What to watch for: eNASCAR Championship Finale at Homestead-Miami

40 drivers entered the season with aspirations of competing for the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series championship.

10 drivers emerged from the Regular Season still in contention to win it all.

After the Logitech G 120 at Phoenix Raceway two weeks ago, now only four drivers remain with a shot at $100,000. They’re all in Charlotte, North Carolina this week. On Tuesday night, they’ll be on stage, in front of Glory Road at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, in front of a live audience, battling for the top spot at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Garrett Lowe (Jim Beaver eSports), Nick Ottinger (William Byron eSports), Steven Wilson (Stewart-Haas Racing) and Tucker Minter (Team Dillon eSports) are the four contenders left standing. One of them will claim the title in less than 36 hours from now.

Here’s EVERYTHING you need to know about entering the Championship night at Homestead-Miami.

PRESENTING: THE 2023 CHAMPIONSHIP 4

#15 Garrett Lowe: Jim Beaver eSports

The first to punch his ticket at Michigan Int’l Speedway more than a month ago, Lowe has had the most time to prepare for Homestead-Miami Speedway. Despite his early ticket punch, he’s kept in the conversation, a hopeful to win at both Dover and Phoenix as well. Homestead-Miami is admittedly not Lowe’s best track, but it’s been a career season regardless for the fifth year driver who will make his 92nd career start on Tuesday evening.

Two wins on the season so far, at New Hampshire and the aforementioned Michigan, a third one would tie him for the most on the season with Bobby Zalenski (Joe Gibbs Racing) and fellow Championship 4 competitor Tucker Minter, but remember, a win isn’t needed to claim that Dale Earnhardt Jr Championship Trophy — Casey Kirwan only needed a second place result at Phoenix last season.

In five prior races, Lowe has two fourth place runs (2020 and 2021) but he also has two poor finishes of 35th in his rookie season, 2019, as well as a 28th place finish last season. “Todo Es Justo En Amor Y Carreras” has been the tag line for the team since things went awry at Nashville Superspeedway battling for the win with Jimmy Mullis (Rise eSports) back in July. Since then, there’s been no other driver with the same momentum as the 15 team. Can Lowe protest his way all the way to a 2023 title?

Whenever team owner William Byron wins a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s usually a good omen for his eNASCAR crew. That could be crucial for the 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series champion Nick Ottinger, who is seeking his second title on Tuesday night. Ottinger punched his ticket just under a month ago, winning at Dover Motor Speedway. Byron had won at Watkins Glen nine days prior. NASCAR’s latest winner is Byron once again, winner at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend.

Coincidences aside, 2023 has been one of Ottinger’s best, despite not picking up his first win until the 16th race of the season. He was the only driver to point-in to the playoffs this year, with the other nine taking spots on merit of winning. Michigan didn’t pan out how he had hoped, but winning the pole and race at Dover cured those ailments, and now Ottinger is heading back to the same venue where he won his first championship three years ago.

In 12 career starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Ottinger has more Top 10 finishes than non-Top 10 finishes. If Ottinger can pick up a second title, he would be only the second to do so, the other being 4-Time Ray Alfalla. Ottinger brings the experience of winning a championship and more years of competition than anyone else in the title fight to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Tuesday. This time, he’ll have to do it in front of a crowd.

Bacon is so back. The only driver to return to the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year is Steven Wilson, last season’s fourth place finisher in the final eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series standings. A dominant 2022 did not translate into the same result in 2023, but despite all of this, the only Championship 4 driver in on points from pure consistency is the Smithfield driver.

Winning all the way back at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March, Wilson has since switched backend teams, moving from Deadzone to Norse Force. For a time at the start of the season, it looked as though the win might not even be enough as he teetered on the Top 20 relegation line for many weeks. Eventually, Wilson’s pace picked up, as did his luck, and he was safely inside the Playoffs before too long.

With the knowledge of how this Live Championship went last season, as well as the fact that Wilson enters Tuesday night as the defending Homestead-Miami Speedway winner, it could be everything the Iowan needs to succeed this time around.

Two weeks ago at Phoenix Raceway, rookie Tucker Minter had it all but won as the laps were ticking down, out to more than a second lead over the rest of the field, just hoping to see the white flag to make the race official. Instead, he was met with a late yellow flag and a tough decision that initially resulted in a desk getting punched. Minter stayed out on old tires, while everyone else he was racing came in for at least two fresh tires. The cautions would continue and they all came at the perfect time for Minter, who managed to hang on for his third win of the 2023 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season.

A winner in his first career race at Daytona to start the year, followed up with a mid-season win at Charlotte to solidify his playoff standing, Tucker Minter, in his first season competing at this level, has more wins than anyone else except Bobby Zalenski, who he’s tied with at three. His most recent one was likely his toughest to capture yet, but it places him back at the NASCAR Hall of Fame for a second straight year at the Championship Finale. Last year, he was in the audience with aspirations of making it onto that stage. A successful year later that included graduating to the Coke Series from Contender and getting signed on Austin Dillon’s team, plus all the successes after that has him ready to fight for his first title.

The last rookie champion came in 2017, with Ryan Luza (XSET). Minter has been just as impressive, holding on to a Top 10 points position through the entire year. A long time iRacer, but his first at this level, and a man who has managed to win some of the biggest races of the year to date, could this be the year of the rookie?

So long, Michael Conti. It’s been a Gr8 career

Hanging it up after Homestead-Miami is the 2014 Series Champion, JR Motorsports’ Michael Conti. Tuesday night will be Conti’s 208th and final start in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series competition, completing his #ItsBeenGr8 Retirement Tour as he fights for a possible fifth place in the final standings. Conti will join a short list of drivers who have recently retired from Coke competition, including his Team Conti teammate Logan Clampitt as of last season.

In 207 starts, Conti has earned 15 career wins and 71 career Top-5 finishes. Since the beginning of the Playoff Era in 2017, Conti never finished outside of the Top 10 in the final standings, making the Championship 4 on two occasions in 2018 and 2020, arguably with enough points to make it in 2022 as well, but an added drop week ultimately taking him out of racing on the NASCAR Hall of Fame stage last year.

This season, Conti earned two wins at Milwaukee and Las Vegas, ultimately vaulting him to win one more championship in his final year, the Regular Season title. Unfortunately, there’s no trophy for that, and with the points resetting for the Playoffs, his large lead dissipated, a poor result at Michigan ultimately sealing his fate of missing the Championship 4. Still, if there was one, it’s been an eNASCAR Hall of Fame-worthy career for the 26-year-old North Carolina native. Congratulations on a well-deserved retirement, Mike!

RELEGATION UPDATE!

While all eyes will be on the battle for the Championship, there’s still the matter of deciding the Top 20 drivers who will earn an opportunity to return to the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series in 2024 without the rigamarole of dropping back down to the eNASCAR Contender Series and having to earn a spot the hard way.

With 17 races complete to this point, all 10 Playoff drivers plus the drivers ranked from 11th to 15th are guaranteed to finish in the Top 20 this season.

There are then 10 drivers fighting for five spots in the final race of the season. Above the line includes Matt Bussa (William Byron eSports, +30), Donovan Strauss (Williams Esports, +30), Garrett Manes (fgrAccel eRacing, +15), Corey Vincent (Pittsburgh Knights, +6) and 2021 Series Champion Keegan Leahy (23XI Racing, +0).

Below the line, it’s Tyler Garey (Tony Kanaan eSports, -0), 2019 Series Champion Zack Novak (Rise eSports, -2), Wyatt Tinsley (Kansas City Pioneers, -4), Dylan Ault (Letarte eSports, -14) and Kevin King (JR Motorsports, -24).

Realistically, Bussa and Strauss are looking to lock in easily, their magic number being 11 points, which would be earned with a finish of 26th or better. For Manes to lock, his magic number is 26 points, which is a finish of 11th or better. Vincent’s only guarantee is to finish as the winner or in second place, needing 35 points to guarantee a place in the series next season. Everyone from 20th to 23rd, they can only lock a spot up by winning. For both Ault and King, they will need a lot of help to get above that line.

Everyone from 26th on down will have a chance to be invited to the eNASCAR Contender Series, which starts October 10th. The Top 20 in that series, which will be comprised of the Bottom 20 Coke drivers and the Top 20 or so Qualifying Series drivers, will earn the chance to be invited to the 2024 Coke Series roster.

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP TO BE DECIDED AS WELL

By a margin of 50 points, Team Dillon eSports leads the Team Championship over the defending winners, Stewart-Haas Racing. As long as the duo of Tucker Minter and Jordy Lopez score 26 points combined on Tuesday night, they will be the 2023 Team Champions.

If they aren’t able to, Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Steven Wilson and Dylan Duval can steal it away by outscoring Team Dillon eSports by 51 points. Team Dillon owns the tiebreaker with more wins (4 to 1).

WHO TO WATCH FOR

Homestead-Miami Speedway has been a staple on the eNASCAR calendar since it was introduced in 2011. There have been 11 different winners in 13 races, the 2020 season getting a double dose of action as the track was added to the calendar as the finale to replace Phoenix late in the going. Only two drivers have multiple wins, those being Ray Alfalla and Ryan Luza.

Luza in particular has had the absolute worst season of his career, but one thing that’s been consistent in all six prior seasons is that he’s finished the year with at least one win. That almost came at Michigan in August before disaster struck late in the going. Homestead-Miami will be his and other former winners’ last chance to end the season on a high note. Other former winners in the field include Kevin King (2012), Zack Novak (2019), Keegan Leahy (2021) and of course, Championship 4 competitor Steven Wilson (2022).

Surprisingly, this isn’t a track that Nick Ottinger has won at yet, although he did win the pole in 2018. Ottinger has been a pole winning machine this season, currently with six to date. It’s also a track that Garrett Lowe has had mixed results at and a track that Tucker Minter has yet to compete at, at this level. Of course, we’ll be watching those Championship 4 competitors very closely on Tuesday night.

PAINT SCHEME PREVIEW

The final race will see seven new paint schemes to end the year. All four of the Championship 4 will be in their regular paints, as will the retiring Michael Conti. Here are the new paints to watch for on Tuesday night:

Cody Byus will drive the #27 Sim Seats Chevrolet for Elliott Sadler Esports that throws it back to an old Elliott Sadler paint from 2010, when Sadler drove the GT Vodka Chevrolet for JR Motorsports (Xfinity Series) and Kevin Harvick Inc. (Truck Series).

Darik Bourdeau will also drive an Elliott Sadler throwback, the #1 Sim Seats Chevrolet for Elliott Sadler Esports will throw back to the first-ever paint scheme that Sadler drove in the Late Model ranks in the 1990s. It was also posted by the team on X (formerly Twitter) that ESE will NOT return as an official team to the series in 2024.

As always, Rise eSports will have a pair of different paint schemes, as they have had all season long. Zack Novak’s final DIAMOND AGE #75 Sunoco Chevrolet will harken back to Tony Stewart’s early years, the Home Depot days of 1999 and 2000.

Kevin King will be paying tribute to the late Marty Ward in the #88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. Ward had driven a similar #97 Hooters Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sportsman Division back in the 1990s. Ward passed away in a race at Anderson in South Carolina last month.

It’s only fitting that a race that will be held at the NASCAR Hall of Fame has a NASCAR Hall of Fame sponsored vehicle. Brandon McKissic will drive that sponsor on his #36 Letarte eSports Chevrolet.

It’s all Miami vibes for Jimmy Mullis and his #46 Sunoco Chevrolet for Rise eSports. Palm Trees and neon colors galore! That marks 18 races of different FUELING THE FUTURE machines for Mullis to coincide the with 18 different DIAMOND AGE throwback paints for Novak.

For Matt Bussa, the #97 Logitech G Chevrolet for William Byron eSports will pay tribute to his favorite NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick, who is set to retire in November at the conclusion of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. The scheme loosely resembles Harvick’s 2014 Championship-winning Budweiser scheme and features a picture of Harvick and his son Keelan on the side of the car.

WHERE TO WATCH

For those attending at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the doors are set to open at 7:00 p.m. ET with the festivities officially kicking off at 8:00 p.m. ET.

If you won’t be in attendance at the live show, be sure to tune into the eNASCAR Countdown to Green starting at 8:00 p.m. ET on the iRacing Twitch or eNASCAR.com/live. The 100 lap event at Homestead-Miami Championship finale starts at 9:00 p.m. ET.

This article was written by Justin Melillo on ftf.gg.