Wilson Victorious in 2025 eNASCAR Coke Series Season Opener at Daytona

(Credit: Justin Melillo/iRacing)

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series kicked off its 16th season Tuesday night, as 40 drivers took on the fast banks of the virtual  Daytona International Speedway. In a fun race to watch, Steven Wilson scored the victory!

Setting the Table

Two weeks prior, defending Coke Series Champion and Williams eSports driver Parker White made his first statement of the 2025 campaign, as he won the clash at Daytona. 

A week later, during the off-week, iRacing made a crucial update to the virtual Next-Gen car. The update ultimately had a strong impact on the car's physics and how it drafted in the pack. This left teams scrambling, eager to get a head start to the season as drivers would have an idea of what to expect. 

On Monday, a day before the race, nearly every Coke driver participated in the NASCAR Class A Series, an official series on iRacing that closely mirrors the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. While not every driver was in the same split, the series saw a remarkable field strength of 8180 (the average iRating in the field), which was a record for the series on Oval.  

In the top split race, it was Parker White who made history yet again proving his dominance. And while the 70-lap race was more relaxed than the Coke Series race, it gave drivers a strong sense of what to expect for the big show.

Tonight’s Action

It was eRacer.gg who stunned early as drivers Logan Clampitt and Tyler Garey qualified on the pole and the third position. Clampitt ran a blistering 49.293 as this was a great start for back-end affiliation Nexxus eSports which earned its first pole in the Coke Series. 

Clampitt led the field into turn one and briefly fell to 2nd as he was passed by Channel199 Sim Racing’s Dylan Duval out of the second turn. The bottom line prevailed as he got momentum back to lead the first lap of the season.

Strategy Plays

Compared to the A-Open race, the Coke Series race had 10 more laps making it an 80-lap total feature. With the fuel window being right in the perfect area for a one-stop race, teams played a variety of approaches to best equip themselves for the situation. 

eRacer made their strategy present early as both Garey and Clampitt alternated the lead and lines each giving themselves an opportunity at the point in an effort to control lanes to maximize fuel. That strategy worked for only 10 laps however as both drivers got shuffled back out of the front rows, finding themselves 5th and 10th respectively. 

Multiple cars in the back of the field made a strong charge, but things changed mightily as the first caution of the race came out on lap 19.

Bad luck struck Duval as he made contact with Team Dillon eSports driver Blaze Crawford after a chain reaction. Both drivers went spinning down the backstretch. Other cars got mixed up in the chain reactions but everyone escaped with minimal damage. When the green flag came back out there were 58 laps to go. 

2024 Playoff contender and Six Karma Esports driver Daniel Daulkingham took his shot at the point as he went to the lead in the restart. After leading a lap he was passed by Jr Motorsports driver Briar Lapradd who won at Indianapolis the prior season where things calmed down.

The Turning Point

On lap 28, a race-altering accident occurred as fgrAccel eRacing’s and 2017 Coke champion Ryan Luza got turned around along with eRacing Association’s Bobby Zalenski. As the field collected in, surprisingly a yellow did not come out. This led to a 14-car breakaway led by Lapradd.

At the halfway point on lap 40, William Byron eSports driver Tucker Minter cut the gap down to 3.9 seconds off of the leader as the field had three distinct packs that had a strong shot of racing for the win. While Lapradd continued to lead the primary pack, it was Apex Racing Team’s Christopher Hill who led the charging third pack.

With 37 laps to go, the lead pack came down to the pit with 12 of the 14 cars pitting with only Vegas Inferno’s Malik Ray and Team Dillion eSports’ Taylor Hurst pitting the following time. 

The ultimate change happened just three laps later though as eRacing Association’s Michael Cosey Jr got turned by Minter putting the field back together. 

Cosey was able to continue with minimal damage as the race went back to green with 29 laps to go along with 35 cars remaining on the lead lap. At that point, only FGRAccel’s Seth Demerchant and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Colin Bowden were out of the race. 

THE DASH TO THE END

HYAK Motorsports’ Dylan Ault led the field to the green on the bottom lane while being heavily followed by Spire Motorsports’ Steven Wilson. Wilson who had a strong car all day, went to the lead just two laps later as he jumped to the top lane to secure the lead, and then right back to the bottom. 

A new contender challenged on the outside with 26 laps to go, as Kevin Harvick Inc’s Jimmy Mullis challenged Wilson. But it was Faulkingham a lap later who took a huge run top of three wide to take the lead with help from Parker White.   

An incident without the yellow again mixed up the pack, but Failkingham’s Six Karma teammate Eddie Kerner found himself in the lead able to jump in front of the pack leading the line with 21 laps to go.

 With 17 laps to go Wilson again went to the lead, as the outside lane began to form itself strongly as drivers prepared for the closing laps.

Kansas City Pioneers driver and 2022 Coke Series champion Casey Kirwan led the bottom line briefly holding the lead aggressively pushing with 12 laps to go, but got left out and fell back to 10th before leading the bottom lane again to the front with 10 laps to go.

The lead switched hands again this time Channel 199 sim racing’s Zack Novak took the point as he attempted to control the lanes and maintain the point at the front of the field. He held his ground briefly for three laps, but Kirwan finally prevailed to the lead coming to  6 laps to go.

Then, the lead changed hands again as Wilson briefly took the lead but the tandem of White and Faulkingham charged around the bottom coming to 5 laps ago putting them back at the point on the top. 

Wilson fought down the back to take the lead again but quickly got left out by Kirwan as the field stacked up behind four wide sending Lapradd and others spinning setting up a green-white-checkered.

Coming to overtime, the top 5 were Casey Kirwan, Spire Motorsports driver Femi Olatunbosun, Tyler Garey, Letarte Esports’ Connor Yeroschak, and Tucker Minter.

An Ending of Courage

On the restart, Kirwan immediately jumped in front but it was Olatunbosun who jumped clear to the bottom out of two before Yeroshack jumped to his outside. The field jumbled up hard out of four making a five-car breakaway as Yeroschak led the field to the white.

In turn one, it was Faulkingham with help from Wilson who got clear to the lead. 

Then in turn 3 Wilson jumped high as Faulkingham collided with Parker White who made a remarkable save. White made a strong push of momentum and dove under the line coming to the checkered but it was not enough.

Steven Wilson prevailed keeping his foot on the gas earning Spire Motorsports and Norse Force Racing his backend affiliate their first win of the season. 

(Credit: Justin Melillo/iRacing)

Up Next 

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series continues action at the virtual Las Vegas Motor Speedway, on Tuesday, Feb 25, at 8:00 ET. Steven Wilson looks to seek his revenge as last season he started on pole and led the most laps in the race before being upset by former 23XI Racing driver Keegan Leahy. 

Last season the first five races saw five different winners in the opening portion, so Wilson will have a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to repeat what he did in 2024, that being the first repeat winner in the series on the season. You can find coverage of the race on iRacing and NASCAR’s Twitch and YouTube live-stream platforms.