Vicente Salas earned his second consecutive eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series victory, prevailing Tuesday at a virtual Chicago Street Course thanks to a collision involving Bobby Zalenski and Steven Wilson on the final lap.
Salas prevailed last week at a virtual Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
On the final lap of the latest event, Wilson (a five-time series winner this year) charged to the lead in the No. 77 Chevrolet.
Zalenski soon tried to sneak past him on a turn and the two collided, crunching the front of the Zalenski’s No. 22 Chevrolet in a corner. Salas was able to steer his No. 11 Toyota around the right of the other two contenders to grab the lead and take the checkered flag.
“I didn’t know if Steven was going to go for something there,” said Salas, a Temecula, Calif., resident. “My tires were absolutely gone at the end. I thought I did a good job at saving them, but at these road courses with my … background, I’m just really used to going hard.
“So I backed it up as much as I could. He eventually got to us and his move was really, really clean. I think he could have done me a lot more dirty than he did.
“Going into that corner, I knew if I tried to show on Steve he was going to defend because he know I’d go for it if he gave it to me, and that ultimately set up him and Bobby to kind of clash there. And we got through it, so I’m super, super stoked to bring back No. 2 here, and I guess as a once-great driver of the 11 said, ‘Today I beat your favorite drivers.’ ”
Zalenski, from Fresno, Calif., said, “I thought I was going to win that race. It was just (that) Steven got tight when he was off the rubber line. … I was going into the wall no matter what and we were wrecking.”
Salas won by 1.692 seconds over Zalenski and by 2.118 seconds over Wilson. Casey Kirwan came in fourth place in the No. 24 Chevrolet, and Garrett Love rounded out the top five in the No. 99 Chevrolet.
Salas’ Toyota was the only non-Chevrolet in the top eight.
The series continues on July 22 at a virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Salas said of his prospects at Indianapolis, “We’ll see. I think we had top five speed there last year. Kind of an untimely caution put us 20th, 25th or so. So I think … we could definitely contend for three in a row.”
–Field Level Media
