Conti Earns Checkered Flag in Caution-Filled eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Action from Las Vegas

Images via Justin Melillo

After a dramatic and caution-filled 100 laps, Michael Conti scored his 12th career eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Tuesday night by pulling away from the field in the final few laps. It marked the second year in a row that the JR Motorsports driver punched his playoff ticket early, after winning last year’s opener at Daytona International Speedway, and holding off close friend and fellow series champion Nick Ottinger of William Byron eSports after the duo dominated most of the race.

Ottinger led the field to green, but just like last year, the caution flag first flew early as Mode Motorsports’ Cody Byus got the worst of an early racing incident while trying to split a gap between Spacestation Gaming’s Kyle Peddle and Williams Esports driver Vicente Salas going into Turn 1. Salas’ teammate Donovan Strauss spun in a similar place after contact of his own just a few laps later, sliding back up into the pack and collecting Letarte Esports’ Brian Mercurio and Team Dillon eSports’ Taylor Hurst.

Subsequent incidents as the race continued collected 2021 playoff drivers like Matt Bussa and Mitchell deJong, and even defending series champion Keegan Leahy with 30 laps to go. Two laps after the restart from Leahy’s incident, runner-up Logan Clampitt got the worst of yet another frontstretch accident as drivers continued to push the limits of the Next Gen car.

But while this year’s race had more cautions than 2021, and many of them fell later in the race, there was no overtime necessary to set up the finish. Conti managed to extend his gap to .775 seconds at the finish over Ottinger, with defending event winner Ryan Luza falling just short of third place to Charlotte Phoenix driver Graham Bowlin. Despite all of the carnage, 25 drivers—even including drivers like Leahy and Salas who took significant damage—were able to complete all 100 laps of the race.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Las Vegas Motor Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Name

Manufacturer

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts

128Michael ContiChevrolet1000.0007529.76240
2125Nick OttingerChevrolet100-0.7741929.69935
31748Graham A. BowlinToyota100-0.950029.78734
464Ryan  LuzaChevrolet100-0.956029.61033
52095Casey KirwanChevrolet100-0.961029.80632
6253Corey VincentChevrolet100-1.034029.77031
71431Garrett ManesChevrolet100-1.208029.81230
8219Michael GuestFord100-1.253029.84429
93369Collin BowdenChevrolet100-1.892029.73128
102779Femi OlatunbosunFord100-3.457029.92927
113615Blake ReynoldsFord100-3.561029.77026
121051Ray AlfallaToyota100-3.723029.72625
132946Jimmy MullisChevrolet100-3.827029.89224
14718Bobby ZalenskiToyota100-3.828029.84323
152321Garrett LoweFord100-3.870029.87722
162688Briar LaPraddChevrolet100-4.121029.90321
17345Keegan LeahyToyota100-5.398029.86220
181841Dylan DuvalFord100-5.408029.83919
19327Malik RayFord100-8.559029.76918
20875Matt BussaFord100-9.526029.91017
213916Blade WhittFord100-11.207029.91516
221110Steven  WilsonFord100-11.330029.68315
232243Kollin KeisterToyota100-11.333029.82214
24346Parker RetzlaffFord100-14.633029.89113
251619Vicente SalasToyota100-20.110029.74612
26355Zack NovakChevrolet99-1 L029.92511
271254Kyle PeddleToyota99-1 L029.77710
284017Kaden HoneycuttFord99-1 L030.0729
29242Liam BrothertonChevrolet98-2 L029.9928
302836Brian MercurioChevrolet94-6 L029.9257
31540Dylan AultChevrolet93-7 L029.8786
32923Mitchell deJongToyota91-9 L029.9145
333712Derek JustisFord82-18 L029.9074
34442Darik BourdeauChevrolet81-19 L629.8313
351397Logan ClampittChevrolet78-22 L029.7932
363055Allen BoesToyota78-22 L029.9431
371524Cody ByusFord69-31 L031.6881
381920Donovan StraussToyota65-35 L029.9541
393133Taylor HurstChevrolet26-74 L030.0371
403814Nickolas SheltonFord21-79 L032.0121

 

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through two rounds are as follows:

  1. Michael Conti, 73
  2. Femi Olatunbosun, 67
  3. Garrett Manes, 65
  4. Blake Reynolds, 57
  5. Jimmy Mullis, 56
  6. Casey Kirwan, 55
  7. Ryan Luza, 52
  8. Steven Wilson, 49
  9. Bobby Zalenski, 49
  10. Dylan Duval, 49

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season continues at Atlanta Motor Speedway two weeks from now, where Clampitt won last spring to earn his way into the 2021 playoffs. Broadcast coverage begins on Tuesday, March 15 at 8:30PM ET with Countdown to Green before a 9PM ET green flag, and can be seen at enascar.com/live.

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit www.enascar.com or www.iracing.com/enascar. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.