eNASCAR Coke: #ItsBeenGr8 – Michael Conti claims Milwaukee win in final season

On the morning of Saturday, 14th January, the 2014 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Champion Michael Conti (JR Motorsports) announced that his time competing at the top level of eNASCAR competition would be coming to a close.

“Still, my desire and motivation to compete and win are as strong as ever, and now with the end in sight, there’s truly no time to waste,” Conti noted in his farewell letter.

Well, consider time unwasted, as Conti rolled into virtual victory lane on Tuesday night (28th February) as a winner at The Milwaukee Mile. Taking the lead from Malik Ray (Jim Beaver Esports) with 20 laps to go, Conti held off his Team Conti teammate Nick Ottinger (William Byron Esports) in the closing laps for the win.

Tuesday marked Conti’s 14th career series victory, the fourth most all-time behind Ray Alfalla, Ottinger and Ryan Luza (XSET). Similar to last season, Conti took the win in the second race of the season, which all but locks him into the 2023 Playoffs.

“This is a retirement tour. This is the end,” Conti reiterated to Blake McCandless in the eNASCAR post-race show. “To win race number two is not what I expected to happen, and honestly I couldn’t have wished it to be any different. I’m pumped to go into the remainder of the season.”

He’ll need to stay in the Top 20 and among the Top 9 in points of those with a win in the Regular Season to be sure. Conti joins Tucker Minter (Team Dillon Esports) as the lone winners on the season through two races. Malik Ray leads the points by two over Ottinger heading to Atlanta.

CONTI: “IT’S BEEN A DREAM COME TRUE”

Conti had to win it starting from the 10th starting spot. As many expected, track position was tough to come by throughout the inaugural virtual visit to The Milwaukee Mile.

While the first half of the race ran caution-free, Conti was only able to move up four spots into sixth. Conti told Traxion.GG post-race that if that first caution didn’t come out when it did, he was likely going to start falling back through the field due to his tire degradation.

Following a slew of cautions, it was about being in the correct lane for the restarts. By lap 57, Conti made his way into fourth, and on the next restart, he was in third. There was a moment – lap 72 – where he was covering off the corner and got a bit sideways due to contact with the car behind. eDriver 8 was able to save it and keep his chances at winning alive.

On the next restart, Conti was right behind Malik for the top spot. Race Control had decided to make the restarts single file at that point, and when Malik was asked about the change, the leader at that time said “it hurts me a lot, I feel like I’m going to get punted.”

Sure enough, Malik took a defensive line into Turn 1 expecting a possible bump and run. It didn’t come, as Conti sailed it off on the outside, establishing the lead before the middle of the corner. Once he had the lead, Conti wasn’t challenged for the rest of the night.

CONTI: “EVERYTHING WAS SCIENCED-OUT” – TEAM CONTI CAME PREPARED

On the pole for the inaugural Milwaukee event was the 2020 Series Champion Nick Ottinger. There were a lot of unknowns heading into this race, especially for the fact that there would be no stacking of any official races beforehand like most weeks.

Team Conti came with a fast piece, though, and it allowed a front row lockout by William Byron Esports and the Team Conti duo of Ottinger and Matt Bussa. The fourth Team Conti member, a new member to the squad this year in Jimmy Mullis (Rise Esports) was subjected to starting back in 25th.

Mullis, however, was one of the few able to make moves through the show, and with the amount of incidents he wound up in, he sure did have to move from the back up the grid often. Mullis was the hard charger before the caution. After multiple spins, he still managed a 19th place effort.

Bussa would not be so lucky. After holding on to a Top 10 through the first 75 percent of the race, his night became unwound when he was collected in a multicar incident at lap 76. He was able to recover to finish 25th, but it wasn’t indicative of the speed the whole team had.

YELLOW FEVER AND A COUPLE OF BUMP AND RUNS

One of the reasons Ottinger wasn’t able to go flag-to-flag was because of the onslaught of cautions in the midsection of the race. It got bad enough that Race Control made restarts single file, which ended up working out to only have one caution in the final 20 laps, as opposed to the seven in the previous 35.

Malik Ray was slicing and dicing his way to the front. On lap 62, he was on Ottinger’s bumper. He sent it in and moved the No. 25 out of the groove, taking the preferred inside line. Another caution flew and the No. 7 was listed as the leader at the time.

Of course, Conti did make the eventual move to the lead around Malik, but in the closing laps, Ottinger returned the favor. Malik would eventually slide back to fourth, behind FGR Accel eRacing’s Garrett Manes, but he’ll leave the 1.015-mile oval event as the driver with the most points so far.

Question answered – we were f'ing fast. To the Playoffs…and beyond! https://t.co/NX6WMjDD5k

— Michael Conti (@MikeConti5) March 1, 2023

RACE 2 AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE – TOP 10 RESULTS

FIN	STA	CAR #	DRIVER	TEAM	INT	LED	PTS
1	10	8	Michael Conti	JR Motorsports	100 LAPS	20	40
2	1	25	Nick Ottinger	William Byron Esports	+0.282 secs	61	35
3	21	12	Garrett Manes	FGR Accel eRacing	+1.428 secs	0	34
4	9	7	Malik Ray	Jim Beaver Esports	+1.970 secs	18	33
5	8	48	Graham A. Bowlin	Charlotte Phoenix	+1.999 secs	0	32
6	6	95	Casey Kirwan	XSET	+2.097 secs	0	31
7	13	18	Bobby Zalenski	Joe Gibbs Racing	+2.205 secs	0	30
8	31	75	Zack Novak	Rise Esports	+2.333 secs	0	29
9	27	40	Dylan Ault	Letarte Esports	+2.786 secs	0	28
10	7	41	Dylan Duval	Stewart-Haas Esports	+2.900 secs	0	27

PLAYOFF SEEDING AFTER RACE 2 AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE

POS	#	DRIVER	TEAM	PTS	BEH	WINS	T5	T10
1	8	Michael Conti	JR Motorsports	65	WIN	1	1	1
2	33	Tucker Minter	Team Dillon Esports	61	WIN	1	1	1
3	7	Malik Ray	Jim Beaver Esports	68	+20	0	2	2
4	25	Nick Ottinger	William Byron Esports	66	+18	0	1	2
5	95	Casey Kirwan	XSET	64	+16	0	1	2
6	48	Graham A. Bowlin	Charlotte Phoenix	61	+13	0	1	2
7	75	Zack Novak	Rise Esports	53	+5	0	0	1
8	34	Allen Boes	Front Row Motorsports	51	+3	0	0	1
9	66	Tyler Garey	Kanaan Esports	50	+2	0	0	1
10	41	Dylan Duval	Stewart-Haas Esports	49	+1	0	0	1
11	38	Michael Cosey Jr	Front Row Motorsports	48	-1	0	1	1
12	18	Bobby Zalenski	Joe Gibbs Racing	44	-5	0	0	1

TEAM STANDINGS AFTER RACE 2 AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE

POS	CAR #s	TEAM	PTS	BEH	WINS	T5	T10
1	3 | 33	Team Dillon Esports	104	—	1	1	1
2	34 | 38	Front Row Motorsports	99	-5	0	1	2
3	4 | 95	XSET	96	-8	0	1	2
4	25 | 97	William Byron Esports	93	-11	0	1	2
5	8 | 88	JR Motorsports	91	-13	1	1	1
6	43 | 48	Charlotte Phoenix	84	-20	0	1	2
6	46 | 75	Rise Esports	84	-20	0	0	1
8	11 | 66	Kanaan Esports	83	-21	0	0	1
9	7 | 15	Jim Beaver Esports	78	-26	0	2	2
10	23 | 45	23XI Racing	70	-34	0	0	0

BOX SCORE

• Eight cautions for 30 laps in 100 completed laps (no overtime)
• Four lead changes among four drivers (Ottinger, Conti, Ray, Honeycutt)
• Most laps led: No. 25 Nick Ottinger (61 laps led)
• Fastest lap: No. 8 Michael Conti (Lap 82, 29.517 secs)
• Hard charger: No. 75 Zack Novak (Started 31st, Finished 8th | +23 spots)
• Hard luck: No. 27 Cody Byus (Started 3rd, Finished 34th | -31 spots)
• Fewest incidents: No. 8 Michael Conti & No. 7 Malik Ray (0x)
• Most incidents: No. 42 Kollin Keister (28x)
• Rookie of the race: No. 3 Jordy Lopez Jr (11th place)
• Team of the race: No. 8 / No. 88 JR Motorsports (65 points)
• Winning Club: Carolina

UP NEXT: ATLANTA (SUPER) SPEEDWAY

Another superspeedway-style race is up next as the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway’s new configuration in two weeks. Malik Ray leads the points and Team Dillon Esports leads the Team Championship after two events.

Things kick off with the eNASCAR Countdown to Green, which begins at 8:30 p.m. EDT / 1:30 a.m. GMT on Tuesday, 14th March. The race itself starts at 9:00 p.m. EDT / 2:00 a.m. GMT. Evan Posocco, Blake McCandless, Alan Cavanna, Camille Salazar Hadaway and James Pike are expected to be on the call.

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

2023 ENASCAR COCA-COLA IRACING SERIES SCHEDULE

RACE	DATE	TRACK	LAPS
CLASH	31-Jan	eNASCAR Clash at the LA Coliseum | Winner: CASEY KIRWAN	20/40/70
1	14-Feb	Daytona International Speedway | Winner: TUCKER MINTER	80
2	28-Feb	The Milwaukee Mile | Winner: MICHAEL CONTI	100
3	14-Mar	Atlanta Motor Speedway	100
4	28-Mar	Richmond Raceway	130
5	11-Apr	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	30
6	18-Apr	Talladega Superspeedway	70
7	2-May	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	100
8	16-May	Darlington Raceway	120
9	30-May	Charlotte Motor Speedway	100
10	13-Jun	World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway	120
11	27-Jun	Watkins Glen International	45
12	11-Jul	Nashville Superspeedway	100
13	25-Jul	New Hampshire Motor Speedway	101
14	1-Aug	Pocono Raceway	60
15 – PO1	15-Aug	Michigan International Speedway	60
16 – PO2	29-Aug	Dover Motor Speedway	120
17 – PO3	12-Sep	Phoenix Raceway	120
18 – C4	26-Sep	Homestead-Miami Speedway	100