eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Preview: Daytona

TUNE IN // TUESDAY, 9PM ET // twitch.tv/iracing

No more waiting—it’s finally time for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series to officially kick off its season tonight at Daytona International Speedway. After a week of test races kicked off by the Clash at Daytona, the 40 drivers and 20 teams in this year’s championship are ready to get the quest for the championship started, in hopes of taking home their share of a purse worth more than $300,000.

Defending series Zack Novak enters Daytona as the defending race winner, and he’ll look to link up once again with Jimmy Mullis to make a push for the front of the pack. Last year, Novak scored the title for Roush Fenway Racing; this year, he joins Mullis at Richmond Raceway eSports as the replacement for Malik Ray, who jumped to Joe Gibbs Racing. Other superspeedway favorites include William Byron eSports teammates Nick Ottinger and John Gorlinsky, the latter of whom won the Clash after carving through a last-lap accident, the Denny Hamlin Racing duo of Casey Kirwan and Keegan Leahy, and new Clint Bowyer Racing driver Brandon Kettelle.

As a whole, this year’s eNASCAR field may be the deepest in series history, with only a handful of pure rookies and a number of veteran sim racers who returned to iRacing’s highest level of NASCAR competition. Some of the new combinations are intriguing: JTG Daugherty Racing’s Jeremy Allen will hope to replicate the real-world feat of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and put the #47 Chevrolet on the pole on Tuesday, while Kyle Larson Racing’s 1-2 punch of Steve Sheehan and Bob Bryant comprises one of the most experienced teams on the grid. And don’t forget Virtual Racing School, which will pair 2019 Championship 4 driver Bobby Zalenski with four-time eNASCAR champion Ray Alfalla, or Williams Esports, which signed Ryan Luza in free agency.

As for the returning driver-team combinations, JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti and Brad Davies and Burton Kligerman Esports’ Logan Clampitt and Ashton Crowder will all aim to put their new-look rides in Victory Lane. Matt Bussa (Williams Esports), Corey Vincent (Renegades), Jarl Teien (G2 Esports), Chris Overland (Wood Brothers Racing), and Christian Challiner (JTG Daugherty Racing) will also return to the same cars and numbers they ran last year.

The full 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series roster is as follows:

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action from Daytona International Speedway will stream live on Tuesday at 9PM ET/6PM PT. Be sure to tune in on Facebook, Twitch, or YouTube to watch it all go down!