eNASCAR International: Alon Day takes points lead with Daytona win

Justin Melillo
eNASCAR International: Alon Day wins the 2022 championship; Treyten Lapcevich wins Phoenix

After four races in the 2022 D-BOX eNASCAR International iRacing Series presented by Digital Motorsports, Alon Day has claimed three wins in a row after another stunning performance at the Daytona Int’l Speedway road course. Similar to his performance at Mosport, Day started on the pole position, led every lap and won by nearly 14 seconds.

Now the only three-time winner in series history, and still the only winner with more than a single victory, Day was able to sweep the road course swing of tracks in the five race season. The first race took place at the Homestead-Miami Oval, and now to win the championship, Day will need to conquer the left turns of Phoenix Raceway.

“After Homestead, I knew if I wanted to fight for this championship, I would need to win all of the road course races,” Day said post-race. “Now I can say, ‘mission accomplished’… Now, I have to put some practice in for Phoenix and try to grab that championship.”

With another max points day, 120 points score alone from the road races, Day leads the standings at 137 points. The gap back to the former points leader Victor Barrales Jr is only five. Simon Pilate, Treyten Lapcevich, Alex de Alba, Rajah Caruth and Tobias Dauenhauer all have a mathematical shot as well, depending on how many drivers show up to the finale.

THREE PEAT FOR ALON DAY

The series returned to Daytona, marking the first repeat trip for the series since it began in 2021. These drivers would utilize the NASCAR Road layout on iRacing, that of which includes a Turn 13 and 14 chicane out of Oval Turn 4, just before pit road and the start-finish line.

With Day on the pole, the only chance the rest of the field had was to get him early in the going. Simon Pilate gave it his best effort in the opening laps. The de facto champion from last season, Pilate hasn’t had the same luck in this iteration of the series. Regardless, with starting second, this was possibly his best chance to make it back into virtual victory lane.

The push was on for the No. 8, but in his aggressiveness, the dreaded turtle curbs jumped out and bit him in the Le Mans Chicane after a few laps. Pilate was able to recover to finish in third at the end of it, but it wasn’t the result he was looking for. Paul Jouffreau, a driver looking for his first win in this series who also competes in EuroNASCAR, was able to capitalize and finish second.

There would be a pit stop around halfway, but once again, Day had the field covered. Even in pitting, Day never lost the lead and went on to lead every single lap en route to victory.

NEW POINTS LEADER ENTERING FINALE

The points lead has now changed hand twice in as many weeks. Victor Barrales Jr took it from Rajah Caruth last week, but this week, the curse befell him. Early in the going, when Pilate had his issues and started excavating the grass, Barrales was trying to give room so to avoid incident.

Enter Nick Sanchez, who returned to the series for the first time since he pulled over and quit at Homestead, Sanchez caught up to Barrales quickly and the two made contact, sending the No. 39 off track with heavy damage. Thankfully, Barrales was able to recover decently with utilizing the fast repair, but a seventh place finish when he could have had a fourth meant more points lost than he had hoped.

Other championship rivals also found themselves in dire situations. Caruth, who needed a solid finish to stay in the conversation, had trouble with Pinty’s driver Treyten Lapcevich in the Le Mans Chicane. He was able to recover, but wound up giving the spot to Pilate behind him a lot easier than he’d hoped as well.

As for Pilate, he’s third in the standings, just a single points ahead of Lapcevich in fourth. Both drivers still have a shot at a title if Day and Barrales have trouble in the desert next weekend. Tune into eNASCAR.com/live at Noon ET / 5 p.m. GMT on Saturday 5th February to see the epic conclusion of the eNASCAR International Series!

RACE #4 DAYTONA TOP 10 FINAL RESULTS

Pos.No.NameInterval
121Alon  Day30 LAPS
264Paul Jouffreau+13.855 sec
38Simon Pilate+16.548 sec
450Tobias Dauenhauer+21.612 sec
513Rajah Caruth+27.957 sec
620Treyten Lapcevich+36.470 sec
739Victor Barrales+43.069 sec
810Ulysse Delsaux+43.660 sec
914Alex de Alba+44.921 sec
1023Federico Gutierrez+46.091 sec

TOP 10 POINTS STANDINGS AFTER RACE #4 – DAYTONA

Pos.No.NamePoints
121Alon Day137 points
239Victor Barrales Jr132 points
38Simon Pilate126 points
420Treyten Lapcevich125 points
514Alex de Alba118 points
613Rajah Caruth116 points
750Tobias Dauenhauer115 points
864Paul Jouffreau110 points
946Miguel Gomes105 points
1081Justin Campbell104 points

BOX SCORE

  • LAPS LEAD: Alon Day, 30 (1-30)
  • HARD CHARGER: Ulysse Delsaux (+12 spots)
  • CAUTIONS: Zero for zero laps
  • TIME OF RACE: 59 minutes, 22 seconds
  • FASTEST LAP: Simon Pilate, Lap 16 (1:55.057 seconds)

2022 eNASCAR International iRacing Series Schedule

  • 8th January 2022 – Homestead-Miami Speedway – 60 Laps
  • 15th January 2022 – Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – 30 Laps
  • 22nd January 2022 – Circuit Zolder – 30 Laps
  • 29th January 2022 – Daytona International Speedway Road Course – 30 Laps
  • 5th February 2022 – Phoenix Raceway – 60 Laps
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