After a trip to eNASCAR Overtime, University of Michigan’s Matthew Zwack scored the victory in the eNASCAR College iRacing Series powered by NACE Starleague on Tuesday, holding off University of Maine at Machias’ Daniel Faulkingham at the line at Darlington Raceway. Zwack bested 39 of the top collegiate iRacers in a 100-lap battle at “The Lady In Black” for his first career win in the series.
Zwack qualified 11th and ran around 10th for the majority of the show, but opted to utilize an alternate strategy to ultimately put him in the position to win. A number of cautions towards the end set up for a bunch of short runs, ultimately equalizing the tires and allowing for Zwack to hold on.
St Charles Community College student Anthony Burroughs took the pole position ahead of Eastern Washington’s James Scioly and Cal State Fullerton’s Logan Clampitt. The first caution flag flew on the 18th lap with the field opting for different pit strategies right away. There was a second immediate caution on Lap 23, but when the race got rolling again, Clampitt was in charge.
University of Iowa’s Steven Wilson closed to Clampitt’s back bumper, but the racing stayed green long enough for the final pit cycle to commence around Lap 60. This shuffled the deck, as tire management became the key to track position. Wilson was one of the last to pit, but Zwack continued on track as long as he could. Finally, the Michigan driver came in for service, and at that exact moment, the caution flew for an incident on the backstretch.
Wilson and Zwack both stayed out as the rest of the field had to pit for a chance to win. On the ensuing restart, Wilson couldn’t hang, even with decently new tires. As he free-fell through the field, Zwack was in control as the cautions began to fall once again. Wilson had to pit for damage repairs, but wound up caught in a future restart wreck, his day over early.
In eNASCAR Overtime, Zwack got the start he needed to get around Faulkingham. Into Turn 3 on the final lap, Faulkingham looked low, but couldn’t get his nose to stick, allowing for Zwack to take the checkers.
eNASCAR College iRacing Series results from Darlington Raceway were as follows:
Fin.
St.
No.
Name
School
Laps
Interval
Led
Best
1
11
18
Matthew Zwack
Michigan
103
0
23
29.485
2
4
54
Daniel Faulkingham
Maine at Machias
103
-0.067
0
29.396
3
6
49
Garrett Lowe
UNC at Charlotte
103
-0.221
2
29.450
4
1
62
Anthony Burroughs
St. Charles CC
103
-0.327
19
29.429
5
3
44
Logan Clampitt
Cal State Fullerton
103
-0.501
47
29.490
6
17
22
Joe M Armstrong
Reynolds CC
103
-0.587
0
29.370
7
8
75
Jose Solis Jr
Manchester CC
103
-0.823
2
29.438
8
9
79
Austin Farr
Liberty University
103
-1.009
0
29.633
9
10
51
Arron Brown
Eastern Shore CC
103
-1.312
0
29.639
10
20
4
Nate S Stewart
Hopkinsville CC
103
-1.369
0
29.787
11
30
27
Elliot White
Maryland
103
-1.433
0
29.723
12
25
11
John Forbes Jr
Saddleback
103
-1.456
0
29.610
13
22
34
Andy Trupiano
Detroit Mercy
103
-2.091
0
29.938
14
36
8
Aydan Saunders
Texas A&M
103
-2.143
0
29.906
15
32
70
Coleson Phelps
Iowa State
103
-2.18
0
29.808
16
23
52
Jack Coyne
Rensselaer Poly.
103
-2.236
0
29.801
17
33
24
Alexander Heider
St Johns River
103
-2.455
0
29.878
18
28
29
Reece Baham
Auburn University
103
-2.548
0
29.742
19
16
98
Jake Hall
Clemson University
103
-2.867
0
29.744
20
27
28
Kaleb Bryan
Missouri S&T
103
-3.314
0
29.891
21
31
37
Charles Wimbley
Guilford College
103
-3.471
0
29.964
22
15
71
Douglas Newbigging
King’s College
103
-4.099
0
29.795
23
14
99
Mario Merenda
Oklahoma
103
-4.69
0
29.817
24
13
15
Garrett Viton
Arizona State
103
-5.084
0
29.828
25
29
72
Jeremy O. Burns
Longwood
103
-5.356
0
30.023
26
35
5
Brandon Shulenberger
Wingate
102
-1 L
0
29.980
27
34
23
Chris H. Bryant
Methodist
102
-1 L
0
29.967
28
39
86
Zach Sprouse
George Mason
98
-5 L
0
30.162
29
21
21
Layne Graves
Wichita State
97
-6 L
0
29.835
30
37
68
Thomas Coonan
Missouri S&T
96
-7 L
0
29.968
31
18
20
Abraham E Vela
San Jacinto College
93
-10 L
0
29.902
32
19
30
Daniel Nanney
Ball State University
93
-10 L
0
29.747
33
5
26
Tyler Garey
Palm Beach State
92
-11 L
0
29.802
34
7
10
Steven Wilson
University of Iowa
92
-11 L
10
29.782
35
38
2
Aaron Mulrooney Jr
Kent State
88
-15 L
0
30.027
36
24
48
Christian Charbonneau
Dallas Baptist
80
-23 L
0
29.919
37
12
31
Matthew L Morton
Ohio State Newark
61
-42 L
0
29.803
38
2
7
James Scioly
Eastern Washington
33
-70 L
0
29.655
39
26
9
Colton Salek
ERAU Daytona Beach
33
-70 L
0
30.028
Through six races and a number of drops already calculated, UNC at Charlotte’s Garrett Lowe assumes the lead by just a single point over Clampitt, last year’s series champion. Manchester Community College student Jose Solis Jr sits third, while Liberty University’s Austin Farr and Hopkinsville’s Nate Stewart currently round out the top five.
eNASCAR College iRacing Series standings through Round 6 are as follows:
Garrett Lowe, 137
Logan Clampitt, 136
Jose Solis Jr, 122
Austin Farr, 121
Nate S Stewart, 119
Steven Wilson, 115
Daniel Faulkingham, 115
Matthew L Morton, 111
John Forbes Jr, 109
Mario Merenda, 100
eNASCAR College iRacing Series racing will return next month, back in the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks, with the seventh round of the season from Talladega Superspeedway. Qualifying will run from February 21st to March 3rd, and the main event is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19th, live at 8 p.m. ET on eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels.
The eNASCAR College iRacing Series Powered by NACE Starleague is supported by Coca-Cola, Logitech G, and DBOX. For more information on the series and how to compete, visit https://playfly.com/enascar-college-iracing-series/. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
About the Series: The eNASCAR College iRacing Series gives college students from the United States and Canada the opportunity to compete for their share of $60,000 in scholarships. Using machines from the NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 40 drivers qualify for the event by registering here and posting their fastest lap times in a two-week Time Attack through the iRacing UI. With hundreds of colleges and universities represented in each Time Attack and only one representative per school, drivers are competing not only against the greater iRacing community, but also their own classmates, for a spot on the prestigious grid.
