Keegan Leahy led only one lap in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Tuesday night. However, he led the most important lap: the last one.
Leahy took advantage of a last-lap incident between Cody Byus and Nick Ottinger to secure his 13th career eNCCiS win. It marks Leahy’s first win since the 2022 season finale, ending a 19-race winless drought.
“Absolutely incredible,” an excited Leahy said on the post-race show. “I honestly was not sure I’d get back to victory lane in this series. It was getting so tough to run well in this series, let alone win.”
Leahy utilized fuel strategy, topping off on fuel under the final caution on lap 33 and then saving enough to get to the end and put himself in position to seize the opportunity for the race win.
“I knew I had enough to make it if I saved a good amount,” Leahy told Blake McCandless about the fuel strategy. “The issue is that we had to save so hard that those guys pitting, I wasn’t sure if they were going to catch us or not. It was really close.”
Ottinger held on for second place, falling just .062 of a second short of the race win after his final contact with Byus.
“Ultimately, we’re battling for a race win at the end,” Ottinger said about the finish. “On 70-lap old tires, I got loose and tried to correct it. Sorry to Cody. Just going for the win.”
Defending eNCCiS champion Steven Wilson led the first 65 laps of the race, but he fell on the wrong side of the pit strategy and had to settle for ninth. Kollin Kiester, Matt Bussa, and Parker White completed the top-five finishers.
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TONIGHT’S ACTION
Wilson had the best view for the initial green flag, earning his third career pole to lead the field to the start. Wilson cleared for the lead quickly before the race’s first caution on lap 3 after Garrett Lowe got turned around in turn three, creating a four-car wreck.
On the ensuing restart, Wilson fired off well to stay up front, but he could not create any separation from the rest of the pack. Coming around to lap 19, rookie driver Matthew Zwack lost control of his No. 99 Nitro Circus Ford on the front stretch to put the…
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