White Wins Miami Thriller & First eNASCAR Championship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In perhaps the most dramatic final lap in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series history, Parker White pulled off the move of his young career to lay claim to the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Trophy.

With a mind-boggling, four-wide pass for the ages entering turn one at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, White surged from fourth to the lead on the far inside of the 1.5-mile oval during the final lap of overtime Tuesday night.

The 18-year-old then defended as though his life depended on it for the last mile of the race, surviving challenges from a pair of his championship rivals en route to his second straight victory and maiden series title.

After weathering a desperation bump from Bobby Zalenski in turn three, White beat season-long dominator Steven Wilson back to the finish line despite contact with the outside wall exiting the final corner, banking $100,000 as the 12th different champion in eNASCAR’s 15-year professional history.

It was a turn of events that left White in tears as he embraced his family after the race, celebrating as part of a live, in-person finale event held inside the Great Hall of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“I don’t even know what to say!” exclaimed White as he rose from his sim rig and pumped his fist in jubilation. “The way the whole thing ended … that was completely nuts!”

White led just the final lap in a race that was extended four circuits past its scheduled 100-lap distance.

It was the only lap that mattered though.

“Those last two laps, I restarted behind Bobby and knew I’d have a chance to put it at least three-wide there on the frontstretch,” he recalled after watching a replay of the overtime finish. “As soon as I saw Steven overdrive [turn one], I knew it was going to be all me. Got off turn two with the lead … and then Bobby, I knew he was going to send it.

“I didn’t quite expect him to send it that much, but I knew I had to use the wall to keep as much momentum as I could … so I hit the wall, bounced off of it and was able to keep [the top spot],” added the Norridgewock, Maine, native. “Just everything went my way, and I made the right moves.

“This is completely surreal. I saw this series on TV [during the COVID-19 pandemic] and decided I wanted to be part of it … and now to win the championship is beyond anything I could have imagined.”

Though the last lap alone featured a lifetime’s worth of drama, the road that led to that point began with 27 to go in the 100-lap showdown, when Kollin Keister spun on the backstretch to bring out the third caution of the race.

The yellow sparked a final round of pit stops, where Zalenski took two tires in an effort to gain track position while the other Championship 4 contenders – Wilson, White, and Graham Bowlin – all took four tires.

It meant that Zalenski restarted on the outside of the front row in second, while his three pursuers lined up ninth, 10th, and 14th, respectively.

At first, the four tires behind Zalenski appeared they’d be an extreme advantage, as Wilson roared from ninth to sixth in a half lap following the green flag with 22 laps left.

However, a quick yellow for a multi-car incident in the mid-pack – which saw Bowlin pick up nose damage on his No. 48 Toyota Camry XSE – slowed the pace again and helped to trim down the remaining laps one by one.

Additional chaos ensued thereafter, and three more cautions later, overtime became a necessary reality to determine both the finish of the race and the recipient of the six-figure championship prize.

While William Byron eSports’ Tucker Minter lined up as the race leader – as one of the drivers who, like Zalenski, had gambled on two tires at the final pit stop – Wilson was second at that point, with Zalenski third, White fourth, and Bowlin back in ninth nursing his wounded race car.

As a back-end technical teammate to Zalenski, Minter helped the Joe Gibbs Racing driver time the launch perfectly on the extra-distance restart, allowing Zalenski to surge past Wilson on the inside of turns one and two and just work clear of the M80 eSports Ford Mustang Dark Horse coming onto the backstretch.

At that moment, Zalenski ran second in the race to Minter but was leading the title fight with a lap-and-a-half to go. Not content, however, Zalenski ducked to the inside of Minter for the race lead on approach to turn three – and full-fledged insanity began to ensue.

Zalenski washed up the groove just before the apex of the third turn, stalling his and Minter’s momentum enough that Wilson was able to charge back to the inside and make it a three-wide fight for the top spot exiting turn four, bringing the assembled crowd to their feet coming to the white flag.

Wilson led by inches at the flagstand as the last lap began, but didn’t know White was coming from behind with a full head of steam. In an instant, as the No. 53 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 darted all the way to the white line against the apron, the lead scrap became a four-wide madhouse for all the marbles.

As White sailed it in low, Wilson shot out ahead of the chaos like a hot dog out of a bun, but overcooked the back half of turns one and two and washed up the banking. That allowed White to charge to the lead and Zalenski to blast back past into the runner-up spot going down the backstretch for the last time.

Entering turn three, Zalenski’s final hope was a bump-and-run attempt to try and get back to the front. He delivered the shot squarely to White’s rear bumper, sending the leader deeper into the turn than he wanted to go and shooting White up into the outside wall by the exit of the final corner.

White then bounced off the SAFER Barrier, coming down into the side of Zalenski’s Toyota as Zalenski tried to make the winning pass. The contact sent Zalenski spinning behind as White escaped and charged toward the checkered flag.

Wilson came through the smoke and tried to get back to White, but had to settle for runner-up honors, falling .167 of a second short of defending his Coca-Cola Series title and becoming the sport’s second multi-time champion.

Despite the damage he sustained in the lap-79 crash on the backstretch, Bowlin rallied to finish third, both in the race and in the final point standings.

Zalenski’s last-corner spin dropped him to 14th in the final rundown, lowest of the Championship 4.

Bowlin’s Kansas City Pioneers teammate Wyatt Tinsley crossed the line fourth, with Minter wisely backing out of the final lap quad-stack and ultimately completing the top five finishers.

Sixth through 10th were Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Faulkingham, BS+ Competition’s Garrett Lowe, Tony Kanaan eSports’ Vicente Salas, Spire Motorsports’ Malik Ray, and Nitro Circus Sim Racing’s Matthew Zwack.

After starting from the pole, Salas led three times for a race-high 42 laps, but was unable to recapture the track position he needed to play spoiler in the closing stages.

White’s teammate Donovan Strauss was out front for 19 circuits in the second half of the race, hoping to win the season finale for the second straight year, but spun during the penultimate caution flag with nine laps left in regulation and fell out of contention for a strong finish.

However, Strauss did get back to 25th, earning enough points to help lock up the teams’ championship for Williams eSports for the first time in the storied brand’s history.

It marked the second time one organization swept both the driver and team titles in the same season, after 23XI Racing first accomplished the feat in 2021, the year Keegan Leahy raced to the crown.

While the 2025 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series calendar has yet to be officially announced, the season is expected to begin Tuesday, Feb. 11 with the traditional opener at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.

Replays of every race from this year’s campaign are available on the iRacing YouTube channel.

The results (Championship 4 drivers listed in bold):

1. 53-Parker White [3], 2. 10-Steven Wilson [2], 3. 48-Graham Bowlin [26], 4. 20-Wyatt Tinsley [6], 5. 97-Tucker Minter [23], 6. 54-Daniel Faulkingham [5], 7. 89-Garrett Lowe [4], 8. 11-Vicente Salas [1], 9. 7-Malik Ray [8], 10. 99-Matthew Zwack [14], 11. 77-Casey Kirwan [25], 12. 6-Timmy Holmes [40], 13. 69-Ray Alfalla [36], 14. 18-Bobby Zalenski [32], 15. 34-Michael Frisch [21], 16. 45-Michael Guest [10], 17. 12-Garrett Manes [33], 18. 33-Taylor Hurst [17], 19. 29-Jimmy Mullis [19], 20. 90-Jordy Lopez [20], 21. 8-Kaden Honeycutt [27], 22. 22-Femi Olatunbosun [22], 23. 5-Zack Novak [9], 24. 38-Michael Cosey Jr. [39], 25. 51-Donovan Strauss [7], 26. 23-Keegan Leahy [34], 27. 88-Briar LaPradd [11], 28. 14-Seth DeMerchant [30], 29. 3-Jonathon Dulaney [35], 30. 40-Dylan Ault [16], 31. 25-Nick Ottinger [12], 32. 66-Kollin Keister [24], 33. 36-Quami Scott [31], 34. 55-Ryan Doucette [28], 35. 17-Collin Bowden [29], 36. 41-Dylan Duval [15], 37. 42-Tyler Garey [13], 38. 27-Cody Byus [38], 39. 80-Ryan Luza [18], 40. 62-Matt Bussa [37].

Lead Changes: Eight among five different drivers

Lap Leader(s): Vicente Salas 1-31, Steven Wilson 32-44, Vicente Salas 45-54, Steven Wilson 55, Vicente Salas 56, Donovan Strauss 57-75, Tucker Minter 76-102, Steven Wilson 103, Parker White 104.

Laps Led: Vicente Salas 42, Tucker Minter 27, Donovan Strauss 19, Steven Wilson 15, Parker White 1.

Hard Charger: 6-Timmy Holmes (+28)

Pole Position: 11-Vicente Salas, 33.118 seconds (163.053 mph); third career and first of season

Rookie of the Race: 99-Matthew Zwack (10th)

Caution Flags: Seven for 27 laps

Winning Team: Williams eSports

Margin of Victory: 0.167 seconds

Time of Race: One hour, 17 minutes, 48.867 seconds

Average Speed: 120.286 mph

Fastest Lap: 97-Tucker Minter, Lap 91, 33.137 seconds (162.960 mph)