Michael Guest survived a pair of overtime finishes, a wreck-filled final lap and a wild rush to the checkered flag to book a spot in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoffs with his first career win at a virtual Pocono Raceway on Tuesday night, the final race of the regular season.
In winning for the first time in 106 career starts, Guest earned a playoff berth he otherwise would not have gotten on points. He led at each of the final three restarts, jumping out in front each time. In the final restart, however, his No. 45 Toyota was neck-and-neck with Nick Ottinger’s No. 25 Chevrolet coming to the white flag — even trailing at the line.
As the teams made it down the second straightaway and entered Turn 3 at the three-cornered “Tricky Triangle,” the No. 7 Ford of Malik Ray got a big run and split the two lead cars, allowing Guest to pull away slightly with the break of the side draft. As the cars came out of the turn, Matt Bussa got into the back of Ottinger, his teammate. None of the contact resulted in a wreck, but all of the bumping allowed Guest to remain clear as the checkered flag dropped.
“It feels great. I definitely wanted to win one of these before I stopped,” the Brownsburg, Ind., resident said. “I’m like six years in so, I’m glad it finally paid off. …
“I feel like I should have made (the playoffs) the last two years, I just didn’t get the win.”
As for teammates tangling and all of the aggressive driving at the finish (multiple accidents took place back in the field on the final lap), there was good reason. All four of the second- through fifth-place finishers also entered the race without a win, so they were battling to make the playoffs on points.
The only driver to come out of the chaos with any happiness was Ottinger, who entered the race with the most points of any driver without a win, and two spots in the playoffs up for grabs. As Guest took one of them with the victory, Ottinger grabbed the 10th and final postseason berth on points.
Officially, Ray finished second, 0.184 seconds behind Guest, followed by three cars within four-hundredths of a second of one another: Dylan Duval in the No. 41 Ford, Ottinger and Bussa in the No. 97 Chevrolet.
“I could have just had no regard and just try to drive through Mike (Guest) like other people were doing,” said Ray, the Greer, S.C., resident who started from the back of the field and actually lost contact with the server at one point during the race. “I’m just not going to race like that.”
The playoffs begin in two weeks, on Aug. 15 at a virtual Michigan International Speedway.
eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoff field
Rank, Driver (Car No.), Manufacturer
1. Bobby Zalenski (18), Toyota
2. Michael Conti (8), Chevrolet
3. Tucker Minter (33), Chevrolet
4. Casey Kirwan (95), Chevrolet
5. Jordy Lopez (3), Chevrolet
6. Steven Wilson (10), Ford
7. Garrett Lowe (15), Ford
8. Michael Guest (45), Toyota
9. Jimmy Mullis (46), Chevrolet
10. Nick Ottinger (25), Chevrolet
–Field Level Media