Steven Wilson registered his record-tying sixth eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win of the season when a crash in the back of the field on the third overtime ended the Tuesday race at a virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
When the race concluded under caution, Wilson tied Nick Ottinger for the most wins in a single season in series history. Ottinger set the mark in 2013.
With his 15th career victory, Wilson tied Michael Conti for fifth place all time.
Wilson, in the No. 77 Chevrolet, prevailed at Indianapolis for the first time. He officially came in 0.293 seconds ahead of runner-up Zack Novak in the No. 2 Toyota, though the competitive portion of the race ended two laps earlier.
Jordy Lopez captured third place in the No. 89 Chevrolet, with Christopher Hill taking fourth in the No. 96 Chevrolet and Ryan Luza rounding out the top five in the No. 12 Toyota.
“It may not have been what I wanted, but it’s definitely what I needed there,” Wilson, an Iowa City resident, said of the caution-decided ending. “I was definitely running out of the gas. … in the last green-white-checkered because when we pitted on green, I short-fueled it to try to keep my spot in line there. …
“I was saving fuel pretty much the whole time under green this whole race, just trying to (minimize) time on pit road. … We’ll take it, No. 6, and move on.”
Novak, from Clinton, Conn., said of his second-place result, “Frustrating. That’s really all I can think of to describe it. We were in a great spot. … I don’t really know what I could have done differently there.
“Contrary to Iowa, finishing second there on some late restarts, I felt like tonight I did really everything maybe not perfect but pretty darn close to it on those restarts and it just didn’t work out unfortunately.”
The series resumes with the regular-season finale on Aug. 5 at a virtual Pocono Raceway.
–Field Level Media
