Ashton Crowder Scores eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Win at Auto Club

Burton Kligerman eSports’ Ashton Crowder prevailed in an intense late-race battle in Tuesday night’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series race from Auto Club Speedway. Crowder scored his second career eNCiS win by getting the best of Wood Brothers Racing’s Garrett Lowe, as the two drivers traded the lead multiple times in the final laps of Round 2 of this year’s championship.

The early stages of the race suggested that pit strategy would be a huge factor, as only a handful of drivers elected to try a riskier one-stop gameplan while most of the field pitted around Lap 30. With track position at a premium, their gamble looked to pay off perfectly when Joe Gibbs Racing’s Graham Bowlin made contact with JTG Daugherty Racing’s Christian Challiner just after the pit cycle completed, bringing out the first yellow flag of the race, and the season, on Lap 53.

All of the two-stop drivers pit under yellow, giving the one-stop drivers important track position with just a handful of extra laps on their tires and fuel runs. But that strategy went out the window as the race restarted on Lap 57, as Jim Beaver eSports’ Michael Guariglia got loose in Turn 3 and then took contact from Team Dillon Esports’ Blake Reynolds. The resulting incident collected a number of other front-runners, including Williams Esports’ Ryan Luza and California native Logan Clampitt of Burton Kligerman eSports, who had combined to lead 20 laps.

The second restart of the day went more smoothly, and fellow Californian Bobby Zalenski of Virtual Racing School and Jake Nichols of Mode Motorsports had a prolonged battle for the lead before Crowder found his way to the point for the first time on Lap 79. Lowe, meanwhile, had been carving his way through the top 10, climbing eight spots in 12 laps to grab onto second place on Lap 89. He made a pass for the lead with five laps to go, but Crowder reclaimed the top spot two laps later and held on for the win.

Full results from eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series action at Auto Club Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best Lap

Pts.

11777Ashton CrowderToyota100160.00040.14545
21021Garrett LoweFord1002-0.12840.02740
3583Bobby ZalenskiChevrolet10013-0.59939.96839
43324Jake NicholsFord10013-1.20340.38438
53716Chris OverlandFord1000-1.37440.32436
6897John GorlinskyChevrolet1002-1.54740.31436
7723Casey KirwanToyota1002-1.75639.99635
82146Jimmy MullisToyota1000-2.01940.00833
9223Blake ReynoldsChevrolet1000-2.21840.24332
102566Jarl TeienChevrolet1000-2.60139.89931
11322Ray AlfallaChevrolet10013-2.92340.18331
1295Matt BussaFord1000-2.93439.94629
132388Brad DaviesChevrolet1000-3.17140.05028
143575Phillip DiazFord1000-3.30940.22627
154047Jeremy R AllenChevrolet1000-3.55740.05926
162755Caine CookFord1000-3.77940.22825
173154Alex McCollumChevrolet1000-3.93140.02124
181442Bob BryantChevrolet1000-4.14640.09923
19394Santiago TirresChevrolet1000-4.52340.27022
20625Nick OttingerChevrolet1001-4.65740.03422
213814Brandon KettelleFord1000-4.89640.09220
22132Keegan LeahyToyota10013-5.12140.09320
23136Nathan LyonFord1001-7.21840.19819
241210Justin BoltonFord1000-7.30640.02117
252027Corey VincentFord1000-7.63340.21016
261618Graham A. BowlinToyota1000-7.71540.06215
272417Kollin KeisterFord1000-10.14840.13414
2841Steve SheehanChevrolet1000-12.61640.07913
29369Eric J. SmithFord1000-16.68240.07612
30158Michael ContiChevrolet1000-16.72140.19111
312941Dylan DuvalFord1000-26.03440.14410
32236Chris ShearburnChevrolet1004-37.40039.95910
332633Michael GuestChevrolet1000-38.59840.2208
343051Malik RayToyota990-1 L40.2407
351937Christian ChallinerChevrolet990-1 L40.1326
36353Ryan Michael LuzaFord988-2 L40.1396
373479Brian SchoenburgFord960-4 L40.1584
381199Logan ClampittToyota6912-31 L40.3234
392815Michael GuarigliaFord670-33 L40.4582
401890Zack NovakToyota580-42 L40.1461

 

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season continues on March 17 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race can be streamed live at 9PM ET/6PM PT on eNASCAR.com/live and iracing.com/live. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.