It is no secret that the racing quality has not been the best we’ve seen in the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season. However, any bad racing that has taken place this season, might well have been forgotten about after tonight’s (May 30) thriller at the virtual Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Just like we saw in real life in the past two years, the Next-Gen has created some of the best racing we’ve seen at Charlotte. The question should be, what about it makes that the case?
Tonight, we saw a fantastic battle for the win between Casey Kirwan and Jimmy Mullis before the two ultimately came together with four laps to go. That allowed Tucker Minter to score the win on the ensuing overtime finish.
What about that battle made it so good? They were side by side for multiple laps, not just one. While dirty air and aero push are still a thing in this Next-Gen car, Charlotte just seems to be the perfect racetrack for it. That battle gave us one of the best we may have ever, yes ever, seen in this series. Even if it ultimately ended in a crash between the two drivers, it still provided some excellent racing.
You can tell throughout that battle, that Mullis was certainly pushing that car off the corner, while making contact with Kirwan a few times. But that was the case with a lot of drivers tonight. All three grooves were able to be utilized, with Kirwan notably using the groove right next to the wall.
With Charlotte’s worn-out surface, and the Next-Gen being a solid intermediate car, it seems like the best combination for good racing. The last two seasons, the real-life Coca-Cola 600 gave us two of the best we’ve seen in that race’s history. This race tonight for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series was one of the best we’ve seen at Charlotte in the over decade of completion the series has seen. An array of battles with three wide racing mixed in, combined with the battle for the win was everything you could have asked for out of a 100-lap event.
It is simple when it comes to intermediate racing. When you have a car that allows you to move around to different grooves, combined with tire wear, and a track that has a somewhat worn-out surface, you almost always get a great race. That is what tonight gave us, and for many, this will be a race to remember for a long time.
The next race for the series takes place at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 13. Coverage will begin at 9 p.m. ET on Twitch.tv/iRacing or eNASCAR.com.
Brandon is a 22-year-old from NY and has been a passionate follower of motorsports for 14 years now. He recently graduated from Molloy College on Long Island with a BA in Communications. Working within NASCAR has been a dream for Brandon for a while, and he hopes to be able to live out the dream in the very near future.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.