There is nothing quite like a first career win in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.
Daniel Faulkingham became the latest driver to experience that feat, utilizing pit strategy and holding off a hard-charging Steven Wilson to win at the virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway and punch his ticket to the playoffs.
“I can’t believe we just won a Coke Series race man,” an emotional Faulkingham said on the Sunoco Post Race Report. “I’ve been on this server for seven, eight years now. To actually win at this level, I’m over the moon, loss for words.”
Faulkingham and Wilson were on opposite ends of a late-race strategy call, with Faulkingham staying out for track position while Wilson pitted for tires and fuel. For the defending series champion Wilson, the fresh rubber almost paid off.
“Yeah, I definitely thought I had a shot with fresher tires,” Wilson said about the last lap. “Honestly I thought we were the fastest car in the race. Congrats to [Daniel Faulkingham]. He’s been saying the past couple of days he was going to win this race, and he went out there and did it.”
Garrett Lowe finished third, followed by Casey Kirwan in fourth and polesitter Kollin Keister in fifth.
TONIGHT’S ACTION
Keister led the field to the yard of bricks for the initial green flag. It did not take long for the pack to string out and race mostly single file as drivers had a hard time completing passes.
The top four of Keister, Cody Byus, Vicente Salas and Dylan Duval maintained those starting spots until lap 16 when Wilson navigated to the outside of Duval to take the fourth position. By lap 20, Wilson got around both Byus and Salas for the second spot behind Keister.
On lap 27, the caution came out for the first time when Quami Scott and Tyler Garey got together after exiting pit road. The incident occurred in the middle of a green-flag pit cycle, shuffling the running order when a handful of drivers who already pitted stayed out while others came down for tires and fuel.
This plot twist put Lowe at the front of the field for the restart with half of the 60 laps complete. Lowe showed the way until Femi Olatunbosun took the lead with 19 laps to go, receiving drafting help from Wilson.
That pass occurred just before a wreck in turn 1 brought out the second yellow flag of the evening. Wyatt Tinsley, Matthew Zwack and Byus were among those involved. The caution led to another split in pit strategy, with about half of the field staying out and the other half taking tires and fuel.
As a result, Lowe regained the lead for the restart with 15 laps left. Lowe did not stay there long though as Faulkingham made the pass for the lead one lap later. Faulkingham pulled out to a gap of about four car lengths before the third caution of the race with 11 laps remaining for a turn three crash that collected Ray Alfalla and Darik Bourdeau, among others.
Faulkingham got a good jump on the restart with seven laps to go, only for the caution to come back out later that lap when Tucker Minter and Matt Bussa made contact on the backstretch.
Faulkingham again had a great restart with three laps remaining to open up a few car lengths on the rest of the pack. However, Wilson got from fifth to third coming to the white flag. Wilson made short work of Lowe to get up to second, and he got to the back bumper of Faulkingham in turn three. But Faulkingham held strong to come back to the yard of bricks a winner.
POINT STANDINGS (ONE RACE LEFT IN REGULAR SEASON)
| Steven Wilson | 3 Wins |
| Bobby Zalenski | 2 Wins |
| Vicente Salas | 1 Win |
| Tucker Minter | 1 Win |
| Garrett Lowe | 1 Win |
| Daniel Faulkingham | 1 Win |
| Dylan Duval | 1 Win |
| Wyatt Tinsley | 1 Win |
| Parker White | +48 |
| Nick Ottinger | +17 |
| Casey Kirwan | -17 |
| Kaden Honeycutt | -35 |
| Graham Bowlin | -51 |
It is shaping up to be an intense battle for the final playoff spots at Pocono in two weeks. It is possible that as many as three drivers make it in on points, or we could see a playoff grid made up entirely of race winners.
It all depends on whether we get a new or repeat winner at Pocono, if Tinsley can stay in the top 20 in points, or if Malik Ray can crack the top 20 to become playoff eligible with his win at Atlanta.
NEXT UP
The drivers of the eNCCiS will have one last chance to make the playoffs with the regular season finale on Tuesday, July 30, at the virtual Pocono Raceway. Race coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. with Countdown to Green, followed by the green flag for 60 laps at The Tricky Triangle shortly after 8 p.m. on enascar.com/live, youtube.com/iracingofficial, and twitch.tv/iracing.
About the author
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.
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