After 14 races, the 10 drivers have been determined for this season’s eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Playoffs. Over the next three races at Michigan International Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, that pack of 10 will shrink to the Championship 4 that will battle for the title at Homestead-Miami.
There have been nine different winners over the course of the first 14 races of the 2023 season. Four drivers have won multiple times, while five of them just once. Once was all that was needed, however, besides being inside the Top 20 in the points standings at the end of the Regular Season.
As it was last year, the four drivers who advance out of the Round of 10 will compete live, on stage at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in September, where the winner will collect a $100,000 pay day and take home the Dale Earnhardt Jr Championship Trophy. Here’s all the details you need to know before it all kicks off on Tuesday night.
A quick driver and team introduction
Ten drivers, nine official teams and six setup teams are represented in this year’s Playoff battle. The team with two drivers? It’s the team of rookies in their first championship fight, racing for Team Dillon Esports and the backend Altus Esports, that being Tucker Minter and Jordy Lopez.
Altus has two drivers, as does Deadzone Racing with Michael Guest (23XI Racing) and the defending Champion Casey Kirwan (XSET). There is a backend setup team with three drivers, however, each of which made it in their own way.
That would be Team Conti, with the likes of Michael Conti (JR Motorsports), Jimmy Mullis (Rise Esports) and Nick Ottinger (William Byron Esports). Conti won the Regular Season title, if that was being counted for anything, that is. Ottinger led the field of drivers without wins, and by quite a lot, might I add.
Mullis won but didn’t lock three races ago at Nashville Superspeedway. His battle would be to the Top 20 line, a requirement to be able to utilize a win to make the Playoff battle. After New Hampshire he was in, but throughout Pocono, he straddled the line, ultimately making it by nine points.
His Nashville win came at the cost of Jim Beaver Esports driver Garrett Lowe, who is representing the Legacy Esports setup shop. Lowe answered back with a strong victory at New Hampshire two weeks later, and nearly capped off the Regular Season with back-to-back wins before faltering late at Pocono.
Two of the drivers that made it all the way to the Championship 4 last season, but weren’t able to hoist the trophy were Bobby Zalenski (Joe Gibbs Racing / Coanda Esports) and Steven Wilson (Stewart-Haas Racing / Norse Force Racing). They will be looking to not only get back to the Hall of Fame again, but this time, bring the trophy home.
Here’s how each driver has faired to this point in the season, how their past results look regarding the four remaining tracks, and their own thoughts from the pre-season through the Regular Season on how they made it to this point and what lies ahead.
No. 1 Seed: #18 Bobby Zalenski
Official Team: Joe Gibbs Racing / Toyota
Setup Team: VRS Coanda Esports
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 3 | 3 | 6 |
Through 14 races, Bobby Zalenski won the most races at three (Richmond, Monza, Chicago), which makes him the top seed entering the 2023 eNASCAR Playoffs. In actuality, Zalenski was the 12th best on points through the Regular Season, with a very hit or miss scorecard.
“My season looks crazy, ” Zalenski said after picking up his this win of the season at Chicago. “It’s been an up-and-down rollercoaster. It’s just because I’m going for wins. That’s all that matters to me, I have to get those bonus points. I’ve won the Regular Season Championship twice… who cares?”
That mentality has him on top for now. A win is all it takes to make the Championship 4, right? Statistically, that means the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has the best shot based on his winning percentage this season. However, his usual ticket to the title race is in the form of a road course, and this playoff season only has three ovals.
They are three very different ovals, and while he also holds the points lead entering, the finale to the Playoff round is a date with Phoenix Raceway, a venue that Zalenski won at back in 2017 and nearly won at last season had it not been for a poor pitstop.
Mr. Championship 4 is entering his seventh playoff appearance in all seven seasons he’s been doing this. He’s made it to the final four on five occasions out of the six prior. Could 2023 be both a sixth Championship 4 appearance and a championship to boot?
| TRACK | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 10th | 12th | 10th | 8th | 20th | N/A |
| Dover | 7th | 3rd | N/A | 32nd | N/A | 29th |
| Phoenix | 1st | 13th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 3rd |
| Homestead-Miami | 5th | 13th | 4th | 8th / 7th | 33rd | 11th |
Looking at the past data, Zalenski only has that one Phoenix win, but in the three races there since 2017, it’s statistically his best shot. Michigan hasn’t been anything too outstanding, with a best finish of eighth in 2020, and Dover has been the definition of hot or not, with both a podium and two finishes towards the back.
Should he make it to Homestead-Miami, he’ll definitely have a shot. 2021 is an outlier there, but that 33rd comes after wrecking while going for the title against Ryan Luza (XSET) and the two coming together.
Experience could play a factor, and if anyone has that, it’s the guy who knows how to perennially end up fighting for a title.
No. 2 Seed: #8 Michael Conti
Official Team: JR Motorsports / Chevrolet
Setup Team: Team Conti
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 2 | 7 | 8 |
The 2014 eNASCAR Series Champion is calling it quits in four races. In the first 14, it’s been a mostly magical sendoff for Michael Conti, winning twice, scoring a Top 5 half of the time and oh yeah, he won the 2023 Regular Season Championship.
There’s no reward for being the best before the playoffs, but for Conti, this season was about going out competitively and on his own terms. He’s done just that so far. Conti captured the inaugural victory at The Milwaukee Mile in the second race of the season, then followed that up with a back-to-back victory at Las Vegas in May.
Even when he wasn’t winning, Conti was in the conversation. World Wide Technology Raceway almost became his third win of the season, but he just missed out on it by 0.006 seconds to Jordy Lopez.
His closest competition in the points changed just about week. While Conti stayed consistent, it rotated among the likes of Lopez, Nick Ottinger, Tucker Minter, and even a couple of drivers that didn’t make the playoffs this year.
| TRACK | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 7th | 15th | 2nd | DNS | 10th | 1st | 17th | 7th | 15th | 4th | N/A |
| Dover | 8th | 3rd | 1st | 7th | N/A | 4th | 1st | N/A | 6th | N/A | 17th |
| Phoenix | 3rd | 1st | N/A | 11th | 28th | 31st | 8th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 7th |
| Homestead-Miami | 7th | 6th | 3rd | 27th | 15th | 3rd | 3rd | 21st | 11th / 10th | 10th | 6th |
“I feel like I’ve already done everything I need to do,” Conti said back during the eNASCAR Media Days to Traxion.GG in Charlotte. “That’s why I can retire. But, to walk away after Homestead and not feel like ‘man, should I come back one more year, because this or that happened?’ Let me get a win, Let me extend my Playoff streak, and just give me a shot at the final four.”
“I want to go to the Hall of Fame, I want to be there in person and experience that… Just want to have a lot of fun, run well, and I want to continue to do the things we’ve done the last several years that have gotten us to this point where we can say we are a perennial contender, we are successful and if you’re in the series, you need to go through us to get wins and championships. If we can end in that way, no regrets here.”
That sentiment still holds true. Experience could also be a factor, and one thing Conti has over everyone else in this fight is a win at all three of the tracks in this round. Conti won Michigan in 2017, Dover twice in 2014 and 2018, and Phoenix back in 2013. The last few years have been solid as well.
No. 3 Seed: #95 Casey Kirwan
Official Team: XSET / Chevrolet
Setup Team: Deadzone Racing
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 2 | 5 | 7 |
The No. 3 seed is the No. 1 driver from the 2022 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season. XSET’s Casey Kirwan returns to the playoffs to defend his crown. After claiming the 2022 title, Kirwan opened off the year with an Exhibition victory at the LA Coliseum venue.
Last season, en route to his title, he only won once. This year, he’s already won two points paying races. With the ‘Shot of a Lifetime’, Kirwan rocketed around Malik Ray to steal victory at Talladega back in April. That ultimately denied Ray his first playoff berth, but Kirwan wasn’t done winning just yet, either.
At Darlington, the No. 95 adorned a Tony Stewart throwback scheme which led him to victory once again. If anything, we could be talking about a three-time winner on the season as well, but the Charlotte battle ended in tears for both Kirwan and Jimmy Mullis as Tucker Minter capitalized on the two’s crash while racing for the win.
It hasn’t been the model of consistency that likely would have gotten Kirwan into the Playoffs last year without a win, but it is his first season with multiple wins. He came into the year with a whopping total of three career wins at Bristol in 2019, Michigan in 2020 and Pocono last season.
| TRACK | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 31st | 13th | 1st | 6th | N/A |
| Dover | 19th | N/A | 35th | N/A | 9th |
| Phoenix | 9th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2nd |
| Homestead-Miami | 5th | 30th | 39th / 9th | 13th | 3rd |
Speaking of Michigan, that’s the first track up for these 2023 Playoffs, a place that usually fits Kirwan’s style and a place we just mentioned that he has a win at. Phoenix could be another path for a win, having two Top 10’s in two races in his career there, but Dover does not have the same level of consistency to know for sure.
“It’s definitely a weird thing for me, just a different feeling,” said Kirwan after winning his second race, locking in much earlier to the playoffs than he’s used to. “2021, it was like, ‘I’m fourth in points but I don’t have a win’, and I ended up not making the playoffs. Last year, the win came late. It’s a weird feeling but a great feeling to have the pressure off.”
The second win gives Kirwan three extra points to work with over the next three races. The only guarantee is to collect a win, but there’s still going to be at least one spot to make it on points.
No. 4 Seed: #33 Tucker Minter
Official Team: Team Dillon Esports / Chevrolet
Setup Team: Altus Esports
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 2 | 5 | 6 |
There aren’t too many drivers who can say that they’ve won in their first career series start when it comes to the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, but Tucker Minter can. Off of Turn 4 on the final lap of the opening round at Daytona, Minter took it low on Casey Kirwan. Kirwan blocked, but Minter was there, allowing the rookie to win.
Winning felt so good, he did it again at Charlotte to end the month of May. A two-win rookie, locked into the Playoffs in just his first season, but now is when the real battle begins.
Minter and his Team Dillon Esports teammate Jordy Lopez are an outlier in this season’s competition. Not even a sophomore driver (rookie from 2022) was able to qualify for the playoffs. That means everyone else besides the two Altus rookies have at least three years of experience, most even more than that.
With no sponsor to start the season, Minter has since been in the Global Industrial Chevy (which sponsors Austin Hill in the NASCAR Xfinity Series) and the Funk Away Chevy (which sponsors Parker Retzlaff in the same series).
His recent results haven’t been too kind, but he still enters the playoffs as the fourth seed of four multi-time winners on the season, behind the good company that includes Bobby Zalenski, Michael Conti and the defending Champion Casey Kirwan.
| TRACK | 2022 CONTENDER |
| Michigan | N/A |
| Dover | 3rd |
| Phoenix | 3rd |
| Homestead-Miami | 28th |
With the rookies, we’ll have to check in on their eNASCAR Contender iRacing Series data. Minter was a one-and-done in that series, qualifying in once in 2022 and advancing out of it without issue. In the past few seasons, the Contender round has not visited Michigan, but they did visit the other three remaining venues on this year’s schedule.
The two that matter to make it to Homestead-Miami Speedway are Dover and Phoenix, and in the ladder series, Minter finished third at both tracks. Last season, Minter was a guest at the Championship battle at Charlotte. Not even a confirmed entry on the 2023 roster, Minter told reporters that he was motivated to make it to that stage someday.
“I tried to temper expectations going into the year, just because a lot of people go out and they feel like they are going to be ‘the man’,” Minter said in his post-race interview after winning Daytona. After winning a second race, reality set in that his goals would be met and now a chance at achieving that dream is on the table. “It’s motivating, every week, to perform at the best level I can.”
No. 5 Seed: #3 Jordy Lopez
Official Team: Team Dillon Esports / Chevrolet
Setup Team: Altus Esports
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 1 | 3 | 6 |
The team to beat this year in the Team Championship has mainly been the Team Dillon duo of Tucker Minter and Jordy Lopez. While they don’t have the lead at current, now trailing William Byron Esports for the lead, at least they still have both drivers alive for the fight for the title.
“We’re in a good position for Team Standings,” said Lopez after his WWT Raceway victory. Despite locking his place into the Playoffs at that point, the mindset was still focused on points for himself and his team, and that in part led to him finishing third in the Regular Season standings and taking the top seed of the single race winners.
Like his teammate as well, Lopez is a rookie in a room full of veterans of the series. It’s Jordy’s first appearance, but it’s like Bobby Z’s seventh, or Conti’s sixth, or even Steven Wilson’s second despite his first ending up on the big stage last season.
Still, to win in his first season is no easy feat, and to do it from behind to begin with, in getting around Garrett Manes on old tires (with a bit of contact, I might add) and then holding off a champion of the series in Michael Conti at the line made it even more magical.
“I kind of wish it wasn’t that close, going into Turn 4 I thought I was going to get sent,” said Lopez about the win itself. “When Conti got to me, I was very nervous, but everything played out how I wanted it to.”
| TRACK | 2021 CONTENDER | 2022 CONTENDER |
| Michigan | N/A | N/A |
| Dover | 21st | 4th |
| Phoenix | 35th | 2nd |
| Homestead-Miami | 14th | 39th |
Like Minter, there’s no Coke Series data to judge Lopez off of, but unlike his teammate, he has two years of Contender stats to look back on. His first season in 2021, it wasn’t great. That in turn led to Lopez needing to reapply for the Qualifying Series the following year in 2022.
When he returned, however, he was one of the top dogs, finishing second from the pole in the Phoenix opener, as well as fourth at Dover a few weeks later. Homestead-Miami was a wash, but the season before it was one of his better finishes at 14th.
Rookies will find the Playoffs difficult, but both of these Team Dillon dudes have a legit chance with how their seasons have played out so far.
No. 6 Seed: #10 Steven Wilson
Official Team: Stewart-Haas Racing / Ford
Setup Team: Norse Force Racing
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 1 | 2 | 5 |
As Casey Kirwan battled Bobby Zalenski for the 2022 eNASCAR Championship on stage at the NASCAR Hall of Fame last season, both Graham Bowlin and Steven Wilson were watching their title hopes slip away as the laps ticked down to zero.
In only his second season, Wilson took his Team Championship-winning Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to the Championship night with the most wins on the season – four. A different feel than he was used to at home, mixed with the nerves of competing for his first title, the sophomore slid his pit box and had to opt for a two-tire call.
This ultimately led to a 22nd place finish at Phoenix last season, which also meant fourth out of four in the final eNASCAR standings. Still, a four win season for Wilson was an incredible feat. This year, however, things haven’t been quite the same.
Ultimately, Wilson wound up 10th in the Regular Season standings, with a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway back in March, so his playoff position was secure. That win, however, came with his old setup team, Deadzone Racing. Now, he’s with Norse Force Racing, a newer powerhouse in the top level.
It’s been pretty much a mixed bag since the win, but he did claw his way back into the Top 20 after sitting outside of it for a few weeks. To be 10th after 14 races when he was in the 30’s at one point is a remarkable recovery.
| TRACK | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 33rd | N/A |
| Dover | N/A | 3rd |
| Phoenix | N/A | 22nd |
| Homestead-Miami | 18th | 1st |
Wilson is one of our wild card entries this go around. He has the know-how and experience to make the Championship 4, having done it last season, but he’s likely going to need a win to do so because the consistency up front just hasn’t been there, with only two Top 5’s as compared to last season’s seven by this point.
Dover statistically looks to be his best shot, as he finished third here last season. If he can make it to Homestead-Miami, that was the site of his last win, the penultimate race in the 2022 season, which catapulted him into the Championship 4.
“When you’re winning, it’s a lot more fun, for sure,” said Wilson after his Atlanta victory. “I do enjoy running well no matter what type of track.”
No. 7 Seed: #15 Garrett Lowe
Official Team: Jim Beaver Esports / Ford
Setup Team: Legacy Esports
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 1 | 3 | 6 |
A sub plot to the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season has involved the likes of Jim Beaver Esports’ Garrett Lowe and his newest rival on the track, Rise Esports’ Jimmy Mullis. Let’s go back a few weeks, shall we?
With three races remaining in the Regular Season at Nashville Superspeedway, Mullis was in the lead for a final eNASCAR Overtime restart. Lowe was back in sixth with two fresh right side tires. By the white flag, Lowe managed to get to second and was already about to get around Mullis for the top spot.
Mullis ultimately hit Lowe enough to claim the win himself, but that left Lowe and his team fuming in the post-race. “It’s going to change the way I race him, for sure,” Lowe said post-race. “I don’t like that and I don’t want to race like that, but that’s just how it’s going to have to be going forward.”
Two weeks later, at New Hampshire, a place where Mullis was entering having won the last three straight races, Lowe and Jim Beaver Esports showed up in protest paints. Lowe managed to do the worst possible thing to Mullis that didn’t involve wrecking, and that was to end Mullis’s winning streak and claim his own place in the Playoffs.
That protest paint has stuck and now enters it’s third race upon the No. 15 Big Green Egg Ford. He nearly won back-to-back in it two weeks ago at Pocono, had the race not gone a little extra. That late season surge, though, had been monumental for Lowe, entering the final four races with nearly half the previous ones at Top 10s.
| TRACK | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 1st | 35th | 9th | N/A |
| Dover | N/A | 16th | N/A | 12th |
| Phoenix | N/A | N/A | N/A | 23rd |
| Homestead-Miami | 35th | 4th / 13th | 4th | 28th |
If there’s any week for the hot streak to continue, it’s this week at Michigan. Lowe was victorious in his rookie season at the track in 2019, and besides an outlier finish of 35th in 2020, backed it up with another Top 10 in 2021.
Homestead-Miami is also another great track for the fifth year driver. While he’s never made the Championship 4, this is the fourth season in those five years that he’s made the playoffs. With the determination from Nashville in his back pocket, the E G G could be poised for a visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame this season.
No. 8 Seed: #45 Michael Guest
Official Team: 23XI Racing / Toyota
Setup Team: Deadzone Racing
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 1 | 2 | 5 |
Welcome to the playoffs, Michael Guest! In five previous seasons, the best that the new 23XI Racing driver was able to score was 12th overall, still searching for his first career victory entering the season. He passed the 100-race mark at Darlington Raceway back in May.
By Pocono, his chances at racing in the 2023 eNASCAR Playoffs were slim. Guest had a third place finish at Atlanta back in March, but other than that, with no other Top 5 finishes, his point amount was not close enough for pointing in.
With a two-tire call at Pocono, and by getting the needed track position late after Parker White pitted from the lead, Guest was in control with a hungry pack behind him. Nick Ottinger emerged as his greatest threat, with both Malik Ray and Matt Bussa behind that also needing wins.
Ottinger and Guest were side-by-side the entire way, into the final corner even. Guest would have the advantage regardless, but Ottinger’s teammate Bussa ensured the win when he slammed his teammate, hoping to cause enough of a disturbance to slip by and win himself.
Instead, Guest scored the spoils and will race for his first title. That win eliminated Ray, Graham Bowlin, Bussa, White and more from taking part in this season’s Playoff run. Now the question becomes, can Guest run his car in these next few weeks as fast as Xfinity 10G?
| TRACK | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 5th | 35th | 10th | 31st | N/A |
| Dover | 4th | N/A | 17th | N/A | 11th |
| Phoenix | 38th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 13th |
| Homestead-Miami | 27th | 22nd | 19th / 8th | 20th | 2nd |
One thing that Guest has worked on over the last few years is consistency. There’s not a lot of data for Guest at Phoenix, but Michigan and Dover have both yielded decent results in his career.
“Honestly, I feel like we’re good at all of them,” said Guest when asked by Traxion.GG about the next three races following his Pocono win. “I looked before the year, saw the playoff schedule and thought ‘if I could get into the playoffs this year, I have a really good chance at something. Of course, that all depends on how I qualify.”
Indeed, his average start this season is over 30th, with not a single starting spot inside the Top 10. Watch out though if you find him up front early in any of the next three races.
No. 9 Seed: #46 Jimmy Mullis
Official Team: Rise Esports / Chevrolet
Setup Team: Team Conti
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 1 | 3 | 4 |
The other half to the Lowe vs Mullis subplot is of course the latter, the ninth seed Jimmy Mullis. Make no doubt about it – Mullis needed a win to make the playoffs, plus some good luck and maybe a few enemies made along the way. Entering Nashville, Mullis was well below the Top 20 cut line, seemingly needing a miracle.
Just a few races before that, he nearly won at Charlotte before crashing with Casey Kirwan. Other races before that, he showed the same pace as his new Team Conti teammates, but just couldn’t put a finish together to save his season.
At Nashville, Mullis had it a few times, but the caution kept coming out and Lowe kept creeping closer. He can’t take back the contact, and he probably wouldn’t either. Instead of having to worry about possible relegation, now Mullis can focus on trying to win a title.
“I didn’t want to wreck him,” Mullis said after the race. “I really didn’t have intentions of hitting him the way I did off of Turn 4. It just played out that way… I can’t necessarily say that I would have done anything different.”
The battle would not be over for Mullis, who had to point his way in still, needing to finish above 20th by the end of the Regular Season. It was nearly over at Pocono, as he rode outside the Top 25 and without the needed points… but then he made another controversial move, spinning Kevin King out and triggering a needed yellow.
This allowed him to get the points he needed, but that’s three big targets on his back now entering these playoffs, with Kirwan likely upset still over Charlotte (even though that was more of a racing deal), Lowe obviously still harboring feelings from Nashville, and now the veteran King with reservations.
| TRACK | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 29th | 11th | 33rd | 21st | 7th | N/A |
| Dover | 9th | 27th | N/A | 36th | N/A | 33rd |
| Phoenix | DNS | 2nd | N/A | N/A | N/A | 31st |
| Homestead-Miami | 13th | 10th | 3rd | 6th / 11th | 12th | 17th |
Regardless, a Top 10 in points is guaranteed for the seventh year driver and original member of the Chaos Crew. Mullis doesn’t have any wins at the final four remaining tracks, but at Phoenix, he did score a second place in 2018, at Michigan in 2021 he finished seventh and at Dover in 2017, it was a ninth place effort.
It’s a more even playing field now, and we did see the No. 46 collect a super amount of points in the last three weeks to even make the grid. Now, he needs to continue that. Luckily, he has two other teammates in the same predicament as him this season, which could be benificial.
No. 10 Seed: #25 Nick Ottinger
Official Team: William Byron Esports / Chevrolet
Setup Team: Team Conti
| 2023 WINS | 2023 TOP 5’s | 2023 TOP 10’s |
| 0 | 5 | 8 |
The only driver to make it on a winless pedigree this season is a man who has conquered the mountain back in 2020. A perennial favorite year in and year out, Nick Ottinger may be entering with a slight disadvantage, not having a win currently, but that might make him even more dangerous in the final weeks of the season.
In 2021, the last time Ottinger didn’t score a win in the Regular Season, he wound up missing the Playoffs. That didn’t deter him from scoring a needed victory at Talladega before the season concluded. Last season, Ottinger scored two wins early in the season, but fell off when the playoffs began.
Now with no wins and a playoff berth still, that could be the perfect storm for the 2020 Series Champion to claim a spot at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He’s going to have to get through two of his teammates who have won this season, though, to get there.
Ottinger’s had a few missed opportunities this season. Milwaukee, WWT Raceway, Nashville and Pocono were all pole position starts for him, but yet he failed to capitalize with a win, usually with some off-strategy forcing him out of contention.
Both times Michael Conti won, Ottinger was runner-up, and he also has another second place at the Darlington race that Kirwan won. For a time before the rails came off momentarily at the end of the Regular Season, Ottinger nearly led the points on no wins. He had to settle for runner-up, 26 points behind Conti.
“I think, in the back of your mind, you have thoughts about it,” Ottinger said after his third runner-up finish at Darlington. “I wouldn’t say I’m concerned though, at the end of the day, our 25 team is still looking for ways to win. We’ve been running in the Top 5, Top 3 consistently. It’ll fall our way at some point.”
| TRACK | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Michigan | 14th | 35th | 3rd | DNS | 32nd | 7th | 10th | 29th | 37th | 35th | N/A |
| Dover | 3rd | 1st | 4th | 30th | N/A | 25th | 5th | N/A | 1st | N/A | 1st |
| Phoenix | 1st | 7th | N/A | 2nd | 16th | 41st | 14th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 32nd |
| Homestead-Miami | 2nd | 4th | 8th | 15th | 3rd | 10th | 24th | 20th | 16th / 4th | 7th | 19th |
The last time Ottinger won was at Dover last season. In fact, the last two times that eNASCAR has been to the Monster Mile, Ottinger has been victorious, dating back to his 2020 Championship Season. He also has a win from back in 2013.
If not Dover, Phoenix likely has a special place in Ottinger’s heart as it was where his first career win came back in 2012. Michigan has been hit or miss, so if he can escape with a decent run, that might give him just enough confidence in the final two Round of 10 races to pull off a win into the Championship 4.
***
The start to the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Playoffs is on Tuesday night (15th August) as the series heads to Michigan International Raceway.
Coverage will be available starting at 8:30 pm ET at eNASCAR.com or on the iRacing social channels.
