Images via Justin Melillo
2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie and NASCAR Drive for Diversity racer Rajah Caruth kicked off the five-race DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports season with a victory in Saturday’s opening round from Homestead-Miami Speedway. Taking over the top spot from NASCAR Pinty’s Series driver Treyten Lapcevich, Caruth led the final 10 laps of the 60 lap race to win by .960 seconds over NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series veteran Victor Barrales Jr.
Lapcevich was third, with Miguel Gomes and Diego Ortiz completing the top five. The biggest surprise in the group of front runners wasn’t who was in it, though, but who wasn’t. ARCA Menards Series and Drive for Diversity driver Nick Sanchez had dominated the majority of the race, qualifying on pole and leading the first 40 laps, before contact with Lapcevich while trying to get around a lapped car knocked him out of the top spot. Shortly after, Sanchez elected to retire, relegating him to a 23rd place finish at race’s end.
Two cautions slowed the field for just eight laps, and both came in the first half of the race. Contact between 2021 International Series race winner Simon Pilate and Davide Dallara brought out the first on Lap 21, while Dallara got loose in front of the field shortly after that restart in what became the largest accident of the day with multiple cars involved.
DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports results from Homestead-Miami Speedway were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Name | Manufacturer | Laps | Interval | Led | Best | Pts |
| 1 | 3 | 13 | Rajah Caruth | Chevrolet | 60 | 10 | 33.880 | 40 | |
| 2 | 4 | 39 | Victor Barrales | Ford | 60 | -0.960 | 0 | 33.812 | 35 |
| 3 | 2 | 20 | Treyten Lapcevich | Chevrolet | 60 | -1.095 | 10 | 33.718 | 34 |
| 4 | 11 | 46 | Miguel Gomes | Chevrolet | 60 | -1.800 | 0 | 33.912 | 33 |
| 5 | 12 | 6 | Diego Ortiz | Toyota | 60 | -2.308 | 0 | 33.912 | 32 |
| 6 | 7 | 5 | Aaron Cosio | Ford | 60 | -4.340 | 0 | 33.872 | 31 |
| 7 | 9 | 81 | Justin T Campbell | Chevrolet | 60 | -5.107 | 0 | 34.000 | 30 |
| 8 | 6 | 14 | Alex de Alba | Ford | 60 | -5.642 | 0 | 33.775 | 29 |
| 9 | 20 | 9 | Leo Colavita | Chevrolet | 60 | -6.065 | 0 | 33.818 | 28 |
| 10 | 10 | 8 | Simon Pilate | Chevrolet | 60 | -6.800 | 0 | 34.018 | 27 |
| 11 | 8 | 50 | Tobias Dauenhauer | Ford | 60 | -9.188 | 0 | 33.913 | 26 |
| 12 | 22 | 22 | Andres Perez de Lara | Ford | 60 | -9.677 | 0 | 33.894 | 25 |
| 13 | 13 | 51 | Jake Cosio | Ford | 60 | -10.882 | 0 | 34.017 | 24 |
| 14 | 19 | 18 | Alex Tagliani | Chevrolet | 60 | -12.154 | 0 | 34.396 | 23 |
| 15 | 18 | 148 | Gordon Barnes | Chevrolet | 60 | -13.533 | 0 | 34.031 | 22 |
| 16 | 5 | 69 | Giorgio Maggi | Ford | 60 | -24.218 | 0 | 34.355 | 21 |
| 17 | 21 | 48 | Yevgen Sokolovskiy | Chevrolet | 60 | -35.799 | 0 | 34.152 | 20 |
| 18 | 23 | 77 | Jocelyn Fecteau | Chevrolet | 59 | -1 L | 0 | 34.255 | 19 |
| 19 | 26 | 88 | Massimiliano Lanza2 | Chevrolet | 59 | -1 L | 0 | 34.537 | 18 |
| 20 | 17 | 21 | Alon Day | Chevrolet | 59 | -1 L | 0 | 34.181 | 17 |
| 21 | 25 | 23 | Federico Gutierrez | Chevrolet | 56 | -4 L | 0 | 34.046 | 16 |
| 22 | 24 | 1 | Vladimiros Tziortzis | Ford | 49 | -11 L | 0 | 34.384 | 15 |
| 23 | 1 | 2 | Nicholas Sanchez | Ford | 42 | -18 L | 40 | 33.785 | 14 |
| 24 | 16 | 64 | Paul Jouffreau | Ford | 29 | -31 L | 0 | 34.451 | 13 |
| 25 | 15 | 90 | Davide Dallara | Chevrolet | 24 | -36 L | 0 | 34.214 | 12 |
| 26 | 14 | 10 | Ulysse Delsaux | Chevrolet | 0 | -60 L | 0 | 0 |
The DBOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports season continues on Saturday with a return to road course racing at Belgium’s Circuit Zolder. Live coverage will kick off on Saturday at 12PM ET on eNASCAR.com/live and iRacing.com/live. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
