On Thursday, iRacing and NASCAR announced the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series schedule. 19 races are scheduled, 18 of which will count towards the championship. Things kick off on 31st January and last through 26th September.
As usual, the season will begin with an exhibition race which mirrors the real-world Clash at the LA Coliseum. Casey Kirwan won this inaugural event in 2022, and that kicked off the chain reaction that led to the 2022 championship in October.
Daytona is also in its usual place, kicking off the points paying season with 200 miles of pack racing, akin to the real-world Daytona 500. Last season, Femi Olatunbosun scored an incredible victory, three-wide at the line with Garrett Manes and Steven Wilson on either side.
It gets interesting two weeks later though when the series makes it debut at The Milwaukee Mile. This will coincide with NASCAR making its return to the Wisconsin venue for the first time since 2009, a trip we will see later in the season in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Things get even more exciting in April. Monza will be the series’ first trip internationally, and the event will run on a version of the track with no chicanes.
Essentially, the eNASCAR drivers will be taking on a Monza layout without the Variante del Rettifilo chicane after the starting line or the Variante della Roggia chicane following the Curve Grande.
The rest of the regular season has the usual suspects with some minor tweaks. Richmond, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Charlotte, WWT Raceway, Nashville, Pocono, Watkins Glen and Darlington all return to the Regular Season, although some are in different spots on the schedule.
Atlanta will be on the new configuration, a track originally created in the iRacing service before ground broke and the track was reconfigured with higher banking. Pocono will be the Regular Season finale, a track that saw another incredible finish between Kirwan and Zack Novak.
Darlington will be later in the season, and with the change, once again it becomes a throwback race. Teams will be encouraged to run paint schemes that hearken back to the past history of the sport.
Added to the regular season are races at Talladega (was in the playoffs in 2022) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, last seen on the 2021 schedule. In the playoffs, Michigan returns to kick things off in the playoffs. Dover moves from regular season to playoff race 2.
Phoenix will be the third and final playoff race instead of the finale. Homestead-Miami Speedway moves back to its (objectively) rightful place as the Championship Finale, and that championship event will once again be booked for a night inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte.
Gone from the schedule are the races at Kansas and Road America, two venues that have been locks on the schedule in the last few seasons. Also, Bristol has been removed both times from when it was on the schedule in 2022, those being the spring dirt race and summer night race on the concrete.
In total, four tracks were changed between seasons, and two of them are brand new to the top level eNASCAR competition. We’ll get to see what NEXT Gen cars on one of Italy’s most storied tracks will look like. Overall, it’s a solid schedule.
A key point as well is that the season will end a full month earlier, now in September as opposed to the end of October. This could possibly lead to a change in schedules for the Road To Pro Qualifying and Contender Series, but we’ll have to wait and see as that has not been confirmed.
With the schedule and the driver roster all but confirmed for 2023, the series will soon enter Free Agency with teams and drivers set to be determined over the next week or so. Check out the full schedule release below. Which races are you most looking forward to this season? Let us know in the comments!
RACE | DATE | TRACK | LAPS |
CLASH | 31-Jan | eNASCAR Clash at the LA Coliseum | 20/40/70 |
1 | 14-Feb | Daytona International Speedway | 80 |
2 | 28-Feb | The Milwaukee Mile | 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 |
The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series is broadcasted live on eNASCAR.com/live and iRacing social media channels on Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 a.m. GMT.
The Countdown to Green coverage starting at 8:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 a.m. GMT (or 8:00 p.m. ET / 1:00 a.m. ET for select special events).