eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series | Power Rankings | Race 15 at Michigan – iRacing.com
There’s something about the number seven in motorsports that runs side-by-side with some of the greatest of all-time in their respective leagues. In NASCAR, the folks with the most championships in history all have seven. It’s also quite the lucky number, often associated with good fortunes. 2025 might prove to further this notion among two of the drivers battling for the Dale Earnhardt Jr Cup later this year.
The first, and more obvious one, is that Steven Wilson (Spire Motorsports) is just a single win away from breaking the all-time season wins record. He sits tied with 2013’s Nick Ottinger at six wins. A seventh win separates Wilson as the leader of that category, and in his chase for a second championship, a seventh win might just be what he needs to accomplish this feat.
There’s also Bobby Zalenski (ERA eSports) about to potentially hit a number seven of his own. Since the inception of the eNASCAR Playoffs in 2017, Zalenski has qualified for six out of eight Championship 4 groups. Despite this record as it stands, Zalenski still has yet to win a title. If he were to make a seventh Championship 4 appearance in 2025, that could propel him to finally breaking that title barrier and cementing himself among the greats of the series.
Bobby Zalenski claims eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win at Pocono; 2025 Playoff Grid set
With his second win of the season coming at Pocono two weeks ago, Zalenski put an exclamation point on a Regular Season that didn’t have the Road Course King in victory lane at any of the road races. Instead, his two wins came on the oval, albeit two of the biggest ovals on the schedule, but that could bode well for his chances in these final four races of the season, all of which will be on varying sizes of oval.
Wilson, Zalenski, and eight other hopefuls will take on the challenge of the next three races in the eNASCAR Playoffs to hopefully punch their ticket to Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the Dale Jr Cup will be on the line. Nine different teams are represented this season, the team with two drivers being the Channel 199 Sim Racing outfit of Zack Novak and Dylan Duval. Double the drivers, double the chances, and also it puts Channel 199 back on top in the Team Power Rankings this week.
As for the Driver rankings, it’s still Wilson’s world. He’s nearly got an entire race on the cut line, so as long as he doesn’t completely throw it all away, it will be tough for him not to make this year’s Championship 4. Zalenski, Vicente Salas (Kanaan Esports), Tucker Minter (William Byron eSports), and Kollin Keister (Jim Beaver eSports) were also able to get wins this season. Another win for them, or any of the drivers who pointed their way in, is the only guarantee to make the big dance in October.
MICHIGAN DRIVER POWER RANKINGS | Zalenski aiming for seventh Championship 4 appearance… and first title
Wilson, Minter, Salas, and Zalenski enter the 2025 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series Playoffs with a leg up on the rest of the field, having multiple wins in the Regular Season. Wilson, Zalenski, and Salas have had their successes most recently, hence why those three lock out the podium in this week’s Power Rankings.
Minter hasn’t had the same successes as he had prior to the update for 2025 iRacing Season 3. Actually, Minter hasn’t had the same luck as he did before the update. The speed is still there, as evident by his pole win for Pocono, but losing the race off pit road really put a damper on his case for a fourth win. I think the call to pit a second time later in the going was a Hail Mary call to see if new tires might usurp track position, but it was in vain as he collected a 21st place finish.
Truthfully, those four should be the favorites to make the Championship 4 this season, based on their successes in the first 14 races. Then I look at the names that didn’t win and question how they haven’t found victory lane yet. Oh yeah, Wilson kind of didn’t let too many others find victory lane this year. In fact, this is a record low—only five drivers have wins in the Regular Season this year, the previous low was eight in 2017 and 2018.
Zack Novak (Channel 199 Sim Racing), Casey Kirwan (Kansas City Pioneers), and Parker White (Atlassian Williams Sim Racing) all know how to win, and know how to win championships, and with that notion, should also be threats to make the Championship 4 this season. Novak, in particular, did about everything he could besides win a Feature race this year. The 2019 champion earned the second-most points this season. He even won a Segment.
These drivers don’t need to win to win the championship. In fact, this season is the most likely in series history that we could have our first winless champion. I don’t think we will, unless somehow the five winners all fail to advance to the championship race.
There’s also the possibility of getting our first multi-time champion other than Ray Alfalla this year. Despite Novak, Kirwan, and the defending champion, White, not having wins yet this season, if those three were to join Wilson and beat him without winning, we’d get a two-fer with a winless multi-time champion. Now that would be something. Shout out to rookie Christopher Hill (Apex Racing Team) on cracking the top-10 this week after nearly winning at Pocono. Hill was the biggest mover this week.
TOP 20 DRIVERS POWER RANKINGS (ENTERING MICHIGAN)
- Steven Wilson
- Bobby Zalenski (+3)
- Vicente Salas (-1)
- Zack Novak (-1)
- Casey Kirwan (+2)
- Tucker Minter
- Dylan Duval (+4)
- Jordy Lopez (-4)
- Parker White
- Christopher Hill (+5)
- Ryan Luza (-1)
- Kollin Keister (-4)
- Connor Yeroschak (-1)
- Garrett Lowe (+3)
- Seth DeMerchant (-1)
- Michael Guest (-3)
- Dylan Ault (-1)
- Quentin Warman (NEW)
- Femi Olatunbosun (NEW)
- Michael Cosey Jr (-2)
Fell out: Matt Bussa, Graham Bowlin
MICHIGAN TEAM POWER RANKINGS | Channel 199 the only team with two drivers in 2025 Playoffs
Only one team put both of their drivers into the Playoffs this year, despite neither driver having a win yet. That would be Channel 199 Sim Racing, and winning or not, this is the team that will be favored to win the Team Championship now with only four races to go.
That’s not to discount Spire Motorsports and Steven Wilson with his six wins, but even with all those wins, when combined with Femi Olatunbosun’s efforts, they are still two points behind the Travis Pastrana-backed organization. Wilson could continue to carry, and as long as Olatunbosun keeps himself above the relegation line (+22 points above 21st entering Michigan), Spire should continue to be a factor in the title. However, with two drivers who needed to point their way in continuing their championship pursuits, that trends well for the Channel 199 duo.
The top-six teams in the Power Rankings all have a driver in the Playoffs. In seventh, fgrAccel has two drivers above the relegation line. Both Hyak Motorsports and Apex Racing Team join the rankings this week. In Hyak’s case, Dylan Ault was the first driver to not qualify for the Playoffs on points. In Apex Racing’s case, Christopher Hill was one position away from winning his way into the competition.
Looking outside the top-two, the battle for third is intense as well. ERA eSports has Zalenski in the Playoff picture, but the Jesse Iwuji-backed team nearly had both drivers in the mix until Michael Cosey Jr’s Pocono dreams fell apart. Atlassian Williams needed Donovan Strauss to win his way into the Playoffs this season—something the sim-to-reality driver was close to doing last year at Pocono after winning the pole. Sadly, the Formula 1 outfit will only have their defending champion to chase a second straight driver’s title with.
BS+COMPETITION’s chances almost folded as well after a rough outing from Jordy Lopez ended in a tie for the final transfer spot with Duval. Thankfully, Lopez held the tiebreaker (on incident points, mind you), so if Hill or any other new winner would have cropped up, he would have still managed to advance.
It’s not unrealistic that the top-eight are still in contention—but it is unlikely that any team outside the top-two still have a shot as every other team is more than a full race behind. If there’s any chance left, these teams need to take it at Michigan, a place where we’ve seen the unexpected take place in recent seasons.
TOP 10 TEAMS POWER RANKINGS (ENTERING MICHIGAN)
- Channel 199 Sim Racing (+1)
- Spire Motorsports (-1)
- ERA eSports (+1)
- BS+COMPETITION (-1)
- William Byron eSports (+1)
- Kansas City Pioneers (-1)
- fgrAccel
- Atlassian Williams Sim Racing
- Hyak Motorsports (NEW)
T-10: Apex Racing Team (NEW)
T-10: Kanaan Esports (-1)
Fell out: Jim Beaver eSports
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.
