Casey Kirwan Survives Overtime, Returns to eNASCAR Victory Lane at Michigan

July 29th, 2020 by

It took more than the scheduled 100 laps to settle the score, but Denny Hamlin Racing’s Casey Kirwan found his way to the winner’s circle for the first time since last season in Tuesday night’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action from Michigan International Speedway. Taking advantage of an additional restart thanks to a caution that flew just before Alex McCollum took the white flag, Kirwan made DHR the first team to win with both of its drivers in the 2020 season.

Although an immediate incident ended the winning hopes of outside polesitter Malik Ray, Nick Ottinger, and Jeremy Allen just two laps into the race, and multiple crashes in the closing laps shuffled the running order dramatically, most of the race at Michigan was fairly clean. Drivers were challenged with mid-race green flag pit stops, and proper execution made all the difference, as the teams that stopped earlier in the mid-race pit window benefitted from having fresher tires more quickly.

The early caution made a one-stop strategy feasible, but when the race went to overtime after contact between Graham Bowlin and Phil Diaz, most of the field elected to take four tires for the two-lap shootout. Rookie Kollin Keister, who had run up front for much of the race, picked track position over fresh rubber, but couldn’t hold onto the point as McCollum and then Kirwan got past. Unfortunately for McCollum, a massive multi-car wreck triggered another caution just before he could cross the line to take the white flag, meaning he’d need to work a little harder for his first career win.

That extra restart was all that Kirwan needed. He got past McCollum for the top spot coming to the backstretch, leaving the G2 Esports driver to fight four-time series champion Ray Alfalla for the second position. Polesitter Chris Shearburn and Christian Challiner would complete the top five. Although the pack racing that dominated the night led to numerous drivers up front, Kirwan’s 23 laps led—matching his car number—was the highest count on the night.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Michigan International Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best

Pts
1 4 23 Casey Kirwan Toyota 108 23 38.330 45
2 14 54 Alex McCollum Chevrolet 108 4 -0.094 38.632 40
3 36 2 Ray Alfalla Chevrolet 108 8 -0.119 38.723 39
4 1 36 Chris Shearburn Chevrolet 108 4 -0.196 38.362 38
5 19 37 Christian Challiner Chevrolet 108 0 -0.257 38.238 36
6 18 27 Corey Vincent Ford 108 4 -0.290 38.279 36
7 24 55 Caine Cook Ford 108 13 -0.368 38.234 35
8 9 83 Bobby Zalenski Chevrolet 108 9 -0.592 38.138 34
9 21 99 Logan Clampitt Toyota 108 4 -0.649 38.112 33
10 5 33 Michael Guest Chevrolet 108 6 -0.675 38.438 32
11 37 5 Matt Bussa Ford 108 2 -0.749 38.097 31
12 17 88 Brad Davies Chevrolet 108 0 -0.754 38.294 29
13 13 3 Blake Reynolds Chevrolet 108 0 -0.892 38.368 28
14 33 14 Brandon Kettelle Ford 108 0 -0.945 38.261 27
15 22 8 Michael Conti Chevrolet 108 0 -1.007 37.858 26
16 3 32 Keegan Leahy Toyota 108 0 -1.500 38.096 25
17 38 16 Chris Overland Ford 108 0 -1.591 38.624 24
18 16 77 Bob Bryant Toyota 108 0 -1.676 38.359 23
19 26 15 Michael Guariglia Ford 108 0 -1.753 38.232 22
20 11 79 Brian Schoenburg Ford 108 0 -1.857 38.438 21
21 32 46 Jimmy Mullis Toyota 108 0 -1.885 38.254 20
22 39 1 Steve Sheehan Chevrolet 108 0 -2.180 38.574 19
23 34 9 Eric J. Smith Ford 108 0 -2.186 38.046 18
24 29 90 Zack Novak Toyota 108 0 -2.241 38.361 17
25 31 41 Dylan Duval Ford 108 0 -2.598 38.415 16
26 23 4 Santiago Tirres Chevrolet 108 0 -3.480 38.461 15
27 27 53 Ryan Luza Ford 108 1 -5.875 38.346 15
28 6 6 Nathan Lyon Ford 108 0 -6.051 38.409 13
29 8 18 Graham A. Bowlin Toyota 108 10 -11.052 38.516 13
30 7 17 Kollin Keister Ford 108 8 -11.495 38.525 12
31 35 24 Jake Nichols Ford 108 0 -15.308 38.433 10
32 30 10 Justin Bolton Ford 108 0 -33.875 38.775 9
33 15 66 Jarl Teien Chevrolet 106 11 -2 L 38.607 9
34 28 97 John Gorlinsky Chevrolet 106 0 -2 L 38.642 7
35 20 21 Garrett Lowe Ford 104 0 -4 L 38.517 6
36 25 75 Phillip Diaz Ford 103 1 -5 L 38.458 6
37 12 25 Nick Ottinger Chevrolet 5 0 -103 L 42.845 4
38 2 51 Malik Ray Toyota 3 0 -105 L 3
39 10 47 Jeremy R Allen Chevrolet 3 0 -105 L 1:08.480 2

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points after 11 rounds are as follows:

  1. Keegan Leahy, 352
  2. Ryan Luza, 338
  3. Bobby Zalenski, 337
  4. Michael Conti, 326
  5. Garrett Lowe, 325
  6. Ray Alfalla, 319
  7. Nick Ottinger, 287
  8. Chris Shearburn, 277
  9. Graham Bowlin, 277
  10. Logan Clampitt, 273

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series returns in two weeks’ time, moving its 12th round of the season to the Daytona International Speedway road course in reflection of the changes to the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. It’ll be the first of back-to-back races at Daytona, as the oval remains in its previously committed slot on the calendar later in the month as well. As always, eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action can be seen line at 9PM ET/6PM PT on eNASCAR.com/live and iRacing.com/live. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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