Steven Wilson refused to lose at his home track on Tuesday night.

The M80 driver scored his third win of the 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season at Iowa Speedway after withstanding a late-race battle with Graham Bowlin of QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming and Parker White of Williams Esports. Wilson walks away with his eighth career win in 64 starts, and his points lead continues to grow with only four races remaining in the regular season.

With the laps dwindling late, Wilson ran in second behind Bowlin, with White stalking in third. While all three drivers race for separate official teams, they do share an alliance on the backend, and test regularly throughout the week for each event. That didn’t matter as they came around Turn 4 to take two laps to go in regulation, as Wilson collided with Bowlin, the two sliding and saving as they crossed the line. This allowed White to get alongside, a three-wide battle into Turn 1, but a caution would throw a wrench into the chaos.

Wilson was ahead at the time of the yellow, with White moving into second and Bowlin dropping back to third. On the final restart, Wilson made quick work of the others, establishing a lead before the final corner of the final lap. White was able to get second, and sent one last shot in at Wilson to move him out of the groove, but Wilson held on.

“I guess it’s my reputation now,” Wilson joked post-race. “We’re racing for the win, and it’s hard to win these things. I’m doing all I can. It’s the first-ever race here at Iowa Speedway. (It was) a little bump and run, short track racing, as they say. It’s nothing crazy, (Bowlin) finished still P3 in the race. It was going to be close there if it went green, I was running him down. I just really wanted that one.”

Bowlin, on the other side of the contact, was less enthused about it, essentially needing a win to keep his eNASCAR Playoff chances alive. “Points don’t matter,” Bowlin said. “I’m already top 20, so I was aiming for the win. I don’t know what I could have done differently, to be honest. I drove a pretty good race, and I passed (Wilson) around the outside cleanly. Then I was holding a steady gap at the end, before the caution came out. I was probably going to win if it went green… Then (Wilson) just throttled up into my left rear. Like, I don’t know.”

HEAT RACING RETURNS

Iowa featured a special Heat Racing format, just as Richmond Raceway, the other short track on the schedule, did earlier in the year. The field split in half after qualifying, with the odd-numbered qualifiers in Heat 1 and the evens in Heat 2. Wilson scored the pole position, while Bowlin took second. Both drivers would hold on to win their respective heats, collecting 10 additional points towards the regular season standings, as well as the start of Segment 3.

The top 10 in each heat race earned points, similar to how NASCAR awards stage points in the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck series. With that in mind, both Wilson and Bowlin had the opportunity to walk away with 50 points in hand for a victory as opposed to the regular 40.

Heat races did not include caution periods. In the first heat, Quami Scott (Letarte eSports) was bit by this, spinning from the middle of the pack to finish last, resulting in no additional points and a 39th place starting spot in the main event. The second heat had slightly more drama, as the two Kanaan Esports drivers, Vicente Salas and Kollin Keister, who were gridded third and fourth after qualifying, collided early and finished in the final two positions of their heat. They also both lost out on points and it made both of their nights exponentially harder in the main race.

MAIN EVENT

While each heat was 30 laps of uninterrupted racing, the Main was set for 90 laps, with cautions enabled. The drivers wouldn’t need a pit stop for fuel, but tires were available, should they need them in case of a well-timed yellow.

Wilson led early, but right before the 20th lap, Bowlin took control of the field. His reign continued up until the first caution of the race at Lap 67. The entire field opted to pit, and the overwhelmingly utilized call was for two tires. Bowlin continued to lead, but White had jumped Wilson for second place. Another caution flew on the ensuing restart, which triggered the new restart procedures put into place after Darlington; the next restart would be single file, as opposed to the regular double.

It nearly allowed the race to stay green until the end, but one last caution with two to go jumbled up the field for one last double file restart attempt. Just before the caution, Bowlin and Wilson had their scuffle, and for the final restart, Wilson was in control. Wilson held on and takes another leap towards defending his title with another bank of five playoff points to add to his lead.

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series results from Iowa Speedway were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Interval	Led	Best	Pts
1	1	10	Steven Wilson	M80	96	0.000	26	24.048	50
2	3	53	Parker White	Williams Esports	96	-0.088	0	23.990	44
3	2	48	Graham A. Bowlin	QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming	96	-0.272	70	24.117	44
4	4	20	Wyatt Tinsley	QuikTrip Pioneers Gaming	96	-0.506	0	24.048	42
5	9	5	Zack Novak	OXYGEN Esports	96	-0.550	0	24.096	38
6	26	77	Casey Kirwan	Spire Motorsports	96	-0.602	0	24.053	31
7	11	97	Tucker Minter	William Byron eSports	96	-0.686	0	23.979	35
8	10	90	Jordy Lopez	BS+COMPETITION	96	-0.861	0	24.140	35
9	15	18	Bobby Zalenski	Joe Gibbs Racing	96	-0.943	0	24.148	31
10	25	25	Nick Ottinger	William Byron eSports	96	-1.009	0	24.072	27
11	5	51	Donovan Strauss	Williams Esports	96	-1.033	0	24.166	34
12	21	41	Dylan Duval	Nitro Circus Sim Racing	96	-1.120	0	24.116	25
13	20	22	Femi Olatunbosun	OXYGEN Esports	96	-1.131	0	24.059	25
14	19	12	Garrett Manes	fgrAccel eRacing	96	-1.213	0	24.011	24
15	27	29	Jimmy Mullis	Kevin Harvick Inc.	96	-1.287	0	24.064	22
16	13	54	Daniel Faulkingham	Joe Gibbs Racing	96	-1.467	0	24.057	25
17	7	80	Ryan Luza	M80	96	-1.833	0	24.164	27
18	14	14	Seth DeMerchant	fgrAccel eRacing	96	-1.888	0	24.189	23
19	35	27	Cody Byus	Pittsburgh Knights	96	-1.872	0	24.081	18
20	33	69	Ray Alfalla	eRacr	96	-1.933	0	24.138	17
21	12	89	Garrett Lowe	BS+COMPETITION	96	-2.063	0	23.923	21
22	8	38	Michael Cosey Jr	Front Row Motorsports	96	-2.070	0	24.109	22
23	23	7	Malik Ray	Spire Motorsports	96	-2.463	0	24.166	14
24	38	11	Vicente Salas	Kanaan Esports	96	-2.763	0	24.142	13
25	29	55	Ryan Doucette	Pittsburgh Knights	96	-2.848	0	24.133	12
26	31	3	Jonathon Dulaney	Team Dillon Esports	96	-2.920	0	24.174	11
27	36	6	Timothy Holmes	RFK Racing	96	-2.930	0	24.092	10
28	30	45	Michael Guest	23XI	96	-3.189	0	24.150	9
29	37	34	Darik Bourdeau	Front Row Motorsports	96	-4.519	0	24.103	8
30	24	42	Tyler Garey	eRacr	96	-5.323	0	24.148	7
31	22	8	Kaden Honeycutt	JR Motorsports	96	-6.230	0	24.212	6
32	16	40	Dylan Ault	Letarte eSports	96	-6.620	0	24.125	8
33	34	17	Collin Bowden	RFK Racing	96	-10.235	0	24.335	4
34	32	33	Taylor Hurst	Team Dillon Esports	96	-12.110	0	24.101	3
35	17	99	Matthew Zwack	Nitro Circus Sim Racing	96	-12.358	0	24.056	4
36	40	66	Kollin Keister	Kanaan Esports	96	-18.595	0	24.164	1
37	18	88	Briar LaPradd	JR Motorsports	96	-19.505	0	24.093	3
38	39	36	Quami Scott	Letarte eSports	94	-2L	0	24.462	1
39	6	62	Matt Bussa	Kevin Harvick Inc.	74	DNF	0	24.374	9
40	28	23	Keegan Leahy	23XI	72	DNF	0	24.603	1

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Driver’s Standings through Round 10 are as follows:

1. Steven Wilson, 316 (3 WINS)
2. Parker White, 286
3. Vicente Salas, 273 (1 WIN)
4. Nick Ottinger, 271
5. Bobby Zalenski, 255 (1 WIN)
6. Casey Kirwan, 252
7. Tucker Minter, 243
8. Kaden Honeycutt, 231
9. Zack Novak, 222
10. Jordy Lopez, 214
    12. Garrett Lowe, 205 (1 WIN)
    14. Dylan Duval, 203 (1 WIN)
    17. Wyatt Tinsley, 193 (1 WIN)
    19. Malik Ray, 178 (1 WIN)

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Segment 3 Standings after Round 1 of 5 are as follows:

1. Steven Wilson, 50
2. Parker White, 44
3. Graham A. Bowlin, 44
4. Wyatt Tinsley, 42
5. Zack Novak, 38
6. Tucker Minter, 35
7. Jordy Lopez, 35
8. Donovan Strauss, 34
9. Casey Kirwan, 31
10. Bobby Zalenski, 31

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Team Standings through Round 10 are as follows:

1. William Byron eSports (#25/#97), 514
2. Williams Esports (#51/#53), 488
3. M80 (#10/#80), 486
4. Spire Motorsports (#7/#77), 464
5. Kanaan Esports (#11/#66), 464

With only four races to go, seven of the eight winners on the season find themselves within the top 20 in the standings. This leaves only three playoff spots open for winless drivers, and those belong to White, Nick Ottinger (William Byron eSports), and Casey Kirwan (Spire Motorsports) after Iowa. There could be four new winners in the final four Regular Season races, which could mean that

Bowlin sits tied for 15th in the standings, 50 points behind Kirwan leaving Iowa. While the points gap is not insurmountable, a win would be the easiest solution. Also, there could be no points spots available, depending on who wins these next four races. If each race features a new winner, some race winners won’t race for a title this year.

The 40 top-rated eNASCAR drivers will head to Nashville Superspeedway in two weeks for the 11th race of the 2024 season. Last year, Jimmy Mullis and Garrett Lowe turned rivals after a late bit of contact worked in Mullis’s favor and at Lowe’s expense. Could we see more drama unfold between Wilson and Bowlin as well?

Tune in on Tuesday, June 25th, at 7:30 p.m. ET for the Countdown to Green. Race coverage for the event 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.