2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series | Where are the top drivers from the 2025 season? | Feature #1

If you tuned into Tuesday night’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway and wondered why these drivers were driving trucks, and also where the drivers that competed at the top level last year were, hopefully this can explain the big changes that are now officially here in 2026.

The 2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series is radically different this season. In total, there are 24 races, the most races ever in a whole season. The season lasts until October, which isn’t different, but it is the same length with more races over that timeframe. However, the series is now split into parts, and we’re just in the first part of the year—the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series part.

It won’t be a 24-race championship, instead there will be 11 races under the Qualifying Series banner and the 13 other races under the Championship Series banner. The Championship Series is where the top drivers will fight for their right to hoist the Dale Earnhardt Jr Cup in the foyer of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in October. To qualify for the Championship Series, there are a number of conditions. One of those conditions is being one of the top-20 finishers in the 2025 season.

The NASCAR Craftsman Trucks are the first of three different vehicles on display in the Qualifying Series season, taking center stage in the first four races. The next four races will be in the newly named NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series cars, and the final three races will be in the car that will be used for the entirety of the Championship Series—the NASCAR Cup Series Gen 7.

To fully flesh it out – there are already 22 drivers that you won’t see competing on Tuesday nights in the Qualifying Series because they are already heading to eNASCAR Free Agency in May. They’ll be joined by the top-30 finishers from the Qualifying Series in Free Agency, where the 52 total drivers will look to be signed by one of the 20 official teams, as only 40 spots are available in the Championship Series.

THE DRIVERS ALREADY IN FREE AGENCY

The drivers who finished inside the top-20 in 2025 are Steven Wilson, Casey Kirwan, Vicente Salas, Zack Novak, Parker White, Tucker Minter, Bobby Zalenski, Jordy Lopez, Dylan Duval, Kollin Keister, Donovan Strauss, Connor Yeroschak, Femi Olatunbosun, Ryan Luza, Dylan Ault, Michael Guest, Christopher Hill, Seth DeMerchant, Blaze Crawford, and Malik Ray.

Wilson, Kirwan, Salas, and Novak competed in the 2025 Championship 4 Season Finale, with Wilson coming out on top for his second-career title. White, Minter, Zalenski, Lopez, Duval, and Keister were all a part of the 2025 Playoffs, having won a race or scored more points than the rest to claim a place in the 10-driver battle. The remaining 10 all managed to keep their seats by staying inside the top-20 at season’s end.

Two more drivers from the eNASCAR College iRacing Series—Matthew Zwack and Mario Merenda—have also earned a place in Free Agency from the results of the 2024-25 College season. When the 2024-25 eNASCAR College iRacing Series championship race was held last May, the stipulation was that the two tickets to Free Agency would go to the first two drivers in the final standings not already in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series at that time, which is why you’ll still see Daniel Faulkingham, who finished in between Zwack and Merenda in the final standings, still competing for a Free Agency spot in the Qualifying Series this season.

Considering Faulkingham scored the most points ever in any current or former Qualifying Series event with 440 points, his chances are looking really good for a return to the Free Agency pool. Many other familiar names also got a good jump on the new format, including Michael Cosey Jr, Quentin Warman, Nate Stewart, Matt Bussa, and Eddie Kerner, all drivers who were relegated from the Championship Series attempting to make it back as well.

WHAT TO EXPECT UNTIL FREE AGENCY

Over the next couple of months, you’ll still see those drivers around as we look to determine the 30 that will join them in Free Agency. In fact, Tuesday night’s broadcast had one of those drivers—Malik Ray—as one of the guest commentators during the broadcast. Expect to hear from these drivers in the remaining 10 races of the Qualifying Series season.

You’ll also see some of them competing in other places, such as the College Series. Zwack, Yeroschak, Ault, and Merenda have all been full-time this season. White has returned to the College competition and is heading to next week’s Great Lakes Gauntlet Semifinals with all of those mentioned drivers besides Merenda, who got caught up in a few incidents not of his doing. Yeroschak leads the College standings and is looking for his third Tournament victory of the season at Michigan.

On the web, we’ll be giving these 22 highlighted drivers a spotlight with this new featured article series, with new content dropping at the end of every week. Next week, we’re checking back in with the 2025 Championship 4 drivers, seeing what they’ve been up to since that night in Uptown Charlotte, the site where Wilson hoisted his second Dale Earnhardt Jr Cup on stage at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

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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