eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Race Preview: Race 2 at Las Vegas

After a wild start to the 2022 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season at Daytona two weeks ago, 40 of the best oval drivers on the iRacing platform will take to the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval in Las Vegas, Nevada tonight for 100 laps to contest the second race on the calendar.

Daytona’s 80 lap opener ended in a three-way photo finish at the line in favor of Clint Bowyer Racing’s Femi Olatunbosun. Along both sides of Olatunbosun, Garrett Manes (Elliott Sadler Esports) and Steven Wilson (Stewart-Haas Esports) we’re both inches short of taking the season-opening victory. Both Wilson and Manes will be looking for their first career victories in the first intermediate race of 2022.

LAS VEGAS COKE SERIES HISTORY

In total, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series has had 12 prior events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway dating back to the first season in 2010. That opening year, Las Vegas was the second race on the calendar and was won by Sandeep Banerjee. Since then, seven more drivers have found victory lane in the eleven following races.

Ryan Luza is the unofficial king of Las Vegas, having collected four victories in five career races, including in his rookie-slash-championship season in 2017. Luza also is the most recent victor, claiming the victory for XSET last season. He’ll be back in the same colors in 2022 as he looks to get back to victory lane for the first time since last season’s win.

Other drivers in the field that have Las Vegas wins include 2016’s winner Corey Vincent (Team Dillon Esports) and 2020’s winner Jimmy Mullis (Rise eSports).

THE NEXT GENERATION

In total, the top level of eNASCAR competition only has a small sample size of races in this NASCAR NEXT Gen vehicle. Their first race last season for the All-Star race was a D-shaped intermediate, albeit a concrete 1.3-mile oval in Nashville. This is truly the first taste of cookie-cutter racing we’ll get to witness in this series as the other races have been Daytona and the LA Coliseum.

Subjectively speaking, the cream always seems to rise to the top. It was on display this past weekend in the real NASCAR race when the defending champ Kyle Larson took the Auto Club victory. With that in mind, expect the expected, and you’ll likely find names like Keegan Leahy and Mitchell deJong from 23XI Racing on the top of the board.

Other names to keep an eye out for are the Team Conti drivers like Michael Conti (JR Motorsports) and Nick Ottinger (William Byron eSports), as well as those Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bobby Zalenski and the four time champ himself, Ray Alfalla.

WHERE TO WATCH

The race itself will kickoff at 9:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 a.m. GMT following the pre-race festivities, which kick off a half-hour earlier. That would be the Countdown to Green at 8:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 a.m. GMT featuring Camille Salazar Hadaway, Alan Cavanna and Brandon Kettelle. Once the race kicks off, you’ll hear the voices of Evan Posocco, Blake McCandless and James Pike down on pit road.

The broadcast will be available at eNASCAR.com/live or on the iRacing social channels.

POINTS ENTERING RACE #2 – LAS VEGAS

2022 ENASCAR COCA-COLA IRACING SERIES SCHEDULE