Sebastian Marin doubles up, claims second top split eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series win in Truck finale at Phoenix

Four weeks up, and now four NASCAR Truck races in the books for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series after 16 splits took place at Phoenix Raceway on Tuesday night. Las Vegas winner Sebastian Marin claimed his second Top Split win of the season, adding a virtual trophy from Phoenix Raceway to his collection. Marin started in third, and led more than half of the 120 laps—66 in total— en route to the victory, vaulting him back to the top of the overall standings after four races.

Also on display during the broadcast on Tuesday night was the second split once again. A week removed from his Top Split debut, Seth Noell found himself back in Second Split this week and made the most of it, claiming his first win in the series over his Nexxus eSports teammate Thomas Llyod.

Phoenix got physical, but tonight belonged to Nexxus eSports in the Top two splits. Top split goes to Sebastian Marin, our first multi-time top split winner of the season, while second split was all Seth Noell.

ONTO O’REILLY IN TWO WEEKS!!!@ENASCARGG | @CocaColaRacing pic.twitter.com/WL8xlaTnYw

— iRacing (@iRacing) March 4, 2026

With Phoenix in the books, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series segment of the Qualifying Series schedule is officially over. The series will take off next week for the implementation and release of the 2026 iRacing Season 2 build, then the action returns on March 17th with NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts cars at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

TOP SPLIT

Things started off so well in both the Top and Second Split races. For more than 40 laps, the two races shared in intense battling throughout the field, with drivers showing care for one another as they maneuvered around the one-mile doglegged oval in Avondale, Arizona.

That came to a crashing halt for Top Split first, with the first caution of the day on Lap 44 involving Tommy Gossett and Octavio Rondoletto. It all went downhill from there. Just one week removed from a caution-free race at Rockingham, and a total of six cautions in the two races prior at Daytona and Las Vegas, the Top Split decided that 10 cautions would be the number this week.

It was a number of poorly executed moves, combined with over-aggression continuing to build as the laps wound down. Different pit strategies also factored into the equation, with some drivers choosing track position, but not having the tire health to maintain it, causing stack ups through the field, oftentimes the field finding themselves five wide before crashing spectacularly.

The constant was that Nexxus eSports brought a fast piece this week. Quami Scott led the early portion of the race from the pole as Sebastian Marin closed in towards the end of the opening run. After the caution, Marin leapfrogged to the lead, shuttling Scott into the pack, when a few cautions later, his chances at a win were dashed due to a crash that also collected last week’s winner at Rockingham, Garrett Manes.

Marin kept fighting and overcoming the restarts and differing strategies, and wound up the first multi-time Top Split winner of the season as a result.

AROUND THE OTHER SPLITS

While Top Split offered up a multi-time winner, Second Split added a fourth new winner to the fold in Seth Noell, who squeaked into Top Split last week at Rockingham, but fell back down into Second Split again for Phoenix. Noell started near the front, racing against his Nexxus eSports teammates throughout the night. Second Split actually had less cautions than Top Split for the second time this season—the other race being their Daytona opener that had zero cautions—eight in comparison to 10. NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar, who came into the night 34th in the standings, had a bad race, getting caught up in multiple incidents, ultimately finishing in 31st.

To reinforce the fact that it is tough to win in this series, at any level, through four rounds, and 94 total races, only eight drivers, including Marin, have multiple wins. That group includes Aiden Bierlien, 10th in the standings and now racing in Fourth Split, who has two Fifth Split wins, as well as Ryan Andrew, who now has two Fourth Split wins as of last night, who moves into 35th in the standings as a result.

Other two-time winners on the year in the Trucks include Rick English, Paul Mikolajczyk, Aaron Perry, and Brandon Bruner. Also, Jake Hoepner is the only driver with wins in all four weeks. Those wins came in the 19th Split at Daytona, 13th Split at Las Vegas, 12th Split at Rockingham, and 11th Split last night at Phoenix. Unfortunately, winning out in splits that far down only have Hoepner in 146th in the points.

TOP POINTS SCORERS IN RACE NO. 4 AT PHOENIX RACEWAY

DRIVERS STANDINGS FOLLOWING RACE NO. 4 AT PHOENIX RACEWAY

*Current standings do not include Drop Week

CUT LINE SITUATION EXITING TRUCK ROUND

The top-30 has changed multiple times over the course of these four races. As it stands, Fourth Split is the lowest represented inside the top-30, but a driver from fifth split—Aaron Lee—is just two points out as the series shifts to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series cars for the next four races.

Drivers inside the top-30 may not have the same sauce they had in the Truck races, and drivers outside might start to jump ahead with the change in vehicle. The only damning thing for the field is that the points available continue to dwindle. It’s not a huge difference just yet, as Top Split still offered 436 points to the winner this week, just four points less than the Daytona week that opened the season. However, as the field size continues to shrink, drivers will continue to move up the split order, and it will be potentially harder to find points against tougher opponents.

One of the Coca-Cola challengers this season, Michael Cosey Jr, started the year at Daytona down in Second Split, but for the last three weeks, he’s been competing at the top, and still maintaining a top-30 points position. The other challenger, Ray Alfalla, has been in the Top Split this entire time, but hasn’t been able to put together a super solid week just yet, despite his speed at Las Vegas in particular. Cosey sits 11th in the points while Alfalla will have to claw up from 57th over the final seven races.

It is also worth mentioning Max Brady in 39th. While a drop week is not yet in play, Brady missed Daytona, and still sits 39th with one race less to work with. It means he’s guaranteed to gain points after the 11th and final week, which could completely shake up the standings if he’s still close to that cut line.

NEXT RACE

With the four NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in the books, the series will transition to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series cars in two weeks when the action returns at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The Championship Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway gave Steven Wilson a record holding eighth win on the season, which led to his second career title as a result. Coverage for Homestead-Miami on March 17th begins at 8 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels. Tune in 15 minutes earlier to catch the Countdown to Green at 7:45 p.m. ET.

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit eNASCAR.com or iRacing.com/eNASCAR.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit iRacing.com.­­

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