Home Field Advantage pays off for Michigan’s Matthew Zwack in eNASCAR College Fall finale at Michigan

One might not think of home field advantages in racing, but for the University of Michigan’s Matthew Zwack, who hails from Monroe, Michigan, it was a perk that he had always hoped to take advantage of in his professional sim racing career. On Tuesday night, in the eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Playfly College Esports, that aspiration was realized as Zwack scored the home track victory by a nose over Iowa’s Steven Wilson at Michigan International Speedway.

Utilizing the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks for the fourth race of the 2024-25 academic season, Zwack kept his presence at the top known all race long, leading the most laps after starting sixth. During a late-race caution, Zwack opted for four fresh virtual tires as opposed to his main opponents who only took two right side tires. On the final restart, Wilson had the advantage, but with pressure from George Mason University’s Zach Sprouse entering the final corner, that was all Zwack needed to get the upper hand and take the win, his second career win in 15 career College Series starts.

“I’ve been going here ever since I basically watched NASCAR,” Zwack said post-race. “It’s funny, and ironic enough, my best track on the game, so this is circled on my calendar no what, whether it’s the Coke Series or here. I wanted to get a win here pretty bad. I was good last year, and I led a lot of that race, so I knew I could get it done. It was really, really sweet to get it.”

Zwack traded the lead multiple times among many of the top players in the series throughout the race, including Wilson, Sprouse, Daniel Faulkingham (University of Maine at Machias), and Logan Clampitt (Cal State Fullerton). Virginia Tech’s Jack Clemons started on the pole, but only led a single lap before his race came undone. Contact with Converse University’s Jake Cummings sent the two into a spin in the front of the field, collecting many hopefuls, including Joe Armstrong (Reynolds CC).

Jacob Bradley (Purdue University at Indianapolis) started in third and led for about eight laps before he was swallowed up by the pack. With the current Truck Series package at Michigan, the race was more of a superspeedway-style event, with drafting as important as ever to make proper passes among the field. By the end of it, there were multiple trucks wide coming to the checkers, with Zwack, Wilson, and Western Connecticut’s Jonathan Evans rounding out the podium at the line.

Parker White (University of Maine at Augusta) came into the event as the points leader, but failed to set a lap in qualifying, which put him in peril early on. In one of the eight cautions, White was collected in the fracas, ending his chances early. As a result, Clampitt now leads the standings entering the winter break by virtue of a tiebreaker with Sprouse, the tiebreaker being the win at Kansas in the last round.

eNASCAR College iRacing Series results from Michigan Int’l Speedway were as follows:

eNASCAR College iRacing Series standings through Round 4 at Michigan Int’l Speedway are as follows:

1. Logan Clampitt, 119
2. Zach Sprouse, 119
3. Jonathan Evans, 116
4. Steven Wilson, 109
5. Parker White, 108
6. Daniel Faulkingham, 105
7. Nick Luetje, 104
8. Jacob Bradley, 98
9. Matthew Zwack, 96
10. John Forbes Jr, 87

A total of 60 different drivers have competed in the A-Main races to date this season, and Clampitt and Sprouse now lead them all. Evans, with his podium finish, shoots up to third only three points back. Wilson, who missed the opening round, moves up to fourth, a single point ahead of White who falls to fifth.

Only the A-Main races score championship points towards the Championship Finale next spring. There will be drop weeks to account for, so drivers that had bad finishes, or didn’t even make the main event, will still have a chance to get into the run for the $10,000 scholarship. This race also coincided with the final race of the eNASCAR Contender iRacing Series, which raced at Texas, and was won by Eddie Kerner. The replay of both races can be watched below.

The next race on the College calendar is in the Spring semester at Watkins Glen International. The Time Attack opens on January 7th and will run through January 16th. Once again, the top-40 eligible times will be invited to run the A-Main, scheduled on January 21st. That broadcast will be live on eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels. 

The eNASCAR College iRacing Series is presented by Playfly College Esports and Logitech G. For more information on the series, visit eNASCAR.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

About the Series: The eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Playfly College Esports and Logitech G gives college students from the United States and Canada the opportunity to compete for their share of $60,000 in scholarships. Using machines from the NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 40 drivers qualify for each event by posting their fastest lap times in a two-week Time Attack through the iRacing UI. With hundreds of schools represented in each Time Attack, and only a maximum of three representatives per school, drivers are competing not only against the greater iRacing community, but also their own classmates, for a spot on the prestigious grid.

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