Keegan Leahy Returns to eNASCAR Winner’s Circle at Indianapolis

July 1st, 2020 by

Denny Hamlin Racing’s Keegan Leahy outdueled four-time eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Ray Alfalla and Letarte Esports’ Chris Shearburn to score his second win of the 2020 season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday night. In a race slowed by just one early caution flag, Leahy made the decisive pass in the race’s closing laps and found the winner’s circle for the first time since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti paced the field to the green flag, but challenges from Leahy and Alfalla in the first half of the race proved to be too much to overcome. Leahy took the lead before the first caution for Matt Bussa, Jeremy Allen, and Brandon Kettelle sent most of the field into the pits, but lost the top spot with a slow pit stop. Conti would reassume the point until Lap 24, when Alfalla made the pass for the lead.

From there, it was all about executing the right pit strategy. A handful of drivers, including Michael Guariglia and Blake Reynolds, stayed out a few extra laps in the lead in hopes that fresher tires would help them climb back through the field or on a restart, but the race stayed green the rest of the way. That allowed Alfalla to cycle back to the point with 18 laps to go, but Shearburn and Leahy were closing fast.

With 10 laps to go, Alfalla, Shearburn, and Leahy were separated by less than a second. Leahy found his way around Shearburn first before setting his sights on Alfalla for the winning move. Shearburn fought back to second place, but couldn’t quite catch Leahy in the closing laps, and brushed the wall on the frontstretch coming to the checkered flag.

Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best

Pts
1 4 32 Keegan Leahy Toyota 80 18 50.249 44
2 20 36 Chris Shearburn Chevrolet 80 0 -0.247 50.563 39
3 6 2 Ray Alfalla Chevrolet 80 36 -2.617 50.41 40
4 8 21 Garrett Lowe Ford 80 0 -5.164 50.567 37
5 1 8 Michael Conti Chevrolet 80 17 -5.435 50.191 37
6 23 53 Ryan Michael Luza Ford 80 0 -8.992 50.503 35
7 9 18 Graham A. Bowlin Toyota 80 0 -9.346 50.595 34
8 15 23 Casey Kirwan Toyota 80 0 -9.536 50.37 33
9 36 83 Bobby Zalenski Chevrolet 80 0 -10.852 50.218 32
10 13 25 Nick Ottinger Chevrolet 80 0 -11.71 50.407 31
11 17 9 Eric J. Smith Ford 80 0 -11.769 50.415 30
12 2 46 Jimmy Mullis Toyota 80 0 -13.627 50.265 29
13 34 51 Malik Ray Toyota 80 0 -17.311 50.444 28
14 39 33 Michael Guest Chevrolet 80 0 -17.714 50.701 27
15 26 15 Michael Guariglia Ford 80 5 -17.945 50.787 27
16 28 41 Dylan Duval Ford 80 0 -18.252 50.456 25
17 38 4 Santiago Tirres Chevrolet 80 0 -18.506 50.182 24
18 31 10 Justin Bolton Ford 80 0 -18.951 50.564 23
19 12 88 Brad Davies Chevrolet 80 0 -19.458 50.073 22
20 33 55 Caine Cook Ford 80 0 -21.073 50.449 21
21 27 16 Chris Overland Ford 80 0 -22.253 50.199 20
22 3 77 Ashton Crowder Toyota 80 0 -22.316 50.638 19
23 11 79 Brian Schoenburg Ford 80 0 -22.509 50.68 18
24 16 6 Nathan Lyon Ford 80 0 -22.603 51.134 17
25 7 27 Corey Vincent Ford 80 0 -22.817 50.672 16
26 10 99 Logan Clampitt Toyota 80 0 -23.336 50.787 15
27 18 90 Zack Novak Toyota 80 0 -23.398 50.61 14
28 37 17 Kollin Keister Ford 80 0 -25.575 50.573 13
29 5 3 Blake Reynolds Chevrolet 80 4 -25.643 50.684 13
30 35 75 Phillip Diaz Ford 80 0 -26.746 50.645 11
31 25 24 Jake Nichols Ford 80 0 -26.808 50.849 10
32 24 37 Christian Challiner Chevrolet 80 0 -27.585 50.657 9
33 19 42 Bob Bryant Chevrolet 80 0 -31.925 51.075 8
34 29 54 Alex McCollum Chevrolet 80 0 -32.158 50.495 7
35 21 97 John Gorlinsky Chevrolet 80 0 -42.028 50.653 6
36 14 66 Jarl Teien Chevrolet 80 0 -42.555 51.076 5
37 22 47 Jeremy Allen Chevrolet 79 0 -1 L 51.176 4
38 32 14 Brandon Kettelle Ford 79 0 -1 L 51.252 3
39 30 5 Matt Bussa Ford 65 0 -15 L 51.342 2

 

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

  1. Keegan Leahy, 308 (2 wins)
  2. Ryan Luza, 289 (3 wins)
  3. Garrett Lowe, 289
  4. Bobby Zalenski, 272
  5. Michael Conti, 264
  6. Ray Alfalla, 247 (1 win)
  7. Nick Ottinger, 245 (1 win)
  8. Brad Davies, 232
  9. Graham Bowlin, 226
  10. Chris Shearburn, 223

The 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season continues on July 14 with the series’ return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The race can be seen live at eNASCAR.com/live and on the iRacing eSports Network on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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