Jimmy Mullis won—no, survived—Tuesday night’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series race from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning his fourth career victory and second of the season by holding off Phil Diaz in the final stages of the race. The win allowed the Richmond Raceway Esports driver to climb to ninth in series points, with just one race remaining in the regular season to get into the eight-driver playoff bubble.

“It’s been a rollercoaster season for us,” said Mullis. “You look at three or four races earlier in the season, if I don’t get wrecked, we’re well inside the top eight, I believe. But everything happens for a reason, and to come in here tonight and get my first on a mile and a half, we head to Talladega with a really good shot of making (the playoffs). We’re going to go try to win that race too, and see where we come out.”

In a season where most races have either gone flag-to-flag with no more than a single caution or been high-attrition from green to checkered, Tuesday’s race found a way to be both. The first half of the race was so clean that a handful of drivers, led by Michael Guariglia and Jarl Teien, stretched all the way into the 60-lap range with their first green-flag runs in hopes of playing alternate pit strategies for the win.

Shortly after the final green flag pit stops of the run, Graham Bowlin spun to create the first caution, and the complexion of the race began to shift completely. From playoff contenders like Bobby Zalenski and Ryan Luza to drivers like Christian Challiner and Michael Guest who were fighting just to get back into the top 20, there was a lot more bad luck to go around than good in the middle stages of the race.No caution was more spectacular than a massive Lap 96 incident that might have felt more in place in next week’s regular season finale at Talladega.

With all the cautions, the final playoff spot got passed around like a hot potato. Four-time series champion Ray Alfalla came into the night with a comfortable 20-point lead on ninth, but getting involved in one of the earlier cautions bounced him to the outside looking in, with Brad Davies inheriting the spot. Then, Davies got caught up in the biggest wreck of the night, plummeting to 13th. Alfalla eventually recovered to regain the spot by race’s end, but with Mullis now just 16 points back. Joining Zalenski and Keegan Leahy in punching their playoff ticket were polesitter Michael Conti, third place finisher Nick Ottinger, and Garrett Lowe.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Las Vegas Motor Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best

Pts

1 23 46 Jimmy Mullis Toyota 134 24 29.586 44
2 34 75 Phillip Diaz Ford 134 0 -0.255 29.507 39
3 21 25 Nick Ottinger Chevrolet 134 1 -0.457 29.489 39
4 25 3 Blake Reynolds Chevrolet 134 3 -1.528 29.509 38
5 1 8 Michael Conti Chevrolet 134 14 -1.802 29.482 37
6 13 14 Brandon Hayse Kettelle Ford 134 27 -1.907 29.346 36
7 14 15 Michael Guariglia Ford 134 15 -3.287 29.585 35
8 11 55 Caine Cook Ford 134 5 -3.664 29.561 34
9 17 2 Ray Alfalla Chevrolet 134 0 -3.861 29.534 32
10 29 97 John Gorlinsky Chevrolet 134 0 -5.233 29.569 31
11 18 77 Bob Bryant Toyota 134 0 -6.228 29.654 30
12 24 36 Chris Shearburn Chevrolet 134 1 -6.336 29.626 30
13 3 24 Jake Nichols Ford 134 0 -7.215 29.641 28
14 33 16 Chris Overland Ford 134 0 -7.382 29.542 27
15 7 99 Logan Clampitt Toyota 134 3 -7.571 29.525 27
16 6 18 Graham A. Bowlin Toyota 134 0 -8.353 29.532 25
17 19 32 Keegan Leahy Toyota 134 0 -8.500 29.513 24
18 5 17 Kollin Keister Ford 134 0 -9.634 29.502 23
19 2 21 Garrett Lowe Ford 134 0 -16.190 29.371 22
20 32 79 Brian Schoenburg Ford 134 0 -16.329 29.617 21
21 20 88 Brad Davies Chevrolet 134 0 -22.816 29.537 20
22 27 41 Dylan Duval Ford 134 0 -23.102 29.485 19
23 15 23 Casey Kirwan Toyota 133 0 -1 L 29.678 18
24 22 27 Corey Vincent Ford 133 0 -1 L 29.531 17
25 36 9 Eric J. Smith Ford 132 0 -2 L 29.585 16
26 16 83 Bobby Zalenski Chevrolet 110 0 -24 L 29.620 15
27 8 6 Nathan Lyon Ford 109 1 -25 L 29.525 15
28 9 10 Justin Bolton Ford 109 0 -25 L 29.591 13
29 12 5 Matt Bussa Ford 109 0 -25 L 29.555 12
30 35 66 Jarl Teien Chevrolet 109 0 -25 L 29.746 11
31 37 90 Zack Novak Toyota 108 1 -26 L 29.608 11
32 38 47 Steve Sheehan Chevrolet 106 0 -28 L 29.638 9
33 31 4 Santiago Tirres Chevrolet 105 0 -29 L 29.483 8
34 4 53 Ryan Michael Luza Ford 104 39 -30 L 29.477 9
35 28 51 Malik Ray Toyota 96 0 -38 L 29.470 6
36 30 54 Alex McCollum Chevrolet 89 0 -45 L 29.577 5
37 10 33 Michael Guest Chevrolet 89 0 -45 L 29.480 4
38 26 37 Christian Challiner Chevrolet 79 0 -55 L 29.727 3

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points after 15 races are as follows:

  1. Keegan Leahy, 468
  2. Bobby Zalenski, 461
  3. Michael Conti, 442
  4. Nick Ottinger, 438
  5. Garrett Lowe, 436
  6. Ryan Luza, 413
  7. Logan Clampitt, 408
  8. Ray Alfalla, 399
  9. Jimmy Mullis, 384
  10. Graham Bowlin, 368

Unlike most eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series events, there won’t be an off week between the Las Vegas round and the next race, as the regular season finale from Talladega Superspeedway settles the playoff grid next Tuesday. As always, the race can be seen at 9PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live and the iRacing Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube pages. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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