Steven Wilson showed the entire eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series field why he is the defending champion, making a dramatic pass on Tucker Minter in overtime at Dover Motor Speedway to become the first multi-race winner of 2024.
“Yeah, that was pretty wild I’d say,” Wilson said during the Sunoco Post Race Report. “Honestly, it’s just really fun when you’re running up front and know that you have that speed every week.”
After leading much of the second half, Minter settled for second place. Polesitter Donovan Strauss placed third with a late charge, while Ryan Luza and Bobby Zalenski completed the top five.
“It’s just frustrating to get all those cautions and giving everyone a chance to get all these restarts on you,” Minter said about the finish. “I feel like I raced Steven [Wilson] clean, and he raced me pretty clean.”
TONIGHT’S ACTION
Strauss led the field to green in his No. 51 Williams eSports Ford. After battling side-by-side with Wilson for the first handful of laps, Strauss cleared and pulled away to a lead of about four car lengths. Wilson stayed within striking distance of Strauss and then took the top spot on lap 38.
A few moments later, Taylor Hurst got loose off of turn four and into the left rear of Malik Ray, setting off a chain reaction crash that led to the first caution of the evening. The entire field came down pit road for fresh tires and fuel.
After taking just two left-side tires, Kaden Honeycutt inherited the point in his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, leading the field back to green on lap 42. After fending off a couple of challenges, Honeycutt pulled away to a slightly over one second lead over the rest of the field.
As the run progressed, Minter reeled in Honeycutt, getting to his back bumper and making the pass with 45 laps left. Ten laps later, another frontstretch wreck involving the likes of Casey Kirwan, Kollin Keister and Garrett Manes brought out the race’s second flag. On the ensuing pit stops under caution, most teams up and down pit road took two tires in order to maintain track position.
Minter kept the lead as the race restarted with 30 laps remaining, but he had a mirror full of Wilson applying pressure as the laps wound down. At 16 laps to go, Garrett Lowe and Collin Bowden made contact towards the back to put the race back under yellow flag conditions.
The pace picked up with 11 laps left, and the fierce battle for the lead resumed between Minter and Wilson. But then another wreck in the pack involving Hurst slowed the race down with nine to go. Minter was out front by a matter of inches at the moment of caution. The race got back up to speed again with four laps to go, but Lowe wrecked again later that lap following some contact from Ray Alfalla to set the stage for overtime.
In overtime, Minter and Wilson had about an equal restart. The two then made contact down the backstretch, opening the door for Honeycutt to briefly make it three-wide for the lead. Wilson then cleared Honeycutt, got around Minter, and held on for the checkered flag.
PLAYOFF STANDINGS (EIGHT RACES LEFT IN REGULAR SEASON)
| Steven Wilson | 2 Wins |
| Bobby Zalenski | 1 Win |
| Wyatt Tinsley | 1 Win |
| Nick Ottinger | +45 Points |
| Casey Kirwan | +41 |
| Vicente Salas | +36 |
| Parker White | +24 |
| Donovan Strauss | +14 |
| Zack Novak | +8 |
| Tucker Minter | +7 |
| Kaden Honeycutt | -7 |
| Briar LaPradd | -7 |
| Matt Bussa | -13 |
Both Keegan Leahy and Ray have won this season, but they are currently not playoff eligible due to being outside the top 20 in points.
NEXT UP
The drivers of the eNCCiS will take to the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks on Tuesday, May 7. Race coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. with Countdown to Green, followed by the 70-lap race beginning at 8 p.m. on enascar.com/live, youtube.com/iracingofficial, and twitch.tv/iracing.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.