NEWTON, Iowa – Wednesday night’s eSports Racing League All-Star Race at the virtual Iowa Speedway had both no shortage of cautions and no shortage of domination by Graham Bowlin.
Bowlin, a regular in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, led from wire to wire in the race that was scheduled for 100 laps but extended by three green-white-checkered attempts.
All of the carnage happened behind Bowlin, however, who cruised to victory over Ray Alfalla under caution after a multi-car incident on the backstretch during the final overtime restart slowed the pace.
Bowlin survived 12 caution periods – and subsequent restarts – over the course of the ERL All-Star Race, and though he hung on through every one of them, he admitted it wore on him down the home stretch.
“That was a long back half of the race. I wish it had gone green more of the way, but I’ll take a win any way I can get it,” Bowlin explained. “Having Ray on your back isn’t necessarily a fun feeling when you have all those restarts, but we managed. He almost got me there with a bump and run at the very end; it was all clean and fun though.
“I started backing off the pace car later after I noticed they were trying to bump me and make me go early, so it was about doing what I could to counteract that and we got ourselves a win tonight.”
Bowlin qualified on the pole over the 36-driver field with a lap of 23.320 seconds (135.077 mph), took the lead from Alfalla off the initial start and was never headed after that, though the scramble for second was a fun battle to watch through the course of the evening.
Alfalla ended up second, edging out Blake Reynolds for runner-up honors after a hard late-race duel.
“I was just biding my time, really,” Reynold said. “That top five or 10, I was pretty familiar with most of the drivers, so we were all having some fun. I was sitting in line, saving my tires, but it kind of became a caution-fest there at the end.
“On those restarts, we were trading it off pretty well with (Zack) Novak and Alfalla. It was a lot of fun.”
Novak crossed fourth, making for a sweep of the top four positions by eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series regulars, with past CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion Josh Berry completing the top five.
Sixth was Braxton Deweese, ahead of Nick Ottinger, Christian Eckes, Max McLaughlin and Tyler Ankrum.
The dozen caution flags in Wednesday’s ERL All-Star Race slowed the average race pace to 76.129 mph.
Anthony Alfredo, who drives in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Richard Childress Racing, is the organizer of the eSports Racing League, which debuted in February.
Wednesday night’s ERL All-Star Race was broadcast through Podium eSports. To watch a replay of that broadcast, click here.
The results:
Graham Bowlin, Ray Alfalla, Blake Reynolds, Zack Novak, Josh Berry, Braxton Deweese, Nick Ottinger, Christian Eckes, Max McLaughlin, Tyler Ankrum, John Midgett, Jean-Philippe Bergeron, Nic Kesler, Brandon McKissic, Lucas Cram, Ty Gibbs, Anthony Alfredo, Steve Durham, Alek Chamberlain, Todd Smith, Alexander Krankhe, Roger Gregory, Rajah Caruth, Nick Olsen, Darin Mock, Colby Wells, Greg Maconi, Jimmy Mullis, Jeffrey Maconi, Nicholas Hughes, Jeremy Allen, Matt Bussa, Sammy Smith, Jose Solis Jr., Harrison Burton, Landon Huffman.
Lead Changes: Zero between one driver.
Lap Leader(s): Graham Bowlin 1-117.
Laps Led: Graham Bowlin 117.
Caution Flags: 12 cautions for 56 laps
Average Speed: 76.129 mph
Margin of Victory: Under Caution