The 2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship 4: By The Numbers
October 8th, 2026 by Justin Melillo
In just five days, the four best from the 2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series season will climb onto the stage at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte, race 100 laps around virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, and determine the champion of the season who will walk away with $100,000 and the Dale Earnhardt Jr Cup.
Wyatt Tinsley (Kansas City Pioneers), Steven Wilson (Spire Motorsports), Connor Yeroschak (Letarte eSports), and Bobby Zalenski (ERA eSports Team) are the four finalists, all here on different merit, all with their own story to tell, all with their own path still left to carve towards winning the 2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship.
Wilson’s been here, done that, and looking to do it for a third time as the only driver that’s won a title in this group, the defending winner at that. Yeroschak is an eNASCAR champion, but in the College Series, looking to make that next step and win at the top level. Tinsley is on his redemption arc, a season removed from not signing onto a team in 2025, now proving why everyone was wrong. Zalenski’s here for the seventh time in his career, more than anyone else… is this the year he finally breaks through for that elusive title?
WILSON BY THE NUMBERS
If you thought Wilson was good as a rookie in 2021, you hadn’t seen anything yet. The undisputed top playoff seed in 2022 after finally scoring his first eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win—then another, and another—Wilson earned a trip to Charlotte and the NASCAR Hall of Fame to compete as a Championship 4 driver after a four-win season. In 2023, he did it again, winning a fifth career race at Atlanta, This propelled him back to the Playoffs, then back to the Championship 4, and this time, he was crowned as the 2023 Champion.
Wilson looked to defend the crown in 2024, coming up one spot short by season’s end after qualifying for the Championship 4 for a third-straight year. In 2025, Wilson ran a historic redemption tour, becoming the driver with the most wins in a single season with eight wins over the year, including the finale to win his second title. Now, for the fifth-straight season, Wilson’s made reservations in Uptown Charlotte on an October weekend to try and add another $100,000 to his bank account.
Through the 2026 season, Wilson has three wins to his credit, including one at EchoPark, one at Dover, and most importantly to get him to this point, one at Michigan in the eNASCAR Postseason. In 12 races, nine of those races wound up in a top-10 effort, eight of those being inside the top-five. Wilson’s led the second-most laps this season at 125 laps led. The only thing he doesn’t have is a pole position, which could be the most crucial element to winning the title next week, that being starting up front. He’s won three races without a pole, however.
At Michigan, his 100th career start, he added his 20th career win to his ledger. He may need to get his 21st on Tuesday night to confirm his third championship, but he’s got three drivers without one that he’ll need to hold off.
ZALENSKI BY THE NUMBERS
The 31-year-old from Fresno, California, Zalenski has loved racing since birth. As a kid, his dream was racing in real NASCAR, but sadly he never had the chance to seriously race due to growing up lower middle class. Zalenski has channeled that passion towards sim racing, and it’s been quite fruitful. He lives with severe scoliosis that he has had surgeries for, so he says that he’s got a bit of a unique look.
One of the greats of the series, up high on the most wins leaderboard, often considered the “Road Course King” of the series, Zalenski has made it to the Championship 4 more than any other driver, but is still seeking that first career title. His career at the top-level started in 2017. 174 races later, with 21 wins to his name, he’s finished second, third, fourth, sixth, and seventh in the final standings, never any worse, but never first.
This year’s been a year of firsts for Zalenski, which is impressive this deep into a career. For the first time, he opened up the season as the first winner, claiming the victory in the Coca-Cola 160 at Charlotte back in May. Zalenski was the first winner ever at Naval Base Coronado, a few days before they took on the track in the real world for the first time. Zalenski has the most laps led this season at 203, which is something he hasn’t done before either. He also won a race that he didn’t dominate, which I don’t think is a first, per se, but it is an unusual stat for him, as he kind of lucked into the right strategy at Nashville.
It’s been so hit or miss for Zalenski this year that for a time, it was a concern if he would even make the playoffs despite having three wins. When the hits are hitting, they’ve been nearly unbeatable, however. If we look into the numerology of it all, Zalenski is driving the double deuce in the same season as a potential “Even Year Joey” championship looming in the NASCAR Cup Series. It’s also Zalenski’s seventh trip to the Championship 4 Finale. Seven’s are lucky in many cases… will it be this time for the man that’s been so close so many times?
YEROSCHAK BY THE NUMBERS
While Steven Wilson might be the “Hawkeye”, Yeroschak is the ferocious “Dino” looking to claw his path in a similar fashion as the current two-time champion. Yeroschak is currently studying for a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Calgary while pursuing his passion for sim racing in the highest level of eNASCAR. The last time a Canadian driver entered the Championship 4 Finale, that driver—Keegan Leahy—wound up taking the title.
Over the last few years, Yeroschak has achieved several accomplishments that have helped shape his path as a driver, including becoming the 2025-26 eNASCAR College Series Champion, the 2025 eNASCAR Coca-Cola Rookie of the Year, and the 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series “Qualifying Round 2” Champion. Quite a stat list for someone just getting his career off the ground.
Making his 31st start in his career on Tuesday, Yeroschak could bring a title back home to Canada, as well as $100,000. It took him 30 races to get his first win, just two-and-a-half weeks ago at Kansas. Now that the weight of winning a race is off his back, he could follow in the footsteps that Parker White set two years ago, winning his first race in the penultimate fight, coming into the title with a defending Steven Wilson champion, and taking it for himself.
With four top-fives and nine top-10’s, Yeroschak’s season has been extremely impressive, matching Wilson on top-10’s in particular. He did lead 40 laps in his win at Kansas, but he’s led a total of 55 through the whole season, which is 48 more than he led all of last. The college kid knows how to win an eNASCAR title. The only question left is if he can do it now on the biggest stage.
TINSLEY BY THE NUMBERS
Tinsley only started on iRacing back in 2021, where his parents got him his first computer and wheel to start his iRacing journey. It wasn’t long before he picked up speed, and in 2022, he was going through the qualifying procedures to compete in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for the first time in 2023. Signed by the Kansas City Pioneers, his rookie year had two top-fives and four top-10s, but he was relegated back to the Qualifying Series by means of a tie.
After re-climbing the ladder again, Tinsley returned for 2024, re-signing with the Pioneers, rewarding their faith in him with a win at Daytona to open the season. Again though, he was relegated out, and even though he once again climbed the ladder back to the Free Agency pool, the Pioneers had two other drivers already for the 2025 season.
That didn’t deter the young competitor, who, for a fourth time, climbed all the way back up the ladder and found himself in Free Agency once again. Back with the Pioneers again, Tinsley made the most of his return and now has a shot at $100,000. That’s kind of been his story all season. Even with his back against the wall, which have included days where he couldn’t qualify, or days where he wound up in the back for whatever reason. Tinsley hasn’t had a terrible finish all season, his worst effort being 22nd at Richmond where he started from pit road in the Sprint.
The five top-10’s are still impressive, but the 11 top-18’s are even more so, with that same effort put into his postseason run. Homestead-Miami will be his 50th start… will it be one that earns him $100,000 and complete redemption?
HEAD-TO-HEAD-TO-HEAD-TO-HEAD AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI
For two drivers—Yeroschak and Tinsley—there isn’t much data to go by, but what we have is pretty good in their favor. Tinsley has two races under his belt, in 2023 and 2024, those finishes being 12th and 4th, respectively, averaging to an 8.0 average finish. Yeroschak just has last year’s finish of 11th to go by, but he’s not the worst on average finish on paper.
Maybe it’s not fair to Zalenski that he has 10 data points to work with, 10 prior races at Homestead-Miami Speedway, including the 2020 season which had two visits to virtual South Beach. Zalenski’s average finish is 11.9, with one outlier 33rd place finish in 2021, and a finish of 14th in 2024 where he was second coming off of Turn 4 and spun trying to beat Parker White for the title. If those two finishes were discarded, it’d be a 9.0 finish, his best coming back in 2019, a fourth place run.
That leaves the Homestead-Miami master of the last four seasons. Wilson’s first visit in 2021 was an 18th, but ever since, he’s either finished second or first. In 2022, Homestead-Miami wasn’t the championship race, but it was the race to get him to the Championship 4 battle against Zalenski, Graham Bowlin, and the eventual champion, Casey Kirwan. He didn’t need to win to get the title in 2023, but not winning cost him in 2024. Wilson went back to his winning ways in 2025, and comes into Tuesday night with a 4.8 average finish over five races.
NEXT RACE: CHAMPIONSHIP NIGHT AT THE HALL OF FAME
In just five days, the 2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series season concludes with a title fight at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, live from Uptown Charlotte at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Tune in to the action starting at 7:30 p.m. ET for the extended Countdown to Green pre-race show. Join us at the Hall or watch live at eNASCAR.com/live or the iRacing social channels.
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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