Steven Wilson passed Tucker Minter in an overtime finish at a virtual Dover Motor Speedway on Tuesday and went on to earn his second eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win of the season.
The reigning series champion is the lone two-time victor though the series’ first six races this year.
“That was pretty damn wild, I’d say,” Wilson said of the overtime start, which soon saw Minter and Tucker running three wide along with Kaden Honeycutt. “On the restart, it looked like I just timed it pretty OK. I didn’t want to beat him to the line because we were on the outside somewhere banking with old tires and two tires that had like 80 laps on ’em. Obviously they were spinning a lot. …
“Obviously a win in this series means everything for playoffs.”
Wilson, from Iowa City, also prevailed at a virtual Richmond (Va.) Raceway on March 26.
“It’s really fun when you are running up front and know you have that speed every week,” he said. “Coming to tracks like Dover, my last two years here I finished third and second — and now first. So I guess we were just counting down from three to one.”
Minter, from Warrenton, Va., said of the finish, “It’s just frustrating we get irrationally raised cautions and then you give everybody a chance to get a bunch of restarts on you and everybody’s allowed to lay back in the restart zone and get a good jump on you.
“So not a lot you can do when you are the leader in the restart zone. You are just kind of at the mercy of maybe you catch them out when they roll it wrong. That’s pretty much all it comes down to.”
Wilson, in the No. 10 Ford, finished 0.094 second ahead of Minter in the No. 97 Chevrolet. Donovan Strauss came in third place in the No. 51 Chevrolet, just ahead of Ryan Luza in the No. 80 Ford. Bobby Zalenski rounded out the top five in the No. 18 Toyota. Honeycutt, in the No. 8 Chevrolet, slipped back to seventh.
The series continues May 7 at a virtual Talladega Superspeedway.
–Field Level Media
