eNASCAR: Leahy’s Darlington display makes it three in 2020

Keegan Leahy channeled his inner Ricky Craven on his way to his third eNASCAR win of the season with an impressive display at Darlington.

17 years ago at Darlington Raceway, a driver from the northeastern corner of North America found himself in victory lane with an orange and white #32 car, taking a statement victory in one of the crown jewel races of the NASCAR Cup Series season.

History repeated itself on Tuesday night in the virtual world—although there was considerably less damage to the winning machine this time, and the decisive pass actually came on pit road.

Driving Ricky Craven’s iconic Tide colors, Keegan Leahy took the top spot from Michael Conti with a better pit stop during the first caution and never looked back, scoring his third win of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season. Leahy, Conti, and Nick Ottinger ran in that order for much of the night, as drivers throughout the field struggled to make passes and most of the major shuffles in the pack came as a result of incidents.

Seven cautions for 33 laps slowed the pace, but after four-time series champion Ray Alfalla took contact to spin from a top-10 spot, the final 43 laps of the race went uninterrupted by yellow flags. The Lady in Black didn’t discriminate among her victims on Tuesday night, as fellow series champion Zack Novak, 2019 Championship 4 qualifier Blake Reynolds, and multi-time series winner Casey Kirwan all got caught up in the carnage, and veteran drivers like Matt Bussa and Brian Schoenburg saw their races come to an end before they really began.

But whether they crossed the finish line without a scratch, all used up, or with just a Darlington stripe for their troubles, the nearly 30 drivers who hit the track with throwback paint schemes took a NASCAR tradition and extended it beautifully to sim racing. Leahy, Alfalla, Bobby Zalenski, and Graham Bowlin gave 2003 plenty of love among the front-runners, but from tributes to eNASCAR team owners Clint Bowyer, William Byron, Jon Wood, and Austin Dillon to 1990s classics on the cars of Conti, Chris Shearburn, and Logan Clampitt, this year’s crop of throwback rides managed to touch most eras of the sport.

Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at Darlington Raceway were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Led	Interval	Best	Pts
1	3	32	Keegan Leahy	Toyota	184	152		27.111	45
2	1	8	Michael Conti	Chevrolet	184	31	-0.333	27.094	40
3	2	25	Nick Ottinger	Chevrolet	184	0	-1.731	27.125	38
4	11	99	Logan Clampitt	Toyota	184	0	-2.177	27.163	37
5	30	51	Malik Ray	Toyota	184	0	-3.088	27.213	36
6	17	55	Caine Cook	Ford	184	0	-4.109	27.057	35
7	21	53	Ryan Michael Luza	Ford	184	0	-4.990	27.109	34
8	10	88	Brad Davies	Chevrolet	184	0	-6.039	27.114	33
9	8	17	Kollin Keister	Ford	184	0	-7.785	27.080	32
10	23	24	Jake Nichols	Ford	184	0	-8.225	27.221	31
11	7	27	Corey Vincent	Ford	184	0	-8.518	27.200	30
12	37	16	Chris Overland	Ford	184	0	-8.829	27.335	29
13	9	4	Santiago Tirres	Chevrolet	184	0	-8.982	27.265	28
14	28	10	Justin Bolton	Ford	184	0	-9.514	27.215	27
15	22	21	Garrett Lowe	Ford	184	0	-9.732	27.343	26
16	25	41	Dylan Duval	Ford	184	0	-10.826	27.275	25
17	4	2	Ray Alfalla	Chevrolet	184	0	-11.605	27.220	24
18	33	15	Michael Guariglia	Ford	184	0	-11.751	27.303	23
19	36	6	Nathan Lyon	Ford	184	0	-11.822	27.376	22
20	14	3	Blake Reynolds	Chevrolet	184	0	-12.001	27.307	21
21	27	36	Chris Shearburn	Chevrolet	184	0	-12.161	27.196	20
22	6	83	Bobby Zalenski	Chevrolet	184	0	-15.165	27.271	19
23	18	37	Christian Challiner	Chevrolet	184	0	-15.598	27.446	18
24	32	75	Phillip Diaz	Ford	184	0	-16.307	27.562	17
25	19	18	Graham A. Bowlin	Toyota	184	0	-16.590	27.366	16
26	16	46	Jimmy Mullis	Toyota	184	0	-16.970	27.366	15
27	13	97	John Gorlinsky	Chevrolet	184	0	-18.048	27.370	14
28	29	9	Eric J. Smith	Ford	184	0	-18.189	27.245	13
29	12	77	Bob Bryant	Toyota	184	1	-19.214	27.431	13
30	24	14	Brandon Hayse Kettelle	Ford	184	0	-22.763	27.333	11
31	31	66	Jarl Teien	Chevrolet	184	0	-22.797	27.660	10
32	5	23	Casey Kirwan	Toyota	183	0	-1 L	27.238	9
33	34	33	Michael Guest	Chevrolet	171	0	-13 L	27.412	8
34	20	90	Zack Novak	Toyota	137	0	-47 L	27.546	7
35	35	54	Alex McCollum	Chevrolet	79	0	-105 L	27.365	6
36	26	79	Brian Schoenburg	Ford	62	0	-122 L	27.713	5
37	15	5	Matt Bussa	Ford	37	0	-147 L	27.507	4

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series point standings after 14 rounds are as follows:

1. Bobby Zalenski, 446
2. Keegan Leahy, 444
3. Garrett Lowe, 414
4. Michael Conti, 405
5. Ryan Luza, 404
6. Nick Ottinger, 399
7. Logan Clampitt, 381
8. Ray Alfalla, 367
9. Brad Davies, 347
10. Corey Vincent, 345

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season resumes in two weeks’ time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As always, the race can be seen live at 9PM ET at eNASCAR.com/live and on the iRacing Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube pages.