eNCCiS: Femi Olatunbosun opens 2022 season with three-wide photo finish win at Daytona

After 84 laps, including four extra for an overtime finish, Revere Massachusetts’ Femi Olatunbosun crossed the line first in a three-wide battle against Garrett Manes and Steven Wilson to score his first career eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory in his 19th attempt.

Olatunbosun, now driving for Clint Bowyer Racing, held the lead off of Turn 4. Manes, in the No. 31 for Elliott Sadler Esports, turned to his outside to side draft.

As that happened, Stewart-Haas eSports’ Wilson kept with Olatunbosun and then made the move to the apron. The trio came across the line with Manes 0.009 seconds behind and Wilson 0.011 seconds behind.

As long as he can stay in the Top 20 and there are no more than nine other winners, Olatunbosun should qualify for his first eNASCAR iRacing playoff field with the victory. Olatunbosun becomes the 59th different winner in series history.

“What a way to start off the year, right?” Olatunbosun said post-race on the broadcast. “I don’t even know what to say. There is just so much happening… I’m just so happy.”

The result is also Olatunbosun’s first career Top 5 finish and only his second career Top 10, the first coming last season in his rookie year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the next track on the 2022 schedule.

“THE ROAD TO $300,000 STARTS AGAIN”

Following an off-season like no other, the top eNASCAR drivers returned on Tuesday night ready to get to work on another 18-race schedule.

Returning champions, like the defending series champion Keegan Leahy, 2020 champ Nick Ottinger, and Mr. 4-Time himself, Ray Alfalla, all hoped to leave Daytona with the best result possible to put towards another title run.

Others that have been close to titles before, names like Bobby Zalenski, Logan Clampitt, Jimmy Mullis and Mitchell deJong, all had the same thought in their mind. In fact, most if not all of the drivers just wanted to make it out of virtual Daytona alive.

Ottinger took the pole position, and for the most part, he and another champion of the series, Michael Conti, controlled the first half of the race.

Unfortunately for Conti’s new teammate at JR Motorsports, Briar LaPradd, he wouldn’t make it too far into his debut.

On lap 6, LaPradd got into the back of both of the eRacr teammates and triggered a multi-car incident, ending the night for many and crippling the efforts of others. The wreck-filled theme would continue through the night.

SURVIVAL MODE

Towards the mid-section of the race, Team Conti drivers continued to control the pack. At halfway, just past lap 40, pit stops began. On the exit, calamity struck.

The William Byron eSports teammates of Nick Ottinger and Logan Clampitt got hooked onto one another, and many hopefuls were taken out again. Clampitt was pretty much done, Ottinger was hurt bad, and the defending champion Leahy was missing virtual pieces.

The trend continued on. XSET’s Casey Kirwan wasn’t able to get in line and wound up getting himself turned off of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bobby Zalenski. When the dust settled, there were new faces at the top of the charts, and most of them were from the Deadzone Racing alliance.

Kollin Keister, part of the new Charlotte Phoenix team, had control for a while. At one point or another, both Olatunbosun and Malik Ray wound up leading the multiple lines.

A wreck involving Derek Justis and Kaden Honeycutt bunched up the field again. On the next restart, Ottinger was involved in another, this time collecting Brian Mercurio.

With three laps to go, Ray held the lead and Olatunbosun was alongside.

TURNING POINT

On the second to last restart, the outside lane was able to form a lot better than the inside. As Ray fell into the clutches of the pack, Olatunbosun started to pull away. Just before they could get the white flag, however, disaster struck for Ray and others. The race would head into eNASCAR overtime.

Coming to the white flag, Graham Bowlin got turned by his own teammate Keister, but the wreck was off of the racing surface, so the race took the white flag to finish it out green. Just before Turn 1, Alfalla got hooked and the field began to thin out at the front.

It was a three car breakaway for the lead. Olatunbosun had it, Manes wanted it, and Wilson was waiting in the wings to pounce at an opportunity. Off of Turn 4, Manes went high. He made contact with Olatunbosun and the pair slowed down.

Wilson went low, but wound up running into the back of Olatunbosun’s No. 79, giving him the boost he needed. Wilson then took it to the apron where they finished three-wide. It was Olatunbosun by a nose on either side.

NEXT UP: LAS VEGAS

In two weeks, the series returns for its second race of the season at the virtual Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Entering the event, Olatunbosun is all but locked into the 2022 eNASCAR Playoffs. On top of the Team Standings, Stewart-Haas eSports will look to hold on to their lead after their drivers Wilson and Dylan Duval finished third and seventh respectively.

Last season at Las Vegas, Ryan Luza took it to victory lane for his fourth career victory at the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval. Jimmy Mullis and Corey Vincent also have wins at the track, but can anyone dethrone Luza as the king of the casino?

Tune in at 8:30 p.m. ET on 1st March to see it all unfold. The broadcast will be available at eNASCAR.com/live or on the iRacing Social Channels.

RACE #1 – DAYTONA TOP 10 RESULTS

FIN	STA	CAR #	DRIVER	TEAM	INTERVAL	LED	POINTS
1	11	79	Femi Olatunbosun	Clint Bowyer Racing	84 LAPS	15	40
2	17	31	Garrett Manes	Elliott Sadler Esports	+0.009	0	35
3	20	10	Steven Wilson	Stewart-Haas eSports	+0.011	0	34
4	2	8	Michael Conti	JR Motorsports	+0.115	18	33
5	25	46	Jimmy Mullis	Rise eSports	+0.207	0	32
6	13	15	Blake Reynolds	Jim Beaver eSports	+0.219	2	31
7	9	41	Dylan Duval	Stewart-Haas eSports	+0.253	0	30
8	12	43	Kollin Keister	Charlotte Phoenix	+0.692	18	29
9	3	45	Keegan Leahy	23XI Racing	+0.757	0	28
10	31	33	Taylor Hurst	Team Dillon eSports	+0.883	0	27

POINTS AFTER RACE #1 – DAYTONA

POS	CAR #	DRIVER	TEAM	POINTS
1	79	Femi Olatunbosun	Clint Bowyer Racing	1 WIN
2	31	Garrett Manes	Elliott Sadler Esports	35 pts
3	10	Steven Wilson	Stewart-Haas eSports	34 pts
4	8	Michael Conti	JR Motorsports	33 pts
5	46	Jimmy Mullis	Rise eSports	32 pts
6	15	Blake Reynolds	Jim Beaver eSports	31 pts
7	41	Dylan Duval	Stewart-Haas eSports	30 pts
8	43	Kollin Keister	Charlotte Phoenix	29 pts
9	45	Keegan Leahy	23XI Racing	28 pts
10	33	Taylor Hurst	Team Dillon eSports	27 pts

TEAM STANDINGS AFTER RACE #1 – DAYTONA

POS	CAR #’s	TEAM	POINTS
1	10 | 41	Stewart-Haas eSports	64 points
2	14 | 79	Clint Bowyer Racing	61 points
3	2 | 31	Elliott Sadler Esports	57 points
4	23 | 45	23XI Racing	53 points
5	4 | 95	XSET	42 points
6	43 | 48	Charlotte Phoenix	41 points
7	18 | 51	Joe Gibbs Racing	40 points
8	9 | 15	Jim Beaver eSports	38 points
9	8 | 88	JR Motorsports	34 points
10	5 | 46	Rise eSports	33 points

DAYTONA BOX SCORE:

• Six cautions for 18 laps
• 27 lead changes among seven drivers
• Most laps led: No. 25 Nick Ottinger (23)
• Fastest lap: No. 21 Garrett Lowe (Lap 59, 45.831 secs)
• Rookie of the race: No. 6 Parker Retzlaff (13th place)

2022 ENASCAR COCA-COLA IRACING SERIES SCHEDULE

Date	Race #	Track	Laps
01-Feb-22	~Clash~	LA Coliseum	25/50/120
15-Feb-22	1	Daytona Int’l Speedway	80
01-Mar-22	2	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	100
15-Mar-22	3	Atlanta Motor Speedway	100
29-Mar-22	4	Richmond Raceway	130
12-Apr-22	5	Bristol Motor Speedway DIRT	25/120
26-Apr-22	6	Dover Motor Speedway	120
10-May-22	7	Kansas Speedway	100
24-May-22	8	Charlotte Motor Speedway	100
31-May-22	9	World Wide Technology Raceway	120
21-Jun-22	10	Nashville Superspeedway	100
05-Jul-22	11	Road America	25
19-Jul-22	12	Pocono Raceway	60
16-Aug-22	13	Watkins Glen Int’l	35
30-Aug-22	14	Darlington Raceway	120
13-Sep-22	PO1 | 15	Bristol Motor Speedway	175
27-Sep-22	PO2 | 16	Talladega Superspeedway	70
11-Oct-22	PO3 | 17	Homestead-Miami Speedway	100
25-Oct-22	C4F | 18	Phoenix Raceway	110