Over the past few years of eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series competition, 23XI’s Mitchell deJong and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski had established themselves as the drivers to beat on the series’ handful of road course events each year. With the shift to a “win and you’re in” playoff format, at least one member of that duo could usually come into the year feeling confident about their spot in the 10-driver title campaign.
But current Charlotte Phoenix driver Graham Bowlin flipped the script at Watkins Glen International last year by holding the duo off, and Stewart-Haas eSports’ Steven Wilson both dominated this year’s Road America regular season round and held off Zalenski in the All-Star Race from Chicago two weeks ago. So it was down to deJong and Zalenski in Tuesday night’s return to Watkins Glen for what may be the final playoff spot—and when the dust settled, it was deJong grabbing hold of it with his first win of the season.
Zalenski would qualify on the pole ahead of Bowlin, but deJong would cut through the chaos of the first lap to get into second place and shadow the leader. On Lap 13 of 45, deJong would finally make his move, and it turned out to be the winning one. Zalenski’s attempted undercut in pit stops after the halfway point of the race didn’t allow him to reclaim the lead, and deJong would go on to take the victory by more than six seconds, with Zalenski, Bowlin, Wilson, and XSET’s Casey Kirwan completing the top five.
But the first lap shifted the playoff picture dramatically beyond just giving deJong an opportunity, with bubble drivers Zack Novak of Rise Esports and Zalenski’s JGR teammate Ray Alfalla getting caught up in carnage that would cause them to fall off the current playoff grid at race’s end. The duo would finish 25th and 36th, respectively, knocking Alfalla and his win out of the top 20 and allowing the winless Zalenski to pass Novak for the 10th and final spot on the grid by points. Zalenski, Novak, and Jim Beaver eSports’ Blake Reynolds are separated by just six points for that final spot heading into the regular season finale at Darlington; if there’s not a new winner, the best finisher among the trio has a good shot at taking the final spot.
eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Watkins Glen International were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Interval | Led | Best | Pts |
| 1 | 4 | 23 | Mitchell deJong | 23XI | 45 | 0.000 | 33 | 1:08.517 | 40 |
| 2 | 1 | 18 | Bobby Zalenski | Joe Gibbs Racing | 45 | -6.846 | 12 | 1:08.661 | 35 |
| 3 | 2 | 48 | Graham A. Bowlin | Charlotte Phoenix | 45 | -9.868 | 0 | 1:09.223 | 34 |
| 4 | 7 | 10 | Steven Wilson | Stewart Haas Racing | 45 | -10.416 | 0 | 1:08.894 | 33 |
| 5 | 10 | 95 | Casey Kirwan | XSET | 45 | -16.011 | 0 | 1:08.877 | 32 |
| 6 | 3 | 19 | Vicente Salas | Williams eSports | 45 | -16.770 | 0 | 1:09.413 | 31 |
| 7 | 6 | 25 | Nick Ottinger | William Byron eSports | 45 | -17.117 | 0 | 1:09.534 | 30 |
| 8 | 8 | 41 | Dylan Duval | Stewart Haas Racing | 45 | -23.216 | 0 | 1:08.982 | 29 |
| 9 | 23 | 8 | Michael Conti | JR Motorsports | 45 | -28.183 | 0 | 1:09.428 | 28 |
| 10 | 12 | 40 | Dylan Ault | Letarte Esports | 45 | -28.344 | 0 | 1:09.571 | 27 |
| 11 | 15 | 55 | Allen Boes | Space Station Gaming | 45 | -31.341 | 0 | 1:08.956 | 26 |
| 12 | 11 | 21 | Garrett Lowe | Wood Brothers Racing | 45 | -32.314 | 0 | 1:09.307 | 25 |
| 13 | 13 | 15 | Blake Reynolds | Jim Beaver eSports | 45 | -33.602 | 0 | 1:09.600 | 24 |
| 14 | 38 | 46 | Jimmy Mullis | Rise eSports | 45 | -34.362 | 0 | 1:09.587 | 23 |
| 15 | 14 | 24 | Cody Byus | Mode Motorsports | 45 | -35.117 | 0 | 1:09.755 | 22 |
| 16 | 9 | 97 | Logan Clampitt | William Byron eSports | 45 | -35.779 | 0 | 1:09.229 | 21 |
| 17 | 21 | 31 | Garrett Manes | Elliot Sadler eSports | 45 | -38.198 | 0 | 1:09.165 | 20 |
| 18 | 26 | 4 | Ryan Luza | XSET | 45 | -44.148 | 0 | 1:10.029 | 19 |
| 19 | 17 | 3 | Corey Vincent | Team Dillon Esports | 45 | -46.570 | 0 | 1:09.562 | 18 |
| 20 | 16 | 75 | Matt Bussa | Mode Motorsports | 45 | -47.085 | 0 | 1:08.970 | 17 |
| 21 | 27 | 33 | Taylor Hurst | Team Dillon Esports | 45 | -47.943 | 0 | 1:09.063 | 16 |
| 22 | 20 | 36 | Brian Mercurio | Letarte Esports | 45 | -49.982 | 0 | 1:09.578 | 15 |
| 23 | 19 | 6 | Parker Retzlaff | Roush Fenway Keselowski | 45 | -50.565 | 0 | 1:10.597 | 14 |
| 24 | 18 | 17 | Kaden Honeycutt | Roush Fenway Keselowski | 45 | -54.285 | 0 | 1:09.207 | 13 |
| 25 | 36 | 5 | Zack Novak | Rise eSports | 45 | -56.873 | 0 | 1:09.845 | 12 |
| 26 | 40 | 2 | Liam Brotherton | Elliot Sadler eSports | 45 | -58.651 | 0 | 1:09.238 | 11 |
| 27 | 29 | 43 | Kollin Keister | Charlotte Phoenix | 45 | -1:00.312 | 0 | 1:09.434 | 10 |
| 28 | 5 | 45 | Keegan Leahy | 23XI | 45 | -1:01.572 | 0 | 1:09.522 | 9 |
| 29 | 30 | 16 | Blade Whitt | Wood Brothers Racing | 45 | -1:08.818 | 0 | 1:09.455 | 8 |
| 30 | 25 | 79 | Femi Olatunbosun | Clint Bowyer Racing | 44 | -1L | 0 | 1:09.710 | 7 |
| 31 | 33 | 9 | Michael Guest | Jim Beaver eSports | 44 | -1L | 0 | 1:09.916 | 6 |
| 32 | 22 | 20 | Donovan Strauss | Williams eSports | 44 | -1L | 0 | 1:09.385 | 5 |
| 33 | 35 | 54 | Kyle Peddle | Space Station Gaming | 44 | -1L | 0 | 1:09.170 | 4 |
| 34 | 31 | 69 | Collin Bowden | eRacr | 43 | -2L | 0 | 1:09.899 | 3 |
| 35 | 32 | 88 | Briar LaPradd | JR Motorsports | 33 | DNF | 0 | 1:09.646 | 2 |
| 36 | 28 | 51 | Ray Alfalla | Joe Gibbs Racing | 24 | -21L | 0 | 1:09.908 | 1 |
| 37 | 37 | 14 | Nickolas Shelton | Clint Bowyer Racing | 19 | Disqualified | 0 | 1:11.431 | 1 |
| 38 | 24 | 42 | Darik Bourdeau | eRacr | 17 | DNF | 0 | 1:09.818 | 1 |
| 39 | 39 | 12 | Derek Justis | iRacing Motorsports | 16 | DNF | 0 | 1:11.604 | 1 |
| 40 | 34 | 7 | Malik Ray | iRacing Motorsports | 10 | DNF | 0 | 1:10.424 | 1 |
The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoff grid after 13 rounds is as follows:
- Steven Wilson, 2 wins/347 points
- Nick Ottinger, 2 wins/312 points
- Michael Conti, 2 wins/292 points
- Casey Kirwan, 1 win/356 points
- Matt Bussa, 1 win/334 points
- Graham Bowlin, 1 win/309 points
- Mitchell deJong, 1 win/290 points
- Femi Olatunbosun, 1 win/280 points
- Garrett Lowe, 1 win/270 points
- Bobby Zalenski, 298 points
The 2022 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series regular season continues in two weeks at Darlington Raceway. Broadcast coverage begins on Tuesday, August 30 at 8:30PM ET with Countdown to Green before the 9PM ET green flag. Live coverage of all the action 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.
Images via Justin Melillo
