A 21-year-old from Iowa City, Iowa, finally took home that elusive first championship of his eNASCAR career on Tuesday night with his runner-up finish at Homstead-Miami Speedway. After being so close in 2022, Steven Wilson was able to get to the top of the eNASCAR world and take home the $100,000 grand prize that comes with it.
“I can’t believe I’m in this situation, gotta thank everyone — my family, friends, Stewart Haas eSports, just everyone. This is incredible,” Wilson said following his championship win.
When asked about how he’ll spend his $100,000 prize? “I’m still in college, so I probably have to go party this weekend,” Wilson joked.
The special part of tonight’s championship, for all four competitors, was racing in person at the NASCAR Hall of Fame with family watching, having a front-row seat to it all. Wilson mentioned how his family and he drove all the way from Iowa to reach the Hall of Fame, and explained that it always means more to win with them in attendance.
Wilson has had a very successful career thus far in eNASCAR. Aside from his eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series success, he has been a top competitor in the eNASCAR College Series, winning several races, including a championship in the Fall edition. But with five wins to his name, and now a title in the Coca-Cola Series, his name goes down in the history books as one of the select few to win a championship in this series.
The 2023 season began quite slow for Wilson and his Stewart-Haas eSports team. Other than the win in Atlanta, he only had two top-ten finishes in the first nine races. But after that, he turned it up a notch and ended the season with seven top tens through the last nine races, including one tonight to take home the title.
Outside of Garrett Lowe, he was the hottest driver of the forty to end this season. The playoffs aren’t about who is the best all year, but rather about who is best when it counts. Wilson was when it counted tonight.
Ever since his debut in 2021, he has made a big splash on the scene. Even without a win that first season, he had a best finish of second with a total of seven top-10 finishes. For a rookie in this series, that is a very strong first year.
His sophomore season in 2022 was the year he completely broke out and scored a total of four wins. He went into the championship finale as arguably the favorite but unfortunately, did not come away with a title. He came into 2023 determined to change that and sealed the deal with the title tonight.
Wilson will go into the 2024 season now as the defending champion, and maybe a little bit of relief compared to how he felt this season. He will look to become only the second repeat champion of this series, with the other being Ray Alfalla.
About the author
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.
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