FUSION Racing + FUSION Squad

Two long-awaited firsts were in store for Nick Ottinger and Chris Shearburn on Monday night, as the 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season wrapped up at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Shearburn scored his first career victory in his 71st career start, but Ottinger outdueled Bobby Zalenski, Michael Conti, and Ryan Luza to become the first $100,000 series champion, finally shedding the label of winningest driver in series history without a title and taking home the largest share of the $300,000 series purse.

“I’ve got a good team behind me, man,” Ottinger, overwhelmed by emotion, told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman after crossing the line fourth. “We got bit by the tire strategy a little bit, but we had to try something. We had the third best car, probably. I couldn’t have predicted that! All the hard work this year, to have William (Byron, team owner) believing in me this year… it’s the real deal.”

The first half of the race was clean and green, with the Championship 4 all qualifying in the top 10 and running in the top five early on before Conti attempted to go for an alternate strategy and stayed out longer. As most of the field, including Luza and Zalenski, began their second set of green flag pit stops, the first caution flew for Alex McCollum and Brad Davies, and not long after, a spin for Jarl Teien directly in front of Michael Conti led to the second caution.

Conti and Ottinger stayed out, saving a set of tires and establishing premier track position in third and ninth while Zalenski and Luza pitted, until a second spin for Teien caused an immediate third caution. Three, four, and five wide were the norm after the next green flag, as Zalenski rocketed to the front of the pack with his fresh tires.

With 15 laps to go, Luza clawed his way up to fourth, following Zalenski, Keegan Leahy and Ray Alfalla. He got past Leahy, but stalled out running side by side with Alfalla until making contact with seven laps to go, nudging Alfalla into the wall. That allowed Luza to finally get to Zalenski’s bumper, where he’d take the lead with four laps to go.

But a straightaway later, it all went wrong. Luza began to block, trying to keep the spot, but right as Zalenski tried to turn into Turn 3 and Luza tried to move up a lane, Zalenski’s left front fender clipped Luza’s right rear, sending him careening into the outside wall.

With the first attempt at overtime looming, Conti and Ottinger pit for their final set of tires. A frenetic first attempt ended with a caution just short of the finish line thanks to a multi-car accident in Turn 4, with Ottinger and Conti getting up to 12th and 13th. The cars with fresher tires were less successful at gaining spots in the second attempt, but another caution for an incident that put Brandon Kettelle on his roof kept them from getting to the white flag a second time.

But Shearburn, another driver on fresher tires, took the lead from Zalenski before the third and final attempt at a green flag finish, stealing control of the last restart. Despite scraping the wall earlier in the race, Ottinger had the better car than Conti, and was the stronger challenger. He muscled through the middle in the first corner, pulling to Zalenski’s bumper and going three wide in the final corner to make the $100,000 pass. Shearburn, Chris Overland, and Eric Smith crossed the line in the top three spots, as Ottinger became the first driver since 2016 not to win the title by winning the finale.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Shearburn of his first career victory. “I feel like I’ve let a lot of wins slip through my fingers, especially this year, and the luck certainly hasn’t been on my side. But for once, one time, I finally caught a break. The traffic on the first restart probably let me get the win more than anything. It’s amazing.”

Full results from the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Led	Interval	Best	Pts
1	7	36	Chris Shearburn	Chevrolet	147	7	0.000	30.806	44
2	37	16	Chris Overland	Ford	147	0	-0.339	30.839	39
3	16	9	Eric J. Smith	Ford	147	3	-0.921	30.999	39
4	9	25	Nick Ottinger	Chevrolet	147	0	-1.115	31.143	37
5	26	55	Caine Cook	Ford	147	0	-1.242	31.176	36
6	15	37	Christian Challiner	Chevrolet	147	0	-1.370	31.199	35
7	3	83	Bobby Zalenski	Chevrolet	147	46	-1.817	30.968	35
8	27	33	Michael Guest	Chevrolet	147	6	-2.069	31.113	34
9	23	23	Casey Kirwan	Toyota	147	0	-2.089	31.096	32
10	4	8	Michael Conti	Chevrolet	147	14	-2.090	31.168	32
11	20	46	Jimmy Mullis	Toyota	147	0	-2.172	31.057	30
12	1	32	Keegan Leahy	Toyota	147	0	-2.227	31.053	29
13	24	21	Garrett Lowe	Ford	147	0	-2.293	31.044	28
14	29	3	Blake Reynolds	Chevrolet	147	0	-2.371	31.234	27
15	2	2	Ray Alfalla	Chevrolet	147	0	-2.478	31.025	26
16	11	77	Bob Bryant	Toyota	147	0	-2.543	31.178	25
17	33	79	Brian Schoenburg	Ford	147	0	-2.569	31.213	24
18	12	27	Corey Vincent	Ford	147	0	-2.599	31.098	23
19	17	88	Brad Davies	Chevrolet	147	0	-2.635	31.207	22
20	21	90	Zack Novak	Toyota	147	13	-2.777	31.099	22
21	13	18	Graham A. Bowlin	Toyota	147	0	-2.787	30.984	20
22	35	54	Alex McCollum	Chevrolet	147	0	-2.922	31.305	19
23	14	6	Nathan Lyon	Ford	147	0	-3.163	31.170	18
24	31	75	Phillip Diaz	Ford	147	0	-3.771	31.165	17
25	10	5	Matt Bussa	Ford	147	0	-4.682	31.228	16
26	8	97	John Gorlinsky	Chevrolet	147	0	-4.839	31.124	15
27	19	24	Jake Nichols	Ford	147	0	-5.364	31.059	14
28	6	41	Dylan Duval	Ford	147	0	-5.740	31.135	13
29	18	10	Justin Bolton	Ford	147	0	-5.843	31.155	12
30	34	47	Steve Sheehan	Chevrolet	147	0	-7.600	31.320	11
31	5	53	Ryan Michael Luza	Ford	147	58	-7.864	30.984	12
32	22	17	Kollin Keister	Ford	147	0	-8.017	31.236	9
33	30	51	Malik Ray	Toyota	141	0	-6 L	31.233	8
34	32	14	Brandon Kettelle	Ford	140	0	-7 L	31.097	7
35	28	66	Jarl Teien	Chevrolet	136	0	-11 L	31.124	6
36	36	4	Santiago Tirres	Chevrolet	17	0	-130 L	31.236	5
37	25	15	Michael Guariglia	Ford	15	0	-132 L	31.622	4

Unofficial final eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series standings are as follows:

Pos.	Driver	Pts.	St.	Wins	Top 5	Poles	Laps	Led
1	Nick Ottinger	3037	20	2	9	1	2666	173
2	Bobby Zalenski	3035	20	3	10	4	2751	254
3	Michael Conti	3032	20	1	7	4	2662	269
4	Ryan Michael Luza	3012	20	3	6	0	2694	383
5	Jimmy Mullis	2120	20	2	5	1	2747	229
6	Keegan Leahy	2117	20	3	8	4	2775	385
7	Garrett Lowe	2115	20	0	6	0	2774	12
8	Ray Alfalla	2087	20	1	3	1	2721	142
9	Corey Vincent	505	20	0	1	1	2767	8
10	Logan Clampitt	501	19	0	7	0	2597	68
11	Graham A. Bowlin	490	20	0	2	2	2677	90
12	Brad Davies	484	20	0	2	0	2776	117
13	Chris Shearburn	460	20	1	5	1	2771	53
14	Blake Reynolds	453	20	0	1	0	2672	7
15	Caine Cook	446	20	0	2	0	2585	19
16	Bob Bryant	446	20	0	2	0	2778	43
17	Jake Nichols	437	20	0	1	0	2776	13
18	Christian Challiner	409	20	0	3	1	2711	5
19	Casey Kirwan	405	20	1	1	0	2681	32
20	John Gorlinsky	405	20	0	0	0	2773	7
21	Zack Novak	395	20	0	3	0	2660	27
22	Nathan Lyon	394	20	0	1	0	2634	4
23	Matt Bussa	392	20	0	1	0	2588	2
24	Dylan Duval	392	20	0	1	0	2751	2
25	Michael Guest	387	20	0	0	0	2715	21
26	Eric J. Smith	382	20	0	3	0	2714	3
27	Chris Overland	379	20	0	2	0	2703	14
28	Kollin Keister	377	18	1	2	0	2443	174
29	Brandon Kettelle	363	19	1	1	0	2538	36
30	Michael Guariglia	345	19	0	1	0	2515	58
31	Justin Bolton	341	19	0	0	0	2651	2
32	Malik Ray	334	20	0	1	0	2565	29
33	Phillip Diaz	328	20	0	1	0	2769	3
34	Alex McCollum	314	20	0	1	0	2599	4
35	Jarl Teien	304	20	0	0	0	2609	66
36	Steve Sheehan	282	18	0	0	0	2247	0
37	Santiago Tirres	265	20	0	0	0	2541	0
38	Brian Schoenburg	225	20	0	0	0	2355	8
39	Ashton Crowder	210	10	1	1	0	1596	16
40	Jeremy R Allen	113	10	0	0	0	1172	0

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series season finale from Homestead-Miami Speedway will air as a one-hour condensed broadcast on Sunday, November 8 at 7:30PM ET, directly after the real-world NASCAR Cup Series champion is crowned at Phoenix Raceway. For more information

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