Bobby Zalenski earns inaugural eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series victory at Naval Base Coronado

For the 20th time in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series, ERA eSports Team’s Bobby Zalenski found his way to virtual victory lane on a Tuesday night, this time in another inaugural showing at Qualcomm Circuit, the new track created on the top of Naval Base Coronado.

A track created by iRacing in conjunction with NASCAR for a real-world debut this weekend in San Diego, the race at the base naturally got its debut virtually at the top level of virtual motorsports with 40 of the best eNASCAR competitors in the world. For a good majority of the night, those 40 drivers proved why they were the best, taking on the 3.4-mile purpose-built circuit for a total of 30 laps, 10 in the opening Sprint to set the field, then the 20-lap Main event.

As it has been the case in past seasons, Zalenski showed once again why he is often called the Road Course King, putting a smackdown on the field in an environment that was just released to the public last week in the iRacing 2026 Season 3 build update.

“This win is special for a lot of reasons,” Zalenski said post-race. “20 wins, that’s awesome. I’ve still got more to accomplish, though, in this series, and it’s just awesome to win in the NEXCOM car, the Navy Exchange. I had a lot of pressure on me to win this race, and that was mostly self-inflicted. When you race for Jesse Iwuji, you better come out here and put on your best. I don’t know if I’ve been this tired after a road race, just because mentally, I was just having to be locked in with Parker (White), he was just so fast.”

Williams F1 Team Gaming’s Parker White gave him a run for his money in the feature, but Zalenski kept the mistakes to a minimum to claim his second win of the season, this 20th one tying him with Nick Ottinger for second most win all-time. One mistake almost did cost him, a point on Lap 15 where the two were side-by-side down the backstretch. At one point, White’s nose was ahead, but as they exited the next corner, Zalenski managed to keep control.

“(Parker) was the best man today. He pushed me over the limit, got me nervous as hell, and forced me into a mistake. I was able to just stay in front of him—I nudged him a little bit into the braking zone—I’m not happy about that, because he always races me clean, but it was just me trying to squeeze him to try and get the apex, and then he got the damage.”

White wound up fading following the battle and subsequent damage, finishing in ninth. Spire Motorsports’ Steven Wilson took home a second place as a result, his third top-five of the season. While Zalenski has two wins to Wilson’s one, the Segment 1 title does belong to the latter, with Wilson taking the points win by 16 points. That Segment 1 victory gives Wilson an extra five points for the eNASCAR Playoffs later this year.

Next up for the series is a quick turnaround to Dover Motor Speedway on June 23rd. Kanaan Esports’ Vicente Salas was victorious last season.

SPRINT RACE: LUZA FADES LATE AS ZALENSKI RUNS AWAY

With the road races in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series, there are a few different rules than normal in play. For starters, there are two races to be run—a Sprint race and a Main race—with the longer main feature paying out the normal points. Before the Sprint race, however, the field qualifies with points on the line for the top-eight finishers. The caveat there is that the driver that sets the quick time will earn eight points, but will invert to eighth, with the eighth place qualifier earning one point, and inverts to the Sprint Pole.

William Byron eSports’ Tucker Minter set the quick time in qualifying, earning those eight points, but it was fgrAccel eRacing’s Ryan Luza taking the trip to the top of the boards for the 10-lap Sprint. With no points on the line, the only thing that the Sprint results offered was an official starting spot for the main race. Bobby Zalenski put his No. 22 in the seventh spot during qualifying, which meant he would start second in the Sprint race after scoring two points.

The Sprint was relatively clean, with a few mishaps here and there claiming some victims during the shootout. Luza was able to lead for three laps before Zalenski dove it down on Lap 4 to claim the top spot. From there, Zalenski set sail as the rest of the field attempted to navigate around Luza. Parker White finally made his move with two laps to go, and a number of drivers were able to follow through, dropping Luza to seventh. Zalenski was far gone by that point, earning the pole position for the main event.

MAIN RACE: ZALENSKI HOLDS OFF CHARGE FROM WHITE

When there are multiple races on a real-world race weekend, it’s very unlikely that teams get to roll out a backup car. In the virtual world, everyone gets a reset, so all 40 returned to the track for a 20-lap dash to the checkers, all with new, undamaged cars in their hand for the battle.

Unfortunately, some of those cars got damaged almost immediately with many hopefuls, such as Rick Ware Racing’s Garrett Manes, JR Motorsports’ Malik Ray, and Letarte Esports’ Connor Yeroschak all getting race-ending damage on the opening lap.

Up front, Bobby Zalenski and Parker White were side-by-side off of the line, with White nearly getting the jump out of Turn 1 before a slide set him back into fourth. Zalenski began to pull away, but White wasn’t finished just yet.

It took a few laps for White to get back by Tucker Minter and Steven Wilson, but White managed to get there before Zalenski could get an insurmountable lead. Behind them, the field continued to thin out, with Jim Beaver eSports’ Kollin Keister calling it early after contact with the other ERA eSports Team machine of Michael Cosey Jr, who was racing from a rig on-site at Coronado that evening.

On Lap 5, the gap was 1.2 seconds between the top-two. White ran his fastest lap on Lap 7, cutting that lead down to 0.7 seconds. For the next 10 laps, White stalked Zalenski, hoping he would make a mistake. On Lap 15, that slip up finally happened down the backstretch, through Turns 4 through 6. White got alongside, nosing ahead barely before Turn 6, but Zalenski had the preferred groove and put the squeeze on the former champion, maintaining the lead.

Later in the lap, into the final chicane adorned with Arby’s logos, White made his big mistake, nailing the tire bundle on exit, incurring heavy right front damage to his Chevrolet. Zalenski began to set sail from there as White struggled to hang on.

On Lap 17, White lost the runner-up spot to Wilson, and by the end of the next lap, he was down to sixth, losing spots to Vicente Salas, Minter, and Casey Kirwan (Pioneers) in a matter of corners. White almost had the bleeding stopped, but on the final lap, he and Ryan Luza made contact into Turn 6, which gave White even more debilitating damage.

Channel 199 Sim Racing’s Dylan Duval and JR Motorsports’ Zack Novak were both also able to get by as White cascaded down to ninth by the checkers. Rick Ware Racing’s Daniel Faulkingham was 10 seconds behind that, rounding out the top-10.

Out in front, nobody else had anything for Zalenski, who celebrated on the frontstretch with celebratory donuts nearly as perfect as his performance on the night.

RACE #3 | NAVAL BASE CORONADO | OFFICIAL RESULTS

PLAYOFF STANDINGS FOLLOWING RACE #3 | NAVAL BASE CORONADO

TEAM STANDINGS FOLLOWING RACE #3 | NAVAL BASE CORONADO

SEGMENT #1 FINAL STANDINGS FOLLOWING RACE #3 OF 3 | NAVAL BASE CORONADO

ROOKIE STANDINGS FOLLOWING RACE #3 | NAVAL BASE CORONADO

POINTS SITUATION LEAVING CORONADO

In the nine-race eNASCAR Regular Season, a third of it is already in the books. Two drivers are all but locked into the eNASCAR Playoffs, with Bobby Zalenski doubling his win total over Steven Wilson. Each win earns five Playoff Points for the three-race playoff, but there’s another way to earn those points, and that’s by winning a Segment.

There are three Segments in the Regular season, each of which consists of three races, and the first one officially belongs to Wilson, who won that points title by 16 points over Zalenski. Heading to Dover, both now have 10 Playoff Points in their pocket. The second Segment will start everyone at zero points, with the driver to score the most points at Dover, Iowa, and Indianapolis taking the next five Playoff Points.

Wilson’s team, Spire Motorsports, continues to lead the Team Championship, but just by 15 points over William Byron eSports. Zalenski’s team, ERA eSports, sits in third, 17 points back. In the battle for Rookie of the Year, RFK Racing’s Shawn Conklin continues to lead the way. Kanaan Esports’ Sebastian Marin had a promising start at Coronado, earning qualifying points and running inside the top-10 for the Sprint, but ultimately fell to finish 25th. RFK Racing’s Dylan Basen was the rookie of the race, finishing in 11th.

NEXT RACE: A TRIP TO THE MONSTER’S CONCRETE JUNGLE

Following Coronado, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series will race next at Dover Motor Speedway. There will not be an off-week in between Coronado and Dover, as the event is slated for next Tuesday night.

Last season, Vicente Salas was victorious in a race that saw massive tire wear throughout the night. The action from Dover starts on June 23rd with the Countdown to Green pre-race show at 7:45 p.m. ET.

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit eNASCAR.com or iRacing.com/eNASCAR.
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