iRacing eNASCAR Pocono: Zalenski hangs on for victory

What had initially looked to be a fuel mileage race turned into a triple-overtime battle of survival as the iRacing eNASCAR Coca-Cola Series made its return to Pocono Raceway.

When all was said and done, seven cautions in the final third of the race turned the event from a typical superspeedway event to feeling like a short track, but it was Letarte Esports’ Bobby Zalenski who hung on to score his first win of the season and finally punch his playoff ticket in the latest twist of a dramatic and unpredictable season on iRacing.

“I wasn’t gonna let that go—I was gonna race hard for that,” Zalenski said after taking his ninth career series win. “Thankfully, I had a friend up front with Mitchell (deJong), we’ve been friends for year. It’s great. It’s been a high pressure year, especially on the road courses with Mitchell. we’re going to have a hell a battle next week for you guys for sure.”

Normally unbeatable on iRacing road courses, Zalenski entered Pocono still looking for a victory after 23XI’s Mitchell deJong broke his perfect record on those tracks at Circuit of the Americas earlier this year. But before next week’s inaugural visit to Road America will likely crown the first repeat winner of the year between one of the duo, the Fresno, California native took away some of the sense of urgency a week early by becoming the series’ record-extending 10^th different winner to start the season.

Ironically enough, deJong and Zalenski are also part of the only teams with both drivers having taken wins this season, as deJong’s teammate Keegan Leahy and Zalenski’s teammate Chris Shearburn have already made trips to the winner’s circle.

Pit strategy looked to be the name of the game early on. Many of the front runners would pit on Lap 20 to establish a three-stop gameplan, others would come down on Lap 31 to shoot for two stops, and a small group would attempt to stretch fuel mileage to one stop, with Mode Motorsports’ Matt Bussa making it the longest among them.

But the playing field would reset with 20 laps to go, as Elliott Sadler Esports’ Ashton Crowder would turn Leahy around in Turn 1, with the William Byron Esports pairing of polesitter Nick Ottinger and Logan Clampitt and JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti all involved.

With many of the fastest cars out of the race, Zalenski would settle into the lead and that would essentially close it out. With a succession of six more cautions, basically in a row, Zalenski’s strong restarts would enable him to close the deal, even as deJong would climb to second after getting past Crowder on one of the green flags.

None of the three overtime attempts would make it to the white flag, with another wreck adding insult to injury for Conti among others on the final attempt.

Full results from Tuesday’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series race from Pocono Raceway were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Interval	Led	Best	Pts
1	4	83	Bobby Zalenski	Chevrolet	100		38	53.188	40
2	20	51	Ray Alfalla	Toyota	100	-0.138	0	53.127	35
3	9	23	Mitchell deJong	Toyota	100	-0.859	0	53.021	34
4	13	1	Ashton Crowder	Toyota	100	-1.083	0	53.064	33
5	6	77	Bob Bryant	Chevrolet	100	-1.387	0	53.112	32
6	7	55	Vicente Salas	Ford	100	-2.165	1	53.160	31
7	10	17	Steven Wilson3	Ford	100	-3.136	2	53.151	30
8	35	29	Zack Nichols	Ford	100	-4.944	4	53.456	29
9	11	21	Garrett Lowe	Ford	100	-7.453	0	52.990	28
10	39	47	Brian Schoenburg	Chevrolet	100	-8.114	18	53.218	27
11	14	41	Dylan Duval	Ford	100	-9.217	0	53.059	26
12	19	18	Femi Olat	Toyota	100	-9.799	0	53.422	25
13	37	90	Zack Novak	Toyota	100	-10.726	1	53.445	24
14	30	67	Allen Boes	Chevrolet	100	-13.918	0	53.387	23
15	16	10	Graham A. Bowlin	Ford	100	-15.532	1	53.455	22
16	12	38	Casey Kirwan	Ford	100	-17.057	0	53.212	21
17	32	9	Michael Guest	Ford	100	-17.460	0	53.379	20
18	18	66	Blake Reynolds	Chevrolet	100	-19.945	0	53.077	19
19	34	46	Jimmy Mullis	Toyota	100	-20.252	0	53.300	18
20	31	14	Blade Whitt	Ford	100	-21.846	0	53.246	17
21	24	2	Garrett Manes	Toyota	100	-22.315	0	53.347	16
22	40	75	Matt Bussa	Ford	100	-22.536	5	53.518	15
23	17	4	Ryan Michael Luza	Ford	100	-24.569	0	53.489	14
24	21	15	Caine Cook	Ford	100	-24.962	0	53.487	13
25	29	6	Nathan Lyon	Ford	100	-25.069	0	53.318	12
26	26	24	Jake Nichols	Ford	100	-25.456	0	53.271	11
27	2	88	Brad Davies	Chevrolet	100	-27.420	9	53.189	10
28	23	16	John Gorlinsky	Ford	100	-27.577	0	53.348	9
29	38	33	Taylor Hurst	Chevrolet	100	-28.839	0	53.543	8
30	28	52	Jake Matheson	Ford	100	-29.491	0	53.712	7
31	27	44	Anthony Burroughs	Chevrolet	100	-30.324	0	53.435	6
32	3	8	Michael Conti	Chevrolet	100	-30.552	10	53.103	5
33	5	32	Keegan Leahy	Toyota	100	-33.366	0	53.292	4
34	33	37	Derek Justis	Chevrolet	100	-33.992	0	53.222	3
35	15	36	Chris Shearburn	Chevrolet	100	-39.639	0	53.572	2
36	25	79	Ryan Doucette	Ford	96	-4 L	0	53.294	1
37	8	97	Logan Clampitt	Chevrolet	96	-4 L	0	52.955	1
38	36	3	Corey Vincent	Chevrolet	95	-5 L	0	53.357	1
39	22	11	Malik Ray	Ford	92	-8 L	0	53.335	1
40	1	25	Nick Ottinger	Chevrolet	81	-19 L	11	53.093	1