Vicente Salas and his tires survive the long run, scores eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win at Dover

It was a different type of eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event at Dover Motor Speedway on Tuesday night, where the long run resulted in a concern in tire wear as the laps closed out around the Monster Mile.

Despite taking two tires on what would eventually become the last caution of the night, Kanaan Esports’ Vicente Salas managed his wear over the final 90 lap run to the checkers, claiming his first victory of the 2025 season, and third of his eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series career. This win all but locks Salas into the eNASCAR Playoffs for the third time in his career, and for the second season in-a-row.

With tire wear a concern on the long run to the checkers, @vicente_salas14 holds off a late charge from Ryan Luza to claim his first victory of 2025 at the @MonsterMile!

Post race: https://t.co/tOOewu4MBi@ENASCARGG | @CocaColaRacing pic.twitter.com/oF7hbtwv2D

— iRacing (@iRacing) June 25, 2025

“I was driving super, super, hard at the end there,” Salas said post-race. “I think Ryan (Luza) saved his tires, so he was coming at the end. I’m just super, super proud of this Kanaan Esports #11 crew. (Johnathon) Platt and Dave (Siltman) kept me really, really calm during the race, collected, hitting my lines. Everyone back at Deadzone Racing… just everybody that works on this car, we showed up. I didn’t know what we had, but we put ourselves in position. We’ve kind of been doing that all year so glad we could finally close one out.”

In the closing laps, many drivers feared collecting a meatball flag for excessive tire wear. Salas was able to save just enough tire to make it to the end. Only three races remain in the 2025 Regular Season, and there are still five more tickets to claim at the 2025 eNASCAR Playoffs table.

THE EVENT

William Byron eSports’ Nick Ottinger claimed the pole position, and brought the field to the green alongside his Team Conti backend teammate at Kevin Harvick Inc, Jimmy Mullis. The two pulled away from Salas in third, as well as the rest of the field, before the first caution of the day flew on Lap 26.

Contact between RFK Racing’s Collin Bowden and Letarte eSports’ Quami Scott brought the field to a halt, the incident also collecting BS+COMPETITION’s Garrett Lowe, JR Motorsports’ fill-in driver, Matthew Zwack, and Vegas Inferno’s fill-in driver, Agnel Philip.

All drivers would drive away virtually unscathed, but the slow down brought the entire field down pit road for the first pit stops of the day.

Salas won the race off of pit road, taking only two right side tires. A whole host of drivers, including fgrAccel’s Ryan Luza, Jim Beaver eSports’ Kollin Keister, Spire Motorsports’ Steven Wilson, and Channel 199 Sim Racing’s Dylan Duval, also took just two tires and leapfrogged Ottinger and Mullis on track after that duo both took four tires.

Another quick caution flew halfway through the opening lap of the following restart. This time, it was just Six Karma’s Daniel Faulkingham who lost control exiting Turn 2. The fact it was on the first lap of a restart, however, meant that the next restart would be a single file restart.

Salas led the field back to the green, with Keister, Luza, Wilson, and Duval falling into line behind. Ottinger began to make up some spots, getting around Duval to break into the top-five, but little did the OttiBoss, or anyone else, know that the race would stay green for the remainder of the event.

Luza, who seemingly wanted to save tire for later, was under pressure from Wilson for the third spot. The two former champions traded blows for multiple laps, with Wilson, at one point, sideways off of the corner after he and Luza made contact in the middle of the corner.

Eventually, Wilson cleared and made his way towards Keister. However, unlike most of how this season has played out, Wilson didn’t continue marching towards the lead. Instead, he went the opposite direction, losing the spot back to Luza with about 30 laps to go. Around the same time, pit stops began, and it was unclear as to exactly for what reason at first.

With early reports that JR Motorsports’ Blake McCandless was attempting to make it the entire race without pitting, fuel didn’t seem to be the reason as to why. Suddenly, a multitude of mechanical black flags were issued by the virtual race control, including Wilson, Ottinger, and more. Apparently, tire wear had the potential to be extreme over the long run, and a number of drivers were wearing the virtual rubber down to the tread.

By incurring a mechanical black flag, the result was a forced pit stop to clear any penalties if obtained before three laps to go. Along with Wilson and Ottinger, Team Dillon Esports’ Blaze Crawford, Atlassian Williams Sim Racing’s Parker White, and Spire Motorsports’ Femi Olatunbosun were among the handful to get the flag before the grace period, ultimately ruining their chances.

William Byron eSports’ Tucker Minter was among the few that obtained the flag under the threshold, which meant that they could stay out, albeit in a compromised position with essentially a virtually blown tire.

Meanwhile, up front, Luza had closed the gap to within a second as Salas worked his way through slower traffic. Both drivers had to be wary of their tire wear, but also, they were fighting each other for a potential ticket to the playoffs. Salas managed to make it to the checkers with all four tires up, claiming the win and taking control of the lead of the standings of the third and final Segment of the season.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Race #11 at Dover were as follows:

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Playoff Standings after Race #11 at Dover are as follows:

1. #77 Steven Wilson | Spire Motorsports, 5 WINS
2. #97 Tucker Minter | William Byron eSports, 3 WINS
3. #11 Vicente Salas | Kanaan Esports, 1 WIN
4. #22 Bobby Zalenski | ERA eSports, 1 WIN
5. #15 Kollin Keister | Jim Beaver eSports, 1 WIN
6. #2 Zack Novak | Channel 199 Sim Racing, +86
7. #24 Casey Kirwan | Kansas City Pioneers, +24
8. #95 Parker White | Atlassian Williams, +20
9. #34 Michael Cosey Jr | ERA eSports, +3
10. #47 Dylan Ault | HYAK Motorsports, 0
    ———————————————————-
11. #89 Jordy Lopez | BS+COMPETITION, 0
12. #4 Donovan Strauss | Atlassian Williams, -10
13. #199 Dylan Duval | Channel 199 Sim Racing, -11
14. #21 Michael Guest | Vegas Inferno, -23
15. #40 Connor Yeroschak | Letarte eSports, -24
16. #14 Seth DeMerchant | fgrAccel, -25

*At least TWO spots in the 2025 eNASCAR Playoffs will be filled on points

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series SEGMENT 3 Standings after Race #2 of 5 at Dover are as follows:

1. #11 Vicente Salas | Kanaan Esports, 73 points
2. #2 Zack Novak | Channel 199 Sim Racing, -2
3. #89 Jordy Lopez | BS+COMPETITION, -5
4. #15 Kollin Keister | Jim Beaver eSports, -10
5. #14 Seth DeMerchant | fgrAccel, -10
6. #33 Taylor Hurst | Team Dillon Esports, -12
7. #40 Connor Yeroschak | Letarte eSports, -13
8. #47 Dylan Ault | Hyak Motorsports, -15
9. #96 Christopher M. Hill | Apex Racing Team, -17
10. #34 Michael Cosey Jr | ERA eSports, -17

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Team Standings after Race #11 at Dover are as follows:

1. Channel 199 Sim Racing (#2/#199), 551 points
2. Spire Motorsports (#7/#77), -11
3. ERA eSports (#22, #34), -48
4. Atlassian Williams (#4/#95), -65
5. William Byron eSports (#25, #97), -90

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Rookie Standings after Race #11 at Dover are as follows:

1. #40 Connor Yeroschak | LETARTE eSports, 214 points
2. #3 Blaze Crawford | Team Dillon Esports, -26
3. #96 Christopher M. Hill | Apex Racing Team, -34
4. #50 Quentin Warman | HYAK Motorsports, -66
5. #8 Blake McCandless | JR Motorsports, -71
6. #5 Nate Stewart | Jim Beaver eSports, -99
7. #66 Alexander L Russell | Kanaan Esports, -103
8. #19 Eddie Kerner | Six Karma, -111

By virtue of wins and points, both Steven Wilson and Tucker Minter will lock into the 2025 eNASCAR Playoffs by starting in the next race. Zack Novak, who sits second in the standings without a win, isn’t quite locked in just yet, but does have 62 points over the next closest competitor. Vicente Salas wins his way into the lead of the Segment 3 standings. Channel 199 Sim Racing returns to the top of the Team Standings while Letarte eSports’ Connor Yeroschak takes control of the rookie battle against Blaze Crawford.

Up next in the 2025 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series is a trip back to the streets of Chicago in one week’s time. Last season, Bobby Zalenski held off Parker White to claim the victory, his second of the 2024 season. With an invert scheduled for the top-eight qualifiers, starting on pole for the Sprint means qualifying eighth. That could be the difference in who claims victory this season at the only street course on the calendar.

The 12th round on the calendar is scheduled for Tuesday, July 2nd. Tune in at 7:30 p.m. ET for the Countdown to Green. Race coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels.

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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