eNASCAR iRacing: Viva Las Vegas for Mullis

Jimmy Mullis won—no, survived—Tuesday night’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series race from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning his fourth career victory and second of the season by holding off Phil Diaz in the final stages of the race.

The win allowed the Richmond Raceway Esports driver to climb to ninth in series points, with just one race remaining in the regular season to get into the eight-driver playoff bubble.

“It’s been a rollercoaster season for us,” said Mullis. “You look at three or four races earlier in the season, if I don’t get wrecked, we’re well inside the top eight, I believe. But everything happens for a reason, and to come in here tonight and get my first on a mile and a half, we head to Talladega with a really good shot of making (the playoffs). We’re going to go try to win that race too, and see where we come out.”

In a season where most races have either gone flag-to-flag with no more than a single caution or been high-attrition from green to checkered, Tuesday’s race found a way to be both. The first half of the race was so clean that a handful of drivers, led by Michael Guariglia and Jarl Teien, stretched all the way into the 60-lap range with their first green-flag runs in hopes of playing alternate pit strategies for the win.

Shortly after the final green flag pit stops of the run, Graham Bowlin spun to create the first caution, and the complexion of the race began to shift completely. From playoff contenders like Bobby Zalenski and Ryan Luza to drivers like Christian Challiner and Michael Guest who were fighting just to get back into the top 20.

There was a lot more bad luck to go around than good in the middle stages of the race.No caution was more spectacular than a massive Lap 96 incident that might have felt more in place in next week’s regular season finale at Talladega.

With all the cautions, the final playoff spot got passed around like a hot potato. Four-time series champion Ray Alfalla came into the night with a comfortable 20-point lead on ninth, but getting involved in one of the earlier cautions bounced him to the outside looking in, with Brad Davies inheriting the spot.

Then, Davies got caught up in the biggest wreck of the night, plummeting to 13th. Alfalla eventually recovered to regain the spot by race’s end, but with Mullis now just 16 points back. Joining Zalenski and Keegan Leahy in punching their playoff ticket were polesitter Michael Conti, third place finisher Nick Ottinger, and Garrett Lowe.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Las Vegas Motor Speedway were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Led	Interval	Best	Pts
1	23	46	Jimmy Mullis	Toyota	134	24		29.586	44
2	34	75	Phillip Diaz	Ford	134	0	-0.255	29.507	39
3	21	25	Nick Ottinger	Chevrolet	134	1	-0.457	29.489	39
4	25	3	Blake Reynolds	Chevrolet	134	3	-1.528	29.509	38
5	1	8	Michael Conti	Chevrolet	134	14	-1.802	29.482	37
6	13	14	Brandon Hayse Kettelle	Ford	134	27	-1.907	29.346	36
7	14	15	Michael Guariglia	Ford	134	15	-3.287	29.585	35
8	11	55	Caine Cook	Ford	134	5	-3.664	29.561	34
9	17	2	Ray Alfalla	Chevrolet	134	0	-3.861	29.534	32
10	29	97	John Gorlinsky	Chevrolet	134	0	-5.233	29.569	31
11	18	77	Bob Bryant	Toyota	134	0	-6.228	29.654	30
12	24	36	Chris Shearburn	Chevrolet	134	1	-6.336	29.626	30
13	3	24	Jake Nichols	Ford	134	0	-7.215	29.641	28
14	33	16	Chris Overland	Ford	134	0	-7.382	29.542	27
15	7	99	Logan Clampitt	Toyota	134	3	-7.571	29.525	27
16	6	18	Graham A. Bowlin	Toyota	134	0	-8.353	29.532	25
17	19	32	Keegan Leahy	Toyota	134	0	-8.500	29.513	24
18	5	17	Kollin Keister	Ford	134	0	-9.634	29.502	23
19	2	21	Garrett Lowe	Ford	134	0	-16.190	29.371	22
20	32	79	Brian Schoenburg	Ford	134	0	-16.329	29.617	21
21	20	88	Brad Davies	Chevrolet	134	0	-22.816	29.537	20
22	27	41	Dylan Duval	Ford	134	0	-23.102	29.485	19
23	15	23	Casey Kirwan	Toyota	133	0	-1 L	29.678	18
24	22	27	Corey Vincent	Ford	133	0	-1 L	29.531	17
25	36	9	Eric J. Smith	Ford	132	0	-2 L	29.585	16
26	16	83	Bobby Zalenski	Chevrolet	110	0	-24 L	29.620	15
27	8	6	Nathan Lyon	Ford	109	1	-25 L	29.525	15
28	9	10	Justin Bolton	Ford	109	0	-25 L	29.591	13
29	12	5	Matt Bussa	Ford	109	0	-25 L	29.555	12
30	35	66	Jarl Teien	Chevrolet	109	0	-25 L	29.746	11
31	37	90	Zack Novak	Toyota	108	1	-26 L	29.608	11
32	38	47	Steve Sheehan	Chevrolet	106	0	-28 L	29.638	9
33	31	4	Santiago Tirres	Chevrolet	105	0	-29 L	29.483	8
34	4	53	Ryan Michael Luza	Ford	104	39	-30 L	29.477	9
35	28	51	Malik Ray	Toyota	96	0	-38 L	29.470	6
36	30	54	Alex McCollum	Chevrolet	89	0	-45 L	29.577	5
37	10	33	Michael Guest	Chevrolet	89	0	-45 L	29.480	4
38	26	37	Christian Challiner	Chevrolet	79	0	-55 L	29.727	3

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points after 15 races are as follows:

1. Keegan Leahy, 468
2. Bobby Zalenski, 461
3. Michael Conti, 442
4. Nick Ottinger, 438
5. Garrett Lowe, 436
6. Ryan Luza, 413
7. Logan Clampitt, 408
8. Ray Alfalla, 399
9. Jimmy Mullis, 384
10. Graham Bowlin, 368

Unlike most eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series events, there won’t be an off week between the Las Vegas round and the next race, as the regular season finale from Talladega Superspeedway settles the playoff grid next Tuesday.