekend, shooting photos for Barr Visuals during the IndyCar and NASCAR Truck Series weekend. “It feels very relaxing to be at the start of the NASCAR season without having to prepare for Coke races. I’ve been enjoying the start of the NASCAR season after a long off season. I have also been racing road special events with Williams Gaming and will continue to do that, with my next race being the Sebring 12.”

“It has been a pretty quiet offseason for me so far,” Tucker said. “I went to the NASCAR (then Xfinity) Series race at Martinsville with my friend Nick Ottinger. Then the next day, I sat in the stands to watch my team owner William Byron put on a clutch performance to win his way into the Championship 4. I was fortunate enough to get a picture with him and the grandfather clock in victory lane. My longtime teammate and crew chief in the Coca-Cola Series, James Wenzel, flew down to Charlotte and we went to the World of Outlaws World Finals. I’m a fan of all racing disciplines and have gotten into dirt late model racing more in particular over the last year so it was a fun time.”

“In the new year, I spent some time back home in Virginia, shoveling snow at my family’s business and working there a little bit,” Tucker continued. “I came back down to North Carolina and helped put together a sim rig that the William Byron Foundation donated to a local children’s hospital. Thanks to Logitech, iRacing, Adrian, Jody, and of course William Byron for allowing me to be a part of that, it was super rewarding to the joy that rig and NASCAR 25 brought to the kids, nurses, and families there. Outside of that I have been doing one-on-one coaching sessions and data packs for VRS.”

“I’ve been either attempting to make a run at a professional series, or competing in one since 2020, so it’s strange to not be competing right now,” said Tucker about the current break. “I like to show up and run Special Events that look like fun. I ran the iRacing Daytona 24 with my Altus teammates, and you can ask Bobby how that went.” Editor’s Note: Bobby was asked about this, and declined to comment

“I had a good run in the FTF 500, and I’m always on the lookout for some more competitive races to run to stay sharp,” Tucker finished.

All three are also working on getting their teammates and friends through into the Championship Series portion of the schedule. It surely comes with the territory of being one of the best, and working with some of the best backend teams in the series. While all three have their own aspirations of success, they all understand that winning a title takes a group effort at the end of the day.

“I’ve been very involved with Altus eSports’ efforts in the Qualifying Series,” Minter said. “I put in quite a few laps at Rockingham working on the setup, and have been in almost all of our group testing as well. Right now, in the races I’m on the pit box for Michael Cosey Jr. to help him requalify into the Championship Series.” Talk about double duty, as Minter joined the broadcast as well on Tuesday night this week.

“I have been doing very little testing with my team at Elite Performance Industries and NFR,” White remarked. “I’ve joined them on a few pack tests, but I am enjoying my time off for the most part. Our guys have been working together extremely well, and we have a very strong group. Jarrett Liebert has been working very hard on the setups and the results have been showing.” With names such as Daniel Faulkingham and Garrett Manes already securing Top Split wins for NFR in this Qualifying Series season so far, he’s definitely not wrong there.

“For sure, the season is fully underway and I’m supporting my team,” Zalenski stated. “Cosey was my teammate at ERA last year, and I’m hoping he can make it back in. We are a tight group at Altus, and it’s a great environment to be in.” That’s truly the biggest misconception so far, is that many are unaware that the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season is fully underway, but just with the Qualifying Series portion right now. While Bobby, Tucker, and Parker can all enjoy the time off the track, they still have to stay on their toes and keep in the loop of who they might be facing off against, especially later in the Qualifying Series season when they’ll get a sneak peek at how these Qualifiers stack up in the NASCAR Gen 7 car.

Bobby Zalenski races during the 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship 4 fight at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina in October of 2024.

LOOKING FORWARD PAST QUALIFYING

These drivers’ first test in 2026 will come not on the track, but in the Free Agency period of the season. While all three likely have their seat reserved at their current teams, anything can happen and will happen during those signing days. One of the drivers that was later to sign in last year’s Free Agency was Zalenski, but he proved to every team that passed him over that he’s still got the drive and capacity to win at this level.

“My track record shows you’ll have a chance to win a title, especially a shot at the Team’s title,” Zalenski, the Team Champion of 2020, asserted. “I’ve always been in the fight, and I always expect to be. I’m also interested in teams that want to do something fun with social media, because that’s one area I haven’t been used in very much.”

White is still racing this offseason with his current team at many other top levels of competition. That doesn’t mean he can’t switch things up for 2026! “If I had to sign with a different team, I would want them to know me as a champion,” White, the 2024 series champion, declared. “I’ve been working hard every day on iRacing to improve since 2020, and at this point in 2026, I’ve won just about everything I ever wanted to win on iRacing. I won the iRacing Daytona 24 this year in Top Split with Williams Gaming, and winning a top split VCO Grand Slam was the last thing I wanted to achieve on iRacing. However, I am still just as determined as ever to get some more trophies and results for my team.”

Minter will absolutely be in a position to be paired with a new teammate following Nick Ottinger’s retirement at the end of 2025, and he hopes he can keep going forward with William Byron’s outlet. “Hopefully, I’ll be back with William Byron eSports,” Minter, a near rookie champion, mentioned. “I really enjoy racing with them and representing their partners like Logitech G and iRacing. I would like to think that my on-track record has been excellent for all three years I’ve been in the series, and I plan to keep that up. I’m proud to have won in the series seven times in a relatively short time, and feel like there have been plenty of other races that haven’t gone my way for one reason or another.” Minter later pointed out that he’s finished second just as many times as he’s won.

“I like to think that stat shows that I tend to finish up front. Off the track, I’m willing to travel and be available to do initiatives for the team, sponsors, or the series. I raced from the Navy Pier in Chicago, and I’ve been on stage at numerous NASCAR races in the fan zone. I really enjoy the opportunities to show off what we do and what makes sim racing fun.”

Looking at the tracks ahead in the Championship Series part of the schedule, White is looking forward to Charlotte, Mexico City, and Homestead-Miami. Minter is also looking forward to Charlotte, as well as Richmond (Minter’s home track), and noted that while Michigan has held poor memories, he doesn’t dread any of the tracks upcoming. Zalenski continues to have Dover circled, a track he’s longed for a victory at, as well as Indianapolis. Zalenski also stated that he and his teammates plan to “kick ass” at all the tracks on the schedule.

One thing that both Tucker and Bobby remarked on, about the upcoming season, was that the shorter races and schedule will lead to more desperation than usual. This Championship Series season is now only 13 races, five less than the 2025 season was. “I don’t mind the shorter timespan for the Championship Series, I just hate that we lost five races,” Minter lamented. “I thought 18 races was a great schedule length for us, it just seemed long because of the gaps between some of the races. Now there is an even larger penalty for bad races in the regular season.”

Points racing will be important, but all three agree that the win is always the best key to qualify into the next part of the season. “I think there will be more of a focus on points racing for sure,” White said. “I’ve always been good at that. As always, I am still going to do my best to pick up a win in the regular season to help me out with the playoffs.”

“Everyone wants to win regardless of the points format, and we still have the win-and-your-in so there will still probably be some desperation moves,” Minter added. “It will just be tougher to point your way in if you have bad luck, especially with two drafting races in the regular season.”

“If there are still short races, with win-and-in in-play, we’ll have the same type of desperation and aggressiveness… Basic psychology,” Zalenski concluded.

All-in-all, these three drivers are coming into the new season with renewed motivation, and their mindsets are all locked-in on becoming the best of the best in October. White will be searching for his second title, looking to tie it up with his backend teammate, Steven Wilson. As for Minter and Zalenski, 2026 could finally be the year that either of them finally break through and raise that Dale Earnhardt Jr Cup at season’s end.

Next week, in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Feature series, we’ll chat with the other half of the drivers who made the 2025 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoffs, three drivers who have never made it to the Championship 4, but will look to take what they learned from the 2025 Playoffs to make a run for the title in 2026. 

READ MORE:

FEATURE #1: Where are the Top Drivers from the 2025 season?
FEATURE #2: Revisiting the 2025 Championship 4

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit eNASCAR.com or iRacing.com/eNASCAR.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit iRacing.com.­­

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