Last year, Bobby Zalenski’s path to the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoffs came through points, as the series had fewer than 10 playoff-eligible race winners and he was the top-scoring winless driver at the cutoff. He won’t have to worry about repeating that this year, though, after taking Tuesday night’s checkered flag as the series returned to Richmond Raceway. It marked the seventh consecutive year that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has won an eNASCAR race, and his first trip to the winner’s circle since his playoff victory at Talladega last September.

Zalenski qualified on pole, lining up alongside former series champion Keegan Leahy of 23XI, who made real-world NASCAR news this week after team owner Denny Hamlin credited his work with Tyler Reddick as a key part of Reddick’s real-world win at Circuit of the Americas last weekend. He would lead the first quarter of the 130-lap race before William Byron eSports’ Nick Ottinger would get past on Lap 40, as much of the first half of the race would stay green.

Unfortunately, if there’s one thing that Richmond has established as one of the only tracks to be on every schedule in eNASCAR history, it’s that its cautions tend to breed cautions. The first caution saw fgrACCEL’s Joey Brown and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Steven Wilson get together on Lap 33, but the field got in 20 more green-flag laps after that yellow flag ended. The second, which included fgrACCEL’s Garrett Manes, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Dylan Duval, and Letarte Esports’ Brandon McKissic, set off a string of consecutive yellows that eventually led to race control switching to single-file restarts.

In that time, eRacr’s Collin Bowden also spent some time in the lead thanks to an alternate pit strategy, but Zalenski would take it back for good on Lap 73 just moments before the fourth caution flew. Fortunately for Zalenski, the final 30 laps of the race saw just one yellow flag on Lap 114 when Tony Kanaan Esports’ Tyler Garey got into Jim Beaver eSports’ Malik Ray. With a 10-lap green-flag run to the finish, the Fresno native was able to put nearly a second on the field on the way to the win, tallying 95 laps led in total. JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti and Rise Esports’ Jimmy Mullis would come home second and third, while Ottinger and Leahy rounded out the top five.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Richmond Raceway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Team

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts

1 1 18 Bobby Zalenski Joe Gibbs Racing 130 0.000 95 22.017 40
2 9 8 Michael Conti JR Motorsports 130 -0.896 0 21.995 35
3 10 46 Jimmy Mullis Rise eSports 130 -1.271 0 22.021 34
4 3 25 Nick Ottinger William Byron eSports 130 -1.430 23 22.089 33
5 2 23 Keegan Leahy 23XI 130 -1.600 0 22.047 32
6 12 15 Garrett Lowe Jim Beaver eSports 130 -2.222 0 22.129 31
7 28 51 Donovan Strauss Williams eSports 130 -2.645 0 22.156 30
8 14 77 Ryan Doucette Pittsburgh Knights 130 -2.756 0 22.135 29
9 18 38 Michael Cosey Jr Front Row Motorsports 130 -2.766 0 22.173 28
10 25 97 Matt Bussa William Byron eSports 130 -3.571 0 22.224 27
11 33 33 Tucker Minter Team Dillon eSports 130 -3.714 0 22.195 26
12 34 2 Corey Vincent Pittsburgh Knights 130 -3.776 0 22.154 25
13 38 75 Zack Novak Rise eSports 130 -4.204 0 22.224 24
14 7 40 Dylan Ault LETARTE eSports 130 -4.246 0 22.158 23
15 4 3 Jordy Lopez Jr Team Dillon eSports 130 -4.513 0 21.954 22
16 5 48 Graham A. Bowlin Charlotte Phoenix 130 -4.544 0 22.154 21
17 17 95 Casey Kirwan XSET 130 -4.832 0 22.171 20
18 8 42 Kollin Keister eRacr 130 -5.243 0 22.233 19
19 29 88 Kevin King JR Motorsports 130 -5.302 0 22.216 18
20 13 10 Steven Wilson Stewart-Haas Racing 130 -5.462 0 22.126 17
21 31 11 Parker White Tony Kanaan Esports 130 -5.625 0 22.289 16
22 23 6 Timmy Holmes RFK Racing 130 -5.740 0 22.203 15
23 27 20 Wyatt Tinsley Kansas City Pioneers 130 -5.827 0 22.119 14
24 19 12 Garrett Manes fgrAccel 130 -5.932 0 22.118 13
25 39 1 Darik Bourdeau Elliott Sadler eSports 130 -5.988 0 22.089 12
26 24 45 Michael Guest 23XI 130 -6.352 0 22.140 11
27 6 41 Dylan Duval Stewart-Haas Racing 130 -6.808 0 22.186 10
28 15 7 Malik Ray Jim Beaver eSports 130 -6.989 0 21.997 9
29 22 34 Allen Boes Front Row Motorsports 130 -7.222 0 22.063 8
30 37 55 Vicente Salas Williams eSports 130 -7.531 0 22.287 7
31 20 27 Cody Byus Elliott Sadler eSports 130 -7.771 0 22.067 6
32 21 36 Brandon McKissic LETARTE eSports 130 -7.974 0 22.179 5
33 35 66 Tyler Garey Tony Kanaan Esports 130 -8.335 0 22.214 4
34 11 14 Joey Brown fgrAccel 130 -8.645 0 22.113 3
35 36 31 Derek Justis Kansas City Pioneers 130 -9.022 0 22.226 2
36 40 69 Collin Bowden eRacr 130 -9.217 12 22.097 1
37 16 43 Femi Olatunbosun Charlotte Phoenix 130 -12.732 0 22.235 1
38 32 54 Daniel Faulkingham Joe Gibbs Racing 130 -12.989 0 22.303 1
39 26 17 Kaden Honeycutt RFK Racing 126 -4L 0 22.196 1
40 30 4 Ryan Luza XSET 73 -57L 0 22.435 1

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through four rounds are as follows:

  1. Nick Ottinger, 122
  2. Michael Conti, 119
  3. Graham Bowlin, 114
  4. Michael Cosey Jr., 109
  5. Tucker Minter, 105
  6. Bobby Zalenski, 104
  7. Keegan Leahy, 93
  8. Dylan Duval, 88
  9. Jordy Lopez Jr., 87
  10. Kollin Keister, 86

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series makes history in its next event, leaving the United States for the first time with a road course round at Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Race coverage begins on Tuesday, April 11 at 9 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live, with Countdown to Green kicking off at 8:30 to set the stage for the action.

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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