Jordy Lopez led only lap on Tuesday night, but it was the only lap that mattered.
After spinning out the race leader to take the lead on the final lap, Lopez edged Michael Conti in a door-to-door drag race to the finish line to prevail at a virtual World Wide Technology Raceway for his first career eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win.
“I just can’t believe it,” said an emotional Lopez, whose No. 3 Chevrolet edged Conti’s No. 8 Chevrolet by .005 seconds at the virtual Madison, Ill., track. “So many years of frustration and it’s finally paying off.”
Despite the runner-up finish, Conti remains atop the season standings with 312 points through 10 races. He is tied for the series lead with two wins and leads all racers with six top-five finishes. Lopez’s win moved him into second with 273 points.
“I’m not going to go up there and dump somebody because I feel entitled to a win,” said Conti, who got Lopez loose with a bump in Turn 4 to get even with him down the stretch. “I just wanted to give Jordy a nudge just to kind of get him a little bit upset with those old tires, and I did, and we just locked together coming down the front stretch in Kurt Busch-Ricky Craven Darlington fashion.”
The final move to give Lopez the lead ruined Garrett Manes’ shot at his first career win in his 46th career eNASCAR race. When a caution came out with 17 laps to go, Manes stayed out — despite having 26 laps on his tires — and moved from 29th place to the lead.
Manes and his No. 12 Ford then maintained the lead thanks to a series of yellow flags, including one that forced a green-white-checkered restart.
Manes actually took the white flag, as well, but Lopez got to Manes’ bumper and turned him heading into Turn 2. That sent Manes spinning and caused a massive pileup that set up Lopez’s sprint with Conti.
Manes, who led 19 laps, finished the race in 30th place. That was one spot better than Nick Ottinger, the series leader in laps led this season who led a race-high 79 on Tuesday. Ottinger got shuffled to the back while pitting on the caution with 17 to go and got caught up in the final wreck.
Parker White finished the race in third place in his No. 11 Toyota, followed by Garrett Lowe’s No. 15 Ford in fourth and Graham A. Bowlin in fifth in the No. 48 Toyota.
The series resumes at virtual Chicago Street Course on June 27.
–Field Level Media
