eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series | Power Rankings | Race 7 at Charlotte Motor Speedway

It’s been THREE WEEKS since the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series last raced, but that wild Talladega finish is still seared fresh in my memory banks. A spot on the line for the 2025 eNASCAR Playoffs, and for the second time in his career, ERA eSports Team’s Bobby Zalenski made it a point to win at Talladega Superspeedway to secure his spot.

It was almost SIX Karma’s Daniel Faulkingham or Apex Racing Team’s Christopher Hill. The contact off of Turn 4 enabled Zalenski to pull away from the chaos and take the win, all but ensuring his ninth-straight appearance in this simulated racing’s postseason. Zalenski joins Steven Wilson (Spire Motorsports), Tucker Minter (William Byron eSports), and Kollin Keister (Jim Beaver eSports) as winners so far this season.

Keister and Minter are former winners on the Charlotte oval, while Zalenski has his share of victories on the Roval when that layout was on the schedule. Wilson doesn’t yet have a win in the longest race (in distance) on the calendar. Can Wilson grab a fourth win on the year and continue his reign at the top, or has some in the field managed to catch up to the 2023 series champion?

CHARLOTTE DRIVER POWER RANKINGS | Zalenski Playoff Bound as Wilson returns to points lead

At the beginning of the season, it was Steven Wilson versus Parker White (Atlassian Williams Sim Racing), but over the last two races, Wilson has pulled ahead significantly while White has plummeted down the order. After having a shot to win Segment 1, White now sits fourth in the standings, which is still a fantastic place to be… but the defending series champion still does not have a win on the season, so his postseason is not yet confirmed like it is for Wilson, Minter, and now Zalenski.

Kollin Keister, the Las Vegas winner, has yet to qualify for the playoffs despite having a regular season win in 2020 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. For now, he’s in, but he will need to keep that points position above 20th to have the opportunity to qualify. A volatile day at Talladega has him back down the order and back outside the top-10 in the standings.

Malik Ray (Vegas Inferno) proved his superspeedway prowess once more at Talladega, finishing second to Zalenski, missing out on his ticket to the playoffs by inches. While a win would be the easiest way to get that playoff berth, he’s been having another career year, currently fifth in the standings with three top-five finishes in six races. If not for that one trip to Brazil, Ray could be contending for the points lead right now.

Near the bottom of the Power Rankings this week, Quentin Warman (HYAK Motorsports) re-enters the conversation as the first rookie in 2025 to score a top-five finish, having finished fourth at Talladega. It’s been feast or famine for the first year, either flashy and up front, or battling at the bottom of the barrel. Blaze Crawford (Team Dillon Esports) has had a much smoother ride, which is why he leads the rookie points after six races, but Warman has shown just a skosh more in terms of what the Power Rankings are all about.

For the most part, the Power Rankings reflect the standings themselves. There are, of course, exceptions. Collin Bowden (RFK Racing) jumped into the conversation after a strong day at The Rock, but he maintains a place in the top-20 after another solid outing at Talladega, despite only sitting 29th in points. Another exception would be in the fact that Vicente Salas still finds himself in the top-10 of the Power Rankings despite now sitting 11th in points. That comes down to the fact that his finishes have mostly not reflected his pace all season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed a victory in the next eight races.

TOP 20 DRIVERS POWER RANKINGS (ENTERING CHARLOTTE)

1. Steven Wilson
2. Zack Novak
3. Tucker Minter
4. Bobby Zalenski (+7)
5. Parker White (-1)
6. Malik Ray (+4)
7. Vicente Salas (-1)
8. Dylan Ault (-1)
9. Dylan Duval
10. Casey Kirwan (+2)
11. Donovan Strauss (+2)
12. Kollin Keister (-7)
13. Michael Guest (+2)
14. Daniel Faulkingham (+2)
15. Femi Olatunbosun (-7)
16. Quentin Warman (NEW)
17. Jordy Lopez (+1)
18. Collin Bowden (+2)
19. Jimmy Mullis (NEW)
20. Blaze Crawford (-3)

Fell out: Connor Yeroschak, Blake McCandless, Michael Cosey Jr

CHARLOTTE TEAM POWER RANKINGS | Channel 199 Sim Racing takes control

Another shift early this season is that Atlassian Williams Sim Racing hasn’t been the same since the name change. While Parker White and Donovan Strauss still sit in the top-12 in points (White in fourth, Strauss in 12th), they’ve fallen off of the pace that Steven Wilson and Spire Motorsports was setting. Even more impressively, however, is that neither team leads the Team Standings after six weeks—that honor now belongs to Channel 199 Sim Racing.

Zack Novak is second in points after winning the opening Segment, only two points behind the dominant Wilson. Novak’s teammate, Dylan Duval, knows how to win Team Championships, and has been setting the field on fire as of late, scoring his best finish of the season three weeks ago at Talladega in finishing third.

Wilson and the other Spire driver, Femi Olatunbosun, are first and 10th, respectively. Novak and Duval are second and ninth. While Wilson has the wins, his finishes have been less consistent. A similar sentiment sits in the comparison between Duval and Olatunbosun. It is CLOSE, but the surge in the last few races for Channel 199 have them at the top of the Power Rankings this week, but only just barely.

While Zalenski added his name to the winner’s list, his ERA eSports teammate, Michael Cosey Jr, had an objectively tough day at the office, losing a bumper cover early on and never recovering, finishing 22nd. He just barely falls out of the top-20 of the Power Rankings, but his score still allows the team as a whole to move up to third in the Power Rankings, just barely ahead of Atlassian Williams. Yes, Strauss got a top-five finish, but it is so close from 10th to 20th in the points that one bad week could completely flip Cosey Jr up to the top-10 and Strauss outside the top-20. I’m not saying that will happen, but it could.

William Byron eSports continues to be my biggest intrigue thus far in the campaign. While Tucker Minter is killing it so far, his counterpart, the 2020 series champion, Nick Ottinger, is just having an off year. The OttiBoss has a pole position to his name, but his best finish through six races is a 17th at Interlagos. The break could be just what the doctor ordered, though, and Charlotte is a place Ottinger has won at before. It’s now or never, however, not just for Ottinger, but for many of the hopefuls towards the bottom of the standings.

TOP 10 TEAMS POWER RANKINGS (ENTERING CHARLOTTE)

1. Channel 199 Sim Racing (+1)
2. Spire Motorsports (-1)
3. ERA eSports Team (+3)
4. Atlassian Williams Sim Racing (-1)
5. Vegas Inferno
6. William Byron eSports (-2)
7. HYAK Motorsports
8. Kansas City Pioneers (+1)
9. Kanaan Esports (-1)
10. Jim Beaver eSports

Fell out: NONE

Agree with these rankings? Disagree? Let me know on X (formerly Twitter) or BlueSky.

The quest for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series championship, and the road to $500,000, continues on Tuesday night at 8:00 pm ET, live on eNASCAR.com/live. Tune in to the pre-race Countdown to Green starting at 7:30 pm ET.

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit eNASCAR.com or iRacing.com/eNASCAR.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit iRacing.com.­­

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