Kettelle Conquers Talladega in Dramatic eNASCAR Regular Season Finale

In his 63rd try, Superspeedway specialist Brandon Kettelle finally scored his first career eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory on Tuesday night at Talladega Superspeedway. Kettelle used a push from Eric Smith to get past Bob Bryant and outrun challenges led by Nick Ottinger and Bobby Zalenski as the field wrecked behind the leaders coming to the checkered flag, while Jimmy Mullis dominated the race’s early stages and survived the drama to punch his ticket into the playoffs.

“This is Talladega—this is awesome!” exclaimed Kettelle, a noted superspeedway specialist who also took the victory in the independently sanctioned Firecracker 400 earlier this year. “Last week, after the great run I had, I posted a win sticker that I really wanted to put on my computer. This week, it’s finally going on there. This is crazy—I’ve always wanted to win one of these things!”

The relatively clean racing of the season opener from Daytona, and not the caution-heavy drama of the series’ second visit to that track, defined much of the night as the series made its third and final superspeedway stop of 2020. Both sets of pit stops came under green flag conditions, jumbling up the field and pinballing drivers on the playoff bubble through the live point standings. Much of the night saw drivers holding two wide in the pack, but as the race approached its closing stages, the third line began to finally establish itself as a player in the dash to the finish.

After a number of close calls throughout the night, calamity finally struck with eight laps to go when the field caught the lapped car of playoff contender Logan Clampitt. Clampitt kept to the inside, trying to get his damaged machine to blend into the pack, but ended up catching Jake Nichols in the process and causing the first caution of the race.

The green flag flew again with four laps to go, and the field would hang on from there. Bryant would move from the inside line to the outside with two laps to go, temporarily blocking the path for Kettelle, but he’d move back to the bottom for the final lap. That ended up making the difference, as clean air for the tandem of Kettelle and Smith in the middle lane allowed them to nose ahead at the finish line. The top 10 crossed the line unimpeded, but a mid-pack incident shuffled much of the field behind them.

In the end, the uneasy proposition of finishing up the regular season on a wild card track proved to only change one name in the playoffs. Mullis, who led a race-high 27 laps and posted the fastest lap of the race, ended up laying claim to a spot at Clampitt’s expense. Bobby Zalenski and Keegan Leahy had already been locked in, while Ottinger, Michael Conti, Ryan Luza, Garrett Lowe, and four-time series champion Ray Alfalla survived the melee.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Talladega Superspeedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Led

Interval

Best

Pts

1914Brandon KettelleFord94647.05844
2269Eric J. SmithFord940-0.05447.01639
32177Bob BryantToyota9410-0.06147.15639
42083Bobby ZalenskiChevrolet941-0.10646.93238
5246Jimmy MullisToyota9427-0.10846.72738
61025Nick OttingerChevrolet943-0.11547.17736
71533Michael GuestChevrolet940-0.16247.10734
848Michael ContiChevrolet940-0.17147.17533
9690Zack NovakToyota941-0.18746.74433
103217Kollin KeisterFord947-0.22147.13732
111288Brad DaviesChevrolet940-0.55046.87230
12162Ray AlfallaChevrolet940-0.59546.74329
133747Steve SheehanChevrolet940-0.71646.90128
14327Corey VincentFord940-0.80646.80627
152541Dylan DuvalFord941-0.84546.80727
16766Jarl TeienChevrolet940-0.94346.95925
171855Caine CookFord940-0.98646.76624
18176Nathan LyonFord940-1.01346.93623
192421Garrett LoweFord940-1.15247.16622
201918Graham A. BowlinToyota9416-1.28546.86222
21283Blake ReynoldsChevrolet940-1.28946.78620
223575Phillip DiazFord940-1.36246.92719
23137Christian ChallinerChevrolet942-1.41646.81319
243653Ryan Michael LuzaFord940-1.50947.03717
253023Casey KirwanToyota940-1.73046.76716
262397John GorlinskyChevrolet942-1.76246.94316
27524Jake NicholsFord940-1.85547.13514
281416Chris OverlandFord940-2.26146.86113
292751Malik RayToyota9413-2.75946.84113
30335Matt BussaFord940-4.72147.12211
312254Alex McCollumChevrolet940-13.93846.92110
321136Chris ShearburnChevrolet931-1 L46.79510
333179Brian SchoenburgFord930-1 L46.8458
34134Santiago TirresChevrolet930-1 L46.9287
352932Keegan LeahyToyota930-1 L47.0696
36899Logan ClampittToyota934-1 L47.5786
373410Justin BoltonFord920-2 L47.1224

 

The unofficial eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoff grid, and their regular-season points totals, are as follows:

  1. Bobby Zalenski, 499
  2. Michael Conti, 475
  3. Keegan Leahy, 474
  4. Nick Ottinger, 474
  5. Garrett Lowe, 458
  6. Ryan Luza, 430
  7. Ray Alfalla, 428
  8. Jimmy Mullis, 422

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series returns to action in two weeks’ time at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. As always, the race can be streamed live at 9PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live and on the iRacing Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.