Wilson Takes Dramatic eNASCAR Opener At Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With a daring last-lap pass, past eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Steven Wilson kicked off the new season with a victory Tuesday night in the traditional opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Wilson, who was running third at the white flag, followed Daniel Faulkingham past then-leader and series rookie Connor Yeroschak in turn one before making his move for the win to the outside entering turn three.

Knowing that defending series titlist Parker White and Zack Novak were coming with a run from behind, Wilson flared high to pick up the momentum and surged past Faulkingham for the top spot, taking a lead he wouldn’t relinquish all the way to the finish line.

As cars crashed behind him entering the tri-oval, reminiscent of the final lap of the 2007 Daytona 500, Wilson edged White by .039 seconds for his 10th career Coca-Cola Series victory.

It marks the first time in his career that Wilson has won the Daytona opener and put himself into the playoffs this soon into a season.

“It was crazy, you know? We were just planning on when to pit,” Wilson explained of his strategy to try and position himself in the second half of the race. “When I blocked the top on Casey (Kirwan inside of 10 to go) I thought it was over. I was hoping that (the finish) would be between me and Faulkingham.

“The tandems have been pretty big since the last build. I threw a block on Parker and luckily, he held onto it and straightened it out.”

Wilson delivered the second series win for Spire Motorsports in his first race since joining the team during free agency. But despite his success at Daytona, he’s still not the biggest fan of superspeedway racing.

“My Daytona finishes don’t really show how much I don’t like doing this,” Wilson continued. “Daytona is just a place where a lot of things have to go right. There’s a lot of strategic work and thinking and I love that, even though I know I said I don’t like pack racing.”

A wild opening quarter saw six different drivers exchange the lead 10 times, including polesitter Logan Clampitt, with past series champion Casey Kirwan holding the top spot when the first caution waved on lap 19.

The multi-car melee, sparked by Dylan Duval spinning out of the pack on the backstretch, extended into turn three but didn’t lead to many damaged race cars. It did, however, produce a set of pit stops that allowed 2023 titlist Steven Wilson to jump from sixth to first in his first ride with Spire Motorsports.

Wilson led the field back to green for the first restart on lap 23, but the outside lane quickly prevailed, with Six Karma’s Faulkingham setting the tone by grabbing the point with help from Dylan Ault.

The first turning point of the race came on lap 28, when Ryan Luza was spun out of the pack down into Bobby Zalenski, breaking up the lead draft and allowing a 14-car lead pack to escape and pull away from the majority of the field because no caution flag was triggered by the sim.

LaPradd was at the front of the line at that point, taking command of the middle stages of the race by leading through the halfway benchmark until pitting for the final time with 36 laps left for fuel to the finish.

As others began to follow that cue and cycled through their pit service, a spinning Michael Cosey Jr. in the tri-oval with 33 to go drew the second caution of the race and brought the remainder of those who had yet to pit down for their final stops, leveling out the strategy for the run toward the finish.

Ault led the field back to green with 29 laps left, pulling the inside lane while Nate Stewart spun at the back of the field, falling to 35th and well out of the lead draft as a result.

But Wilson was ready to begin making moves. He used a push from Jimmy Mullis to grab the lead with 27 to go, dicing with Faulkingham over the next few laps at the front of the field as the pack began to develop a third lane.

Matt Bussa and Cody Byus crashed in the tri-oval inside of 25 to go, but no caution was called, leading to another shuffle of the lead pack and Six Karma teammates Eddie Kerner and Faulkingham taking control of the head of the line until 17 to go.

At that point, Wilson rolled the bottom lane with momentum before jumping up in front of Kerner and Faulkingham to retake control. It then became a battle between Faulkingham, Wilson, and Novak inside of the 10-to-go benchmark.

But the drama wasn’t over. Wilson got hung out on the bottom lane in turn three coming to three laps to go, leading to a major stack-up in the middle of the pack that ended in JR Motorsports rookie Blake McCandless being shoved into the wall after Blaze Crawford got hooked into him from below.

That incident led to the overtime restart that decided the race, with White trying to make a last gasp move to the apron to try and pass Wilson that simply didn’t have enough steam.

Malik Ray came from 35th to complete the podium, followed by Novak and 39th-starting Tucker Minter, who was the biggest mover in the season opener.

Kirwan, Femi Olat, Jordy Lopez, Ault, and Mullis closed out the top 10. Yeroschak dropped to 11th after leading at the white flag, but was still the top-finishing rookie.

Clampitt ended up one lap down by race’s end, 29th in the final rundown.

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season continues Tuesday night, Feb. 25 at the virtual Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, where Keegan Leahy won last year’s race in a near-photo finish. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET, live on the iRacing eSports Network at eNASCAR.com/live.

A replay of every eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event is available via iRacing’s YouTube channel.

The results:

Race (82 laps, extended due to overtime finish82): 1. 77-Steven Wilson [5], 2. 95-Parker White [18], 3. 1-Malik Ray [35], 4. 2-Zack Novak [25], 5. 97-Tucker Minter [39], 6. 24-Casey Kirwan [19], 7. 7-Femi Olatunbosun [15], 8. 89-Jordy Lopez [33], 9. 47-Dylan Ault [8], 10. 29-Jimmy Mullis [20], 11. 40-Connor Yeroschak [6], 12. 69-Tyler Garey [3], 13. 15-Kollin Keister [13], 14. 39-Daniel Faulkingham [14], 15. 66-Alexander Russell [16], 16. 21-Michael Guest [26], 17. 17-Timmy Holmes [10], 18. 48-Graham Bowlin [38], 19. 51-Donovan Strauss [37], 20. 11-Vicente Salas [31], 21. 36-Quami Scott [12], 22. 62-Matt Bussa [24], 23. 34-Michael Cosey Jr. [27], 24. 33-Taylor Hurst [34], 25. 3-Blaze Crawford [11], 26. 88-Briar LaPradd [17], 27. 8-Blake McCandless [40], 28. 96-Christopher Hill [30], 29. 42-Logan Clampitt [1], 30. 50-Quentin Warman [7], 31. 25-Nick Ottinger [21], 32. 98-Cody Byus [28], 33. 22-Bobby Zalenski [32], 34. 12-Ryan Luza [9], 35. 99-Garrett Lowe [22], 36. 5-Nate Stewart [4], 37. 199-Dylan Duval [2], 38. 19-Eddie Kerner [23], 39. 6-Collin Bowden [36], 40. 14-Seth DeMerchant [29].

Lead Changes: 30 among 14 drivers

Lap Leader(s): Logan Clampitt 1, Tyler Garey 2, Dylan Duval 3, Tyler Garey 4, Dylan Duval 5-7, Logan Clampitt 8, Tyler Garey 9-10, Timmy Holmes 11-14, Casey Kirwan 15-20, Steven Wilson 21-22, Daniel Faulkingham 23, Connor Yeroschak 24-25, Malik Ray 26, Briar LaPradd 27-43, Malik Ray 44, Tyler Garey 45, Matt Bussa 46-48, Dylan Ault 49-53, Steven Wilson 54-57, Daniel Faulkingham 58-59, Eddie Kerner 60-63, Steven Wilson 64-66, Daniel Faulkingham 67-68, Casey Kirwan 69, Steven Wilson 70, Zack Novak 71-73, Casey Kirwan 74, Daniel Faulkingham 75-76, Casey Kirwan 77-80, Connor Yeroschak 81, Steven Wilson 82.

Laps Led: Briar LaPradd 17, Casey Kirwan 12, Steven Wilson 11, Daniel Faulkingham 7, Tyler Garey 5, Dylan Ault 5, Dylan Duval 4, Timmy Holmes 4, Eddie Kerner 4, Connor Yeroschak 3, Matt Bussa 3, Zack Novak 3, Logan Clampitt 2, Malik Ray 2.

Hard Charger: 97-Tucker Minter (+34)

Pole Position: 42-Logan Clampitt, 49.293 seconds (182.582 mph); XXX career and first of season

Rookie of the Race: 40-Connor Yeroschak (11th)

Caution Flags: Three for nine laps

Winning Team: Spire Motorsports

Margin of Victory: 0.038 seconds

Time of Race: One hour, 13 minutes, 13.758 seconds

Average Speed: 167.966 mph

Fastest Lap: 1-Malik Ray, Lap 7, 44.298 seconds (203.169 mph)