FUSION Racing

Nearly eight years ago, Dylan Duval scored his maiden eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his rookie campaign in 2016. It took longer than he would have hoped, but on Tuesday night, Duval broke back into the virtual winner’s circle after triple eNASCAR Overtime ended under caution at Talladega Superspeedway. The win not only marked Duval’s second career victory, but also comes as Nitro Circus Sim Racing’s first win as an official eNASCAR team in just their seventh event.

On the final restart, Duval lined up on the outside of the front row, alongside RFK Racing’s Collin Bowden on the bottom. As the field rounded Turn 2, as it played out in the previous three cautions, the field fell apart, triggering a race-ending caution flag. Bowden was sent spinning in the fracas, while Duval was sent up into the outside wall. William Byron eSports’ Tucker Minter and BS+COMPETITION’s Garrett Lowe both got alongside Duval as the field wrecked behind. While both Minter and Lowe passed Duval, scoring at the time of the caution determined Duval remained ahead of them both.

“Man, it’s been a long time coming,” Duval said post-race. “Last year was a huge confidence boost for me. I felt like I could have, and maybe should have, won a couple of races last year, and it just didn’t happen. I’m happy that we were able to turn it around and win tonight. I don’t know if this puts us in the top 20, but it sure helps. I feel like I called my shot this week… Well, damn right, we did it.”

The victory does place Duval above the cut line, which makes his first victory in 2,841 days currently count for a spot in the 2024 eNASCAR Playoffs. He’s only eight points ahead of another winner on the season, Spire Motorsports’ Malik Ray, in 21st. To utilize a win towards playoff contention, drivers must finish the regular season above 20th. Duval is also the sixth different winner in seven races, so should there be more than 10 winners, he’d have to be ahead of a couple of them to also take a place in this year’s fight for the title.

Duval started in the 24th position, but if there was one constant through the night at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, it didn’t matter where you ran up until the very end. Malik Ray scored his first career pole position, but by the end of the first lap, he fell to seventh. The pack was volatile, with the running order in constant flux. As a result, a single-race record number of drivers led at least one lap, a total of 24 drivers. There were even a few drivers that made their way to the front of the field, but were unable to lead the lap. Virtual chess at 200 miles per hour.

The event went caution-free for the first 58 laps, which included a round of green flag pit stops around halfway in the scheduled 70-lap contest. Once the yellow rag came out, it didn’t stop. Treacherous Turn 2 turned into the hot spot for incidents, with the deck shuffling after every demolition derby. Ahead of the fray was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Faulkingham, who led right up until the final restart. Bowden and Duval both managed to sneak by before the second-to-last caution set the field up for a final attempt.

The third and final attempt at eNASCAR Overtime was not a guarantee that the race would finish under green flag conditions. Sure enough, the field exploded one final time on the backstretch, involving Bowden and many more. Duval was barely ahead when scoring was taken for the caution, and after a lap and a half of pacing under yellow, Duval crossed the line for his first win of the year.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Race 7 at Talladega Superspeedway results were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Interval	Led	Best	Pts
1	24	41	Dylan Duval	Nitro Circus Sim Racing	80	0.000	2	47.688	40
2	28	97	Tucker Minter	William Byron eSports	80	-0.145	0	47.404	35
3	26	89	Garrett Lowe	BS+COMPETITION	80	-0.456	0	47.516	34
4	27	18	Bobby Zalenski	Joe Gibbs Racing	80	-0.713	0	47.995	33
5	29	54	Daniel Faulkingham	Joe Gibbs Racing	80	-0.850	14	48.290	32
6	1	7	Malik Ray	Spire Motorsports	80	-1.415	6	48.047	31
7	5	29	Jimmy Mullis	Kevin Harvick Inc.	80	-1.608	2	47.668	30
8	36	45	Michael Guest	23XI	80	-1.834	0	47.984	29
9	4	66	Kollin Keister	Kanaan Esports	80	-2.269	1	47.947	28
10	32	11	Vicente Salas	Kanaan Esports	80	-2.900	0	47.108	27
11	37	69	Ray Alfalla	eRacr	80	-3.224	1	47.816	26
12	35	8	Kaden Honeycutt	JR Motorsports	80	-3.519	0	47.342	25
13	14	53	Parker White	Williams Esports	80	-4.112	4	48.385	24
14	18	80	Ryan Luza	M80	80	-5.062	0	48.250	23
15	17	90	Jordy Lopez	BS+COMPETITION	80	-5.310	0	48.099	22
16	19	3	Jonathon Dulaney	Team Dillon Esports	80	-6.047	1	48.046	21
17	31	12	Garrett Manes	fgrAccel eRacing	80	-6.515	1	48.188	20
18	7	6	Timothy Holmes	RFK Racing	80	-7.282	1	48.463	19
19	20	42	Tyler Garey	eRacr	80	-7.635	1	47.882	18
20	21	33	Taylor Hurst	Team Dillon Esports	80	-8.717	0	48.114	17
21	9	20	Wyatt Tinsley	QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming	80	-9.056	2	48.086	16
22	3	99	Matthew Zwack	Nitro Circus Sim Racing	80	-9.873	2	48.255	15
23	16	25	Nick Ottinger	William Byron eSports	80	-10.559	0	48.364	14
24	10	88	Briar LaPradd	JR Motorsports	80	-10.963	3	47.381	13
25	22	62	Matt Bussa	Kevin Harvick Inc.	80	-11.267	0	48.128	12
26	23	48	Graham A. Bowlin	QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming	80	-11.792	7	48.086	11
27	30	10	Steven Wilson	M80	80	-12.349	14	48.268	10
28	33	17	Collin Bowden	RFK Racing	80	-12.555	6	47.353	9
29	6	38	Michael Cosey Jr	Front Row Motorsports	80	-13.098	3	47.236	8
30	34	22	Femi Olatunbosun	OXYGEN Esports	80	-13.777	2	48.139	7
31	11	36	Quami Scott	Letarte eSports	80	-14.269	1	47.507	6
32	12	40	Dylan Ault	Letarte eSports	80	-14.660	0	48.317	5
33	8	27	Cody Byus	Pittsburgh Knights	80	-14.962	0	48.414	4
34	25	14	Seth DeMerchant	fgrAccel eRacing	79	-1L	0	48.168	3
35	39	51	Donovan Strauss	Williams Esports	77	-3L	0	48.323	2
36	15	5	Zack Novak	OXYGEN Esports	76	-4L	2	48.188	1
37	13	77	Casey Kirwan	Spire Motorsports	74	-6L	2	48.351	1
38	38	34	Darik Bourdeau	Front Row Motorsports	69	-11L	0	47.952	1
39	2	23	Keegan Leahy	23XI	63	-17L	1	48.143	1
40	40	55	Ryan Doucette	Pittsburgh Knights	57	-23L	1	48.013	1

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Driver’s Standings through Round 7 are as follows:

1. Steven Wilson, 204 (2 WINS)
2. Vicente Salas, 198
3. Nick Ottinger, 194
4. Parker White, 183
5. Bobby Zalenski, 181 (1 WIN)
6. Tucker Minter, 177
7. Casey Kirwan, 177
8. Kaden Honeycutt, 160
9. Donovan Strauss, 151
10. Jimmy Mullis, 149
    T-18. Wyatt Tinsley, 135 (1 WIN)
    T-18. Dylan Duval, 135 (1 WIN)

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Segment 2 Standings through Segment Race 3 are as follows:

1. Bobby Zalenski, 109
2. Tucker Minter, 107
3. Vicente Salas, 93
4. Parker White, 92
5. Steven Wilson, 86
6. Jordy Lopez, 83
7. Nick Ottinger, 78
8. Dylan Duval, 75
9. Ryan Luza, 74
10. Daniel Faulkingham, 70

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Team Standings through Round 7 are as follows:

1. William Byron eSports (#25/#97), 371
2. Kanaan Esports (#11/#66), 341
3. Spire Motorsports (#7/#77), 338
4. Williams Esports (#51/#53), 334
5. Joe Gibbs Racing (#18/#54), 326

Talladega marked the final superspeedway-style event for 2024. From here on out, the series will visit a multitude of intermediates, such as Charlotte Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway later this month.

M80’s Steven Wilson didn’t have the result he had hoped for, even after tying for leading the most laps at 14. Regardless, he maintains the overall points lead over Kanaan Esports’ Vicente Salas by six points. Salas, who spent most of the race lapped after serving a pit road start penalty due to a pit road infraction at Dover, made his way back to finish 10th.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski wound up finishing fifth to keep his Segment 2 lead heading to Charlotte, but just barely. Minter, who is second in the segment points, is only two points behind after knocking off yet another podium finish. He was victorious at Charlotte last season, so the remaining two races there and at Darlington could be pivotal to a possible segment victory. Minter’s recent successes, along with teammate Nick Ottinger’s consistent pace, places the William Byron eSports outfit on top of the team standings halfway through the 2024 regular season.

The 40 top-rated eNASCAR drivers will return in two weeks for the eighth race of the 2024 season at Charlotte. A week after that, the series will visit Darlington to conclude the month of May, along with Segment 2.

Tune in on Tuesday, May 21st, at 7:30 p.m. ET for the Countdown to Green. Race coverage at Charlotte begins at 8 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels.

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.