Zalenski: ‘I Left It All On Track’ In eNASCAR Title Fight

Bobby Zalenski (18) avoided chaos for much of Tuesday night, but ended up lowest among the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Championship 4 at the end of the final race. (Justin Melillo/NASCAR photo)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – He may not have been on the prime strategy for the final laps of Tuesday’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season finale, but perennial title contender Bobby Zalenski walked out of the NASCAR Hall of Fame with “no regrets” despite another near-miss of the sport’s biggest prize.

Zalenski, who was making his sixth Championship 4 appearance in eight years of the playoff format, found himself at the front of the field late at the virtual Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway with a shot – yet again – at finally sealing the deal on his elusive first series title.

After a two-tire call on his final pit stop gave Zalenski the track position he’d been seeking all race long, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver appeared poised to have made an improbable run from 32nd starting spot pay off with $100,000 and the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Trophy.

But two tires didn’t trump four after a spate of cautions kept re-racking Zalenski’s championship rivals close behind him – nor did they stop “pure grit” when Parker White made a stunning four-wide pass for the win and the title stick on the final lap of overtime at the 1.5-mile oval.

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Though Zalenski tried to fight back with a last-corner bump-and-run attempt, the move didn’t pan out and he ended up spinning less than a thousand feet from the finish line.

Instead of runner-up in the race and the title tilt, Zalenski saw his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE end up 14th on track and last among the Championship 4 in the final standings.

There was no frustration from the 29-year-old Fresno, Calif., native however – not really, anyways. He’d been in the position of “close, but no cigar” five times previously.

“So, what’s one more?” Zalenski noted amid the post-race festivities at the Hall late Tuesday night.

His uphill climb started from the very beginning, as Zalenski lined up worst among the Championship 4 and buried deep in the 40-car starting field with just 100 laps to try and find a way toward the front.

Zalenski took right-side tires only on his first pit stop of the night at lap 31 in an effort to mitigate the deficit from his “horrible” 32nd-place qualifying effort.

It barely got him inside the top 20 at that point, but Zalenski repeated the play on his final stop inside of 25 to go, and that was the moment he found himself restarting on the front row with his first breath of clean air all night.

The eight-year series veteran had a gut feeling it wouldn’t last, however, and his intuition was right in the end.

“I’ll be honest, I knew I was almost dead in the water [when the final caution came out] because I was on two tires and that was the second time in a row that I’d taken two tires,” Zalenski admitted. “I don’t remember too much, but those left sides pretty much lasted the whole race. I was just trying to do everything I possibly could to make up ground.

“With Parker at the very end, I knew I was just going to send it and hopefully get him a little sideways, but these cars are tough. I didn’t quite get him sideways enough, so I just throttled up to try to get into him and he was still ahead to where it kind of knocked my car loose,” he added. “I just couldn’t save it … and overcorrected, even though I tried hard to hang on to it.

“If I didn’t overcorrect, he was still going to have the run, so I guess [the spin] made a difference of maybe finishing second or third versus fourth … but I don’t care. I just wanted the trophy at that point.”

As a raucous live audience watched on, Zalenski made some of the more daring moves of the entire night during the two-lap overtime restart that ended the 18th and final race of the season.

Bobby Zalenski (18, background) spins coming to the checkered flag in Tuesday's eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Justin Melillo/NASCAR photo)

Even in the moment, Zalenski figured winning it all was “probably a long shot,” but he said he wasn’t giving in until the bitter end – especially when he passed Wilson at the start of overtime to briefly take over the championship lead on track.

“I was just trying to position my car wherever I could to give myself the best chance and crowd Steven,” he said in reexamining the final restart. “I doored Steven, Steven doored me back … it was just good racing, but I knew the whole time I had a grip disadvantage. I was definitely glad I had [technical teammate and late-race leader] Tucker [Minter] up there as a friend, because I wouldn’t even been close if I was alone there.

“I just wanted to get to the last lap and hopefully have a shot to win it, and I was,” Zalenski continued. “I did literally everything I could.”

Zalenski has found himself likened to NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin or current NASCAR Cup Series star Denny Hamlin, both of whom never won a premier level championship, as the greatest eNASCAR driver yet to win the title.

It’s a position that others might be frustrated to be in, but Zalenski relishes just having the chance to compete at the highest level of esports racing on a year-after-year basis.

“I’m not going to sit here and whine about being close so many times. I’m pretty happy to even make it [to the championship race] six times,” he admitted. “If anything, last time [in 2022] was way more crushing, because I feel like I should have won that one. I just had a weird pit stop that night and maybe could have done a better job on a late restart to knock the guys out of my way or something. But this time it felt like I was the underdog when the race started.

“Graham and I started from the back to begin with, so it’s not as crushing now as last time; I’m annoyed at myself for qualifying [poorly]. But I was there on the last lap, so what do you do … you know?”

That was the sentiment Zalenski kept reiterating as he moved slowly toward the exit of the Great Hall.

He wasn’t about to look back at what was over, only toward what’s ahead of him in the future.

“No regrets, man,” he said firmly. “I had a good time … and hopefully we’ll get back here next year and give it another go.

“I left it all on track.”