Zalenski dominates eNASCAR at Daytona Roval

Bobby Zalenski scored his fifth consecutive eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win on a road course, and set a new all-time record for the largest margin of victory in series history, with an unchallenged performance on the DAYTONA Road Course on Tuesday night.

The Virtual Racing School driver checked out on the field by the time they made it through the International Horseshoe, and expanded his lead to a whopping 18.890 seconds over Jimmy Mullis by the end of the race.

“I’m happy that we were able to go here, because being at a new track is kind of an advantage,” said Zalenski, who was more than half a second faster than anyone else in the field in qualifying. “I took the final chicane a lot different than most people, and stuff like that, when you’re able to learn it before the rest of the field, it’s a huge advantage. What a team I’m on—I’m lucky to be with VRS, and glad it was a clean race, too. We’re just going to keep pushing. We need to get better, but we’re doing pretty good.”

The NASCAR version of the DAYTONA Road Course layout retained the International Horseshoe and Bus Stop from the traditional sports car layout, but added a new chicane before the tri-oval to slow cars down before starting the next lap. With the layout only seeing its first laps in the real world later this week, the eNASCAR drivers represented the first official NASCAR series to compete on the track.

It proved a challenge, as even past champions like Zack Novak and Ray Alfalla had off-track excursions, and only 26 drivers managed to finish the race on the lead lap. But even with Zalenski racing from far ahead of the field, the rest of the top 10 delivered some exciting battles. Second place came down to two of this year’s race winners, with New Hampshire winner Mullis outdueling Dover winner and outside polesitter Nick Ottinger for the position, while Christian Challiner had to fight hard to defend fourth place from Logan Clampitt in the final lap of the race.

The action from the DAYTONA Road Course continues tonight with iRacing Happy Hour, where eNASCAR drivers Ottinger, Justin Bolton, and Keegan Leahy will support real-world racers William Byron, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Majeski and their real-world crew members in a virtual practice session. Hosted by Daytona 500-winning crew chief Steve Letarte and NASCAR Cup Series race winner Regan Smith, the stream will give viewers a look at how real-world racers are utilizing iRacing to learn an unfamiliar layout that they won’t see for the first time until their respective races go green this weekend. iRacing Happy Hour will be streamed on NASCAR.com at 8PM ET.

Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at the DAYTONA Road Course were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Led	Interval	Best	Pts
1	1	83	Bobby Zalenski	Chevrolet	45	45		1:47.360	45
2	3	46	Jimmy Mullis	Toyota	45	0	-18.889	1:48.049	39
3	2	25	Nick Ottinger	Chevrolet	45	0	-20.038	1:48.064	38
4	6	37	Christian Challiner	Chevrolet	45	0	-25.379	1:48.186	37
5	5	99	Logan Clampitt	Toyota	45	0	-25.600	1:48.265	36
6	9	27	Corey Vincent	Ford	45	0	-30.684	1:48.232	35
7	8	8	Michael Conti	Chevrolet	45	0	-32.300	1:47.953	34
8	4	21	Garrett Lowe	Ford	45	0	-32.356	1:48.633	33
9	7	32	Keegan Leahy	Toyota	45	0	-41.120	1:48.258	32
10	10	90	Zack Novak	Toyota	45	0	-52.872	1:48.791	31
11	11	24	Jake Nichols	Ford	45	0	-1:01.054	1:49.255	30
12	18	41	Dylan Duval	Ford	45	0	-1:02.631	1:49.123	29
13	14	53	Ryan Michael Luza	Ford	45	0	-1:04.179	1:49.314	28
14	12	18	Graham A. Bowlin	Toyota	45	0	-1:09.674	1:49.540	27
15	15	3	Blake Reynolds	Chevrolet	45	0	-1:12.253	1:48.947	26
16	21	77	Bob Bryant	Toyota	45	0	-1:13.234	1:48.704	25
17	23	5	Matt Bussa	Ford	45	0	-1:29.241	1:48.967	24
18	34	88	Brad Davies	Chevrolet	45	0	-1:31.017	1:49.399	23
19	16	23	Casey Kirwan	Toyota	45	0	-1:31.122	1:49.401	22
20	37	97	John Gorlinsky	Chevrolet	45	0	-1:35.591	1:49.473	21
21	17	6	Nathan Lyon	Ford	45	0	-1:36.960	1:49.503	20
22	22	55	Caine Cook	Ford	45	0	-1:42.012	1:49.862	19
23	25	36	Chris Shearburn	Chevrolet	45	0	-1:42.766	1:49.461	18
24	20	2	Ray Alfalla	Chevrolet	45	0	-1:46.731	1:50.257	17
25	19	75	Phillip Diaz	Ford	45	0	-1:50.685	1:49.685	16
26	36	4	Santiago Tirres	Chevrolet	45	0	-1:51.060	1:51.090	15
27	29	15	Michael Guariglia	Ford	44	0	-1 L	1:50.084	14
28	26	54	Alex McCollum3	Chevrolet	44	0	-1 L	1:50.374	13
29	32	14	Brandon Hayse Kettelle	Ford	44	0	-1 L	1:51.063	12
30	33	1	Steve Sheehan	Chevrolet	44	0	-1 L	1:50.156	11
31	28	51	Malik Ray	Toyota	44	0	-1 L	1:50.590	10
32	30	33	Michael Guest	Chevrolet	43	0	-2 L	1:50.392	9
33	31	9	Eric J. Smith	Ford	39	0	-6 L	1:50.619	8
34	27	16	Chris Overland	Ford	22	0	-23 L	1:50.822	7
35	24	17	Kollin Keister	Ford	16	0	-29 L	1:52.041	6
36	13	66	Jarl Teien	Chevrolet	15	0	-30 L	1:50.077	5
37	35	79	Brian Schoenburg	Ford	5	0	-40 L	1:51.988	4

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series standings through 12 rounds are as follows:

1. Keegan Leahy, 384
2. Bobby Zalenski, 382
3. Ryan Luza, 366
4. Michael Conti, 360
5. Garrett Lowe, 358
6. Ray Alfalla, 336
7. Nick Ottinger, 325
8. Logan Clampitt, 309
9. Jimmy Mullis, 304
10. Graham Bowlin, 304

With only four of races left before the playoffs, eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action returns to the DAYTONA oval on August 25. As always, the race will be seen at 9PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live, iRacing.com/live, and the iRacing Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels.