Tucker Minter pulled out a victory in his eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series debut on Tuesday, taking the checkered flag at a virtual Daytona International Speedway in the opening event of the season.
Minter, from Warrenton, Va., is the 61st winner in series history and just the third to win in his initial race.
He had the No. 33 Chevrolet in second behind the reigning series champion, Casey Kirwan in the No. 95 Chevrolet, heading into the final turn. Kirwan tried unsuccessfully to block Minter’s move to the inside, but Kirwan instead spun out to the top of the track as Minter sped to the finish line.
Kirwan also had won the preseason race at a virtual Los Angeles Coliseum on Jan. 31.
Minter emerged with a 0.085-second win over Malik Ray in the No. 7 Ford. Darik Bourdeau came in third in the No. 1 Chevrolet. Kirwan took fourth place, and Michael Cosey Jr. placed fifth in the No. 38 Ford.
Minter said postrace, “It’s unbelievable. I’ve been dreaming … about this race all offseason, but for the last three nights it’s taken me like an hour and a half to fall asleep because I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do, coming to the line, how am I going to get myself in the right position, what’s it going to take to be there?
“There are so many times this race where we just kept ourselves in a good position. Everybody I was working with, it was just incredible.
“We had the track position, led so many laps. And then with those green-white-checkers, I was getting really scared. Fuel was really tight. If we had another caution, I don’t think I would have made it, but when I cleared to the top and I was in line with Casey, I knew I was in THE spot and I just had to execute on it.”
Next up on the series is an event at a virtual Milwaukee Mile on Feb. 28.
–Field Level Media