Michael Conti has been a staple of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for more than a decade, scoring the 2014 championship and earning plenty of race wins along the way. When he announced earlier this year that the 2023 season would be his last, it didn’t just give him one more shot at that second title—it also left him with only one shot to score an eNASCAR win at a handful of tracks making their series debut for this year.
The first of those was the Milwaukee Mile for Tuesday night’s DBOX 100, and the JR Motorsports driver wasted no time. He took the lead from Jim Beaver eSports driver Malik Ray with 20 laps to go shortly after a restart, and after surviving one more yellow flag, hung on to score his 14th career eNASCAR win. It marked the third year in a row that Conti either won the first or second race of the season, after he won the opener at Daytona in 2021 and the second round of the season at Las Vegas last year.
With no eNASCAR history at Milwaukee, which drivers would excel was anyone’s guess coming into the night. Conti’s close friend and setup teammate, fellow former series champion Nick Ottinger of William Byron eSports, qualified on pole and led more than half of the race to kick things off. The race started with more than 40 green flag laps before the first caution came out for eRacr’s Collin Bowden, allowing most of the field to pit. That set off a flurry of yellow, with seven of the eight cautions on the night coming between laps 42 and 69 and the field eventually switching to single-file restarts.
Ray took the lead from Ottinger just as the fifth caution flew, using the bumper to unsettle Ottinger and nosing ahead coming out of Turn 2. He’d hang on up front for 18 laps before Conti finally made the winning pass on Lap 81, with Ottinger returning the favor for second a few laps later. fgrACCEL’s Garrett Manes would also sneak past for third with two to go, but with two top-fives to start the season, Ray would nonetheless leave Milwaukee with the points lead.
eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from the DBOX 100 at Milwaukee were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Interval | Led | Best | Pts |
| 1 | 10 | 8 | Michael Conti | JR Motorsports | 100 | 0.000 | 20 | 29.518 | 40 |
| 2 | 1 | 25 | Nick Ottinger | William Byron eSports | 100 | -0.291 | 61 | 29.667 | 35 |
| 3 | 21 | 12 | Garrett Manes | fgrAccel | 100 | -1.417 | 0 | 29.770 | 34 |
| 4 | 9 | 7 | Malik Ray | Jim Beaver eSports | 100 | -1.972 | 18 | 29.695 | 33 |
| 5 | 8 | 48 | Graham A. Bowlin | Charlotte Phoenix | 100 | -2.001 | 0 | 29.755 | 32 |
| 6 | 6 | 95 | Casey Kirwan | XSET | 100 | -2.101 | 0 | 29.787 | 31 |
| 7 | 13 | 18 | Bobby Zalenski | Joe Gibbs Racing | 100 | -2.203 | 0 | 29.864 | 30 |
| 8 | 31 | 75 | Zack Novak | Rise eSports | 100 | -2.313 | 0 | 29.812 | 29 |
| 9 | 27 | 40 | Dylan Ault | LETARTE eSports | 100 | -2.769 | 0 | 29.881 | 28 |
| 10 | 7 | 41 | Dylan Duval | Stewart-Haas Racing | 100 | -2.903 | 0 | 29.853 | 27 |
| 11 | 5 | 3 | Jordy Lopez Jr | Team Dillon eSports | 100 | -3.121 | 0 | 29.798 | 26 |
| 12 | 24 | 88 | Kevin King | JR Motorsports | 100 | -3.418 | 0 | 29.907 | 25 |
| 13 | 19 | 20 | Wyatt Tinsley | Kansas City Pioneers | 100 | -3.622 | 0 | 29.927 | 24 |
| 14 | 15 | 34 | Allen Boes | Front Row Motorsports | 100 | -3.908 | 0 | 29.899 | 23 |
| 15 | 23 | 4 | Ryan Luza | XSET | 100 | -4.007 | 0 | 29.889 | 22 |
| 16 | 36 | 33 | Tucker Minter | Team Dillon eSports | 100 | -4.019 | 0 | 29.837 | 21 |
| 17 | 26 | 66 | Tyler Garey | Tony Kanaan Esports | 100 | -4.438 | 0 | 29.910 | 20 |
| 18 | 18 | 17 | Kaden Honeycutt | RFK Racing | 100 | -4.665 | 1 | 29.879 | 19 |
| 19 | 25 | 46 | Jimmy Mullis | Rise eSports | 100 | -5.287 | 0 | 29.815 | 18 |
| 20 | 20 | 11 | Parker White | Tony Kanaan Esports | 100 | -5.549 | 0 | 29.812 | 17 |
| 21 | 17 | 38 | Michael Cosey Jr | Front Row Motorsports | 100 | -5.759 | 0 | 29.810 | 16 |
| 22 | 34 | 31 | Derek Justis | Kansas City Pioneers | 100 | -5.768 | 0 | 29.957 | 15 |
| 23 | 32 | 42 | Kollin Keister | eRacr | 100 | -6.138 | 0 | 29.894 | 14 |
| 24 | 30 | 45 | Michael Guest | 23XI | 100 | -6.310 | 0 | 29.922 | 13 |
| 25 | 2 | 97 | Matt Bussa | William Byron eSports | 100 | -6.359 | 0 | 29.762 | 12 |
| 26 | 16 | 2 | Corey Vincent | Pittsburgh Knights | 100 | -6.393 | 0 | 29.718 | 11 |
| 27 | 35 | 23 | Keegan Leahy | 23XI | 100 | -6.514 | 0 | 29.898 | 10 |
| 28 | 37 | 15 | Garrett Lowe | Jim Beaver eSports | 100 | -6.603 | 0 | 29.906 | 9 |
| 29 | 4 | 1 | Darik Bourdeau | Elliott Sadler eSports | 100 | -6.706 | 0 | 29.890 | 8 |
| 30 | 33 | 77 | Ryan Doucette | Pittsburgh Knights | 100 | -6.787 | 0 | 29.887 | 7 |
| 31 | 22 | 36 | Brandon McKissic | LETARTE eSports | 100 | -7.093 | 0 | 29.929 | 6 |
| 32 | 14 | 69 | Collin Bowden | eRacr | 100 | -7.312 | 0 | 29.953 | 5 |
| 33 | 38 | 51 | Donovan Strauss | Williams eSports | 100 | -7.450 | 0 | 29.963 | 4 |
| 34 | 3 | 27 | Cody Byus | Elliott Sadler eSports | 100 | -7.498 | 0 | 29.961 | 3 |
| 35 | 28 | 14 | Joey Brown | fgrAccel | 100 | -8.099 | 0 | 29.937 | 2 |
| 36 | 11 | 10 | Steven Wilson | Stewart-Haas Racing | 100 | -9.609 | 0 | 30.334 | 1 |
| 37 | 12 | 55 | Vicente Salas | Williams eSports | 91 | -9L | 0 | 29.894 | 1 |
| 38 | 39 | 54 | Daniel Faulkingham | Joe Gibbs Racing | 86 | -14L | 0 | 30.373 | 1 |
| 39 | 29 | 6 | Timmy Holmes | RFK Racing | 48 | -52L | 0 | 30.439 | 1 |
eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series points through two rounds are as follows:
- Malik Ray, 68
- Nick Ottinger, 66
- Michael Conti, 65
- Casey Kirwan, 64
- Tucker Minter, 61
- Graham Bowlin, 61
- Zack Novak, 53
- Allen Boes, 51
- Tyler Garey, 50
- Dylan Duval, 49
The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway for its next event, but Round 3 of the 2023 campaign will mark the first time that the series has used its newer oval configuration. Race coverage begins on Tuesday, March 14 at 9 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live, with Countdown to Green kicking off at 8:30 to set the stage for the action.
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
