
University of Maine at Augusta’s Parker White dominates in eNASCAR College Spring opener at Watkins Glen
January 22nd, 2025 by Justin Melillo
The eNASCAR College iRacing Series presented by Playfly College Esports returned for the first time on the 2025 side of the schedule on Tuesday night. To kick off the Spring semester, 37 drivers took on the twists and turns around Upstate New York’s Watkins Glen International for 31 laps, with fuel strategy on everyone’s mind as they attempted to keep pace.
The University of Maine at Augusta’s Parker White, also known as the defending 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion nowadays, was unstoppable, scoring the pole position and leading all 31 laps, saving plenty of fuel at the end for a smoke-filled burnout in Turn 1. White bested another eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion, the University of Iowa’s Steven Wilson, who started and finished second. Rounding out the podium was one of the former eNASCAR College iRacing Series champions, Cal State Fullerton’s Logan Clampitt.
“I was really just hoping for a top-five tonight,” White said post-race. “I hadn’t been feeling well for the past day, so to run my personal best in qualifying by two-and-a-half tenths was something I certainly didn’t expect. After I did that, I knew it would be about keeping the tires on it during the race, and as long as I did that, it was going to be pretty easy to hang on. Steven (Wilson) was pretty quick. I think we were running the same pace… I was interested to see what Clampitt was going to do, I think he was back there saving his tires a bit, and he was really quick those last few laps.”
The race was intense throughout the evening, but it flew by just the same. The University of Northwestern Ohio’s Isaac Shelley had the first miscue, missing the inner loop. Later, Shelley clipped the virtual ARMCO barrier entering the same area, damaging the front end. After a few more bumps and bruises, Shelley called it an early night. Mizzou’s Thomas Coonan also had an adventure in the inner loop, half-spinning around midway, then fully spinning a lap later following contact with another driver.
UNLV’s Nathan Scott also had a rough outing, as he was roughed up early in the going, limping it home as the last car on the lead lap. Unfortunately, he was so far behind from his damages that he was unable to catch the Missouri S&T machine of Kaleb Bryan, who sputtered on the final lap and across the line, having not saved enough fuel on the night.
Fresh off of a College Football National Championship, The Ohio State University’s Matthew Morton made his season debut on Tuesday night, collecting a top-10 finish, finishing just ahead of The University of Oklahoma’s Mario Merenda.
Moving through the field was tough in general, but a couple of drivers were able to improve on their starting position by night’s end. Both Matthew Zwack (University of Michigan) and Nick Luetje (Purdue at Indianapolis) had issues in qualifying, but were the biggest movers of the night, both moving up eight spots from where they started. In the front, Calgary’s Connor Yeroschak managed to move up from eighth to fourth after a spirited battle with recent Virginia Commonwealth University transfer, Joe Armstrong, for the spot.
Only now in his fifth start in the series, White has managed to collect two wins, including the season-opening event at Daytona in the Fall. With calculating two drops in five races, White leads the way by four points over Wilson and five over Clampitt. George Mason University’s Zach Sprouse and the University of Maine at Machias’ Daniel Faulkingham currently round out the top-five.
eNASCAR College iRacing Series results from Watkins Glen International were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
Name |
School |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
1 | 1 | Parker White | UMaine at Augusta | 31 | 0 | 31 | 1:12.550 | 40 |
2 | 2 | Steven Wilson | Iowa | 31 | -1.554 | 0 | 1:12.905 | 35 |
3 | 3 | Logan Clampitt | Cal State Fullerton | 31 | -2.713 | 0 | 1:13.114 | 34 |
4 | 8 | Connor Yeroschak | Calgary | 31 | -11.596 | 0 | 1:14.194 | 33 |
5 | 5 | Joe M Armstrong | VCU | 31 | -13.842 | 0 | 1:13.386 | 32 |
6 | 4 | James Scioly | Eastern Washington | 31 | -16.532 | 0 | 1:13.631 | 31 |
7 | 11 | Dylan Ault | Sac State | 31 | -21.158 | 0 | 1:13.968 | 30 |
8 | 7 | Adam Garza | Triton College | 31 | -21.312 | 0 | 1:13.564 | 29 |
9 | 9 | Matthew L Morton | Ohio State | 31 | -22.087 | 0 | 1:13.574 | 28 |
10 | 10 | Mario Merenda | Oklahoma | 31 | -22.599 | 0 | 1:13.653 | 27 |
11 | 6 | Daniel Faulkingham | UMaine Machias | 31 | -27.893 | 0 | 1:13.437 | 26 |
12 | 15 | Zach Sprouse | George Mason | 31 | -28.144 | 0 | 1:13.611 | 25 |
13 | 12 | Daniel Nanney | Ball State | 31 | -28.298 | 0 | 1:13.592 | 24 |
14 | 16 | AJ Heider | St. Johns River | 31 | -28.463 | 0 | 1:13.452 | 23 |
15 | 14 | Jose Solis Jr | UConn | 31 | -28.828 | 0 | 1:13.480 | 22 |
16 | 20 | Daniel Silvestri | Virginia Tech | 31 | -29.373 | 0 | 1:14.033 | 21 |
17 | 18 | Jeremy O. Burns | Longwood | 31 | -29.581 | 0 | 1:13.837 | 20 |
18 | 17 | Jacob Bradley | Purdue Indianapolis | 31 | -32.563 | 0 | 1:14.067 | 19 |
19 | 22 | Nathan Koester | Grand Valley State | 31 | -35.126 | 0 | 1:14.076 | 18 |
20 | 19 | Peter Irons | Winona State | 31 | -36.219 | 0 | 1:14.090 | 17 |
21 | 23 | Jake Cummings | Converse | 31 | -36.816 | 0 | 1:13.956 | 16 |
22 | 26 | Matt Spalding | Connecticut State CC | 31 | -39.115 | 0 | 1:14.202 | 15 |
23 | 28 | John Forbes Jr | Saddleback | 31 | -39.407 | 0 | 1:14.081 | 14 |
24 | 32 | Matthew Zwack | Michigan – Ann Arbor | 31 | -39.797 | 0 | 1:13.657 | 13 |
25 | 30 | Drew Jewah | Chattahoochee TC | 31 | -40.801 | 0 | 1:13.783 | 12 |
26 | 25 | Arron Brown | Eastern Shore CC | 31 | -41.278 | 0 | 1:14.213 | 11 |
27 | 21 | Elliot White | Maryland | 31 | -41.483 | 0 | 1:14.198 | 10 |
28 | 36 | Nick Luetje | Purdue Indianapolis | 31 | -46.953 | 0 | 1:13.915 | 9 |
29 | 33 | Abraham E Vela | San Jacinto | 31 | -49.587 | 0 | 1:13.962 | 8 |
30 | 31 | Jake Innes | Belmont Abbey | 31 | -52.208 | 0 | 1:14.266 | 7 |
31 | 34 | Jonathan W Evans | Western CT State | 31 | -55.793 | 0 | 1:14.311 | 6 |
32 | 37 | Connor Trifari | USC Beaufort | 31 | -58.974 | 0 | 1:14.659 | 5 |
33 | 24 | Christian Charbonneau | Dallas Baptist | 31 | -1:06.441 | 0 | 1:13.418 | 4 |
34 | 29 | Kaleb Bryan | Missouri S&T | 31 | -1:09.914 | 0 | 1:14.494 | 3 |
35 | 35 | Nathan M Scott | UNLV | 31 | -1:13.715 | 0 | 1:14.480 | 2 |
36 | 27 | Thomas Coonan | Mizzou | 30 | -1 L | 0 | 1:14.081 | 1 |
37 | 13 | Isaac Shelley | UNOH | 17 | -14 L | 0 | 1:14.002 | 1 |
DNS | DNQ | Andy Trupiano | Detroit Mercy | 0 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
DNS | DNQ | Charles-Étienne Boucher | Cégep Limoilou | 0 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
DNS | DNQ | Wyatt Tinsley | Virginia Peninsula | 0 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
eNASCAR College iRacing Series standings through Round 5 at Watkins Glen International are as follows (includes two drops):
- Parker White | University of Maine at Augusta, 114
- Steven Wilson | University of Iowa, 110
- Logan Clampitt | Cal State Fullerton, 109
- Zach Sprouse | George Mason University, 100
- Daniel Faulkingham | University of Maine at Machias, 97
- Matthew Zwack | University of Michigan, 89
- Jonathan Evans | Western Connecticut State University, 89
- Nick Luetje | Purdue University in Indianapolis, 85
- Mario Merenda | The University of Oklahoma, 85
- John Forbes Jr | Saddleback College, 82
The next race on the College calendar is in the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks at Talladega Superspeedway. The Time Attack opens on January 21st and will run through January 30th. Once again, the top-40 eligible times will be invited to run the A-Main, scheduled on February 4th. 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.