Zack Novak claimed the first-ever eNASCAR Ignite Series Championship Thursday night along with a $10,000 racing scholarship.

The eNASCAR Ignite Series, the first ever youth esports series on iRacing featuring drivers between the ages of 13-16 years old, hosted its Final Championship event last night. In a winner-take-all format at the virtual Martinsville Speedway, Novak bested the top 30 drivers that advanced throughout the four-race playoff format over the past 12 weeks.

“It’s surreal, I don’t even know what to say,” offered Connecticut native Novak. “Everything I have worked for over the past five or six years – this championship means the most to me. Really happy I could close this one out!”

Novak, already a regular contender in the NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze iRacing series (NASCAR’s highest-level eSports series), has proven to be a multi-dimensional driver by winning on the biggest eNASCAR stages in both Legends cars and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars as well.

During last night’s Championship event, the top four finishers from each heat race, as well as the last chance qualifier (LCQ) would earn starting positions in the 30-lap final.

Heat No. 1 saw pole sitter Dylan Ault find trouble early and drop out of contention, opening the door for Zack Novak and several others to move to the front. Top seed Garrett Lowe worked his way to a transfer spot before finding trouble on a last-lap pass for the win, and ultimately finishing fifth, just one spot out of an automatic transfer to the final. At the end of the 10-lap race Zack Novak, Daniel Silvestri, Spencer Tart and Aaron Mulrooney Jr. had secured starting spots in the final. Everyone else had one last chance in the LCQ.

Heat No. 2 was a much calmer race with the top three qualifiers holding course and easily transferring to the final. Fifth-place qualifier Mike Neal was able to get the final transfer spot after Niclas Laubisch dropped back to seventh. The transfer drivers from heat No. 2 were: Austin Edwards, Briar, LaPradd, Andy Trupiano and Mikey Serra.

Aggressive driving in Heat No. 3 lead to several incidents on track, ultimately taking out second-, third- and fourth-place qualifiers. This opened the door for the rest of the field to earn the transfer spots to the final. Pole sitter Dave Walsh easily won the race with Jake Matheson, Ryan H. Papasian and Dillion Hodge rounding out the top four and earning transfer spots to the final as well.

The last chance qualifier gave those who didn’t transfer directly from the heat races one last opportunity to earn a starting spot on the grid for the final. Several drivers were able to redeem themselves from disappointing performances in their respective heat races, including series favorite Garrett Lowe and Heat 1 pole sitter Dylan Ault. Devein Serra and Ryan Matthews also earned transfer spots to the final by finishing in the top four.

The 30-lap final race would feature the 16 drivers who transferred with Novak starting on pole. Walsh, Edwards and Silvestri would fill in the rest of the front two rows as the green flag dropped. Novak and Walsh started well  and pulled ahead of  the field. Novak would ultimately lead all the way to the checkered flag. Walsh tried to put some pressure on the leader, but Novak was simply too fast and too consistent to get close enough to even attempt a pass.

The top three finishers, Novak, Walsh and Edwards, showcase the diverse and broad appeal of eNASCAR racing on iRacing. Novak is from Connecticut, Walsh is from Ireland and Edwards is a California native. Utilizing the iRacing eSports platform makes it easy to bring drivers from around the world together to compete on a level playing field.

Novak’s dominant victory in the final earned him the $10,000 racing scholarship as well as a slew of other prizes — a one-on-one driver instructional session with Max Papis (including one of his MPI steering wheels), an introduction to NASCAR racing development personnel, a SimSeat simulation cockpit and seat with monitor stands, a Martinsville Speedway VIP experience with Champion acknowledgement, NASCAR Racing Experience Voucher, and a VIP iRacing account.

To learn more visit www.iRacing.com/NASCARIgnite.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Newly named NASCAR president Steve Phelps had an optimistic message for a group of reporters gathered for a question-answer at NASCAR headquarters.

“We need to come together as a sport, and if we come together as a sport, I have no doubt this sport is going to grow,” said Phelps, whose selection as president was announced Sept. 20.

“But we have to do that. We have to have folks put self-interest aside sometimes and see what’s in the collective best interest of the sport in order for it to be healthy.”

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In his new role, Phelps will have responsibility over all competition and business operations.

“For starters, I’m humbled to be in this position,” Phelps said. “There have been four other presidents of NASCAR in our 70-year history, and to be announced as the fifth—since I’m a massive fan of the sport, and I understand the history of the sport—is truly humbling.”

Elevated on April 3 to the role of chief operating officer from his previous position as executive vice president, sales and marketing, Phelps wholeheartedly embraces the collaborative spirit and process that has become the norm in NASCAR racing in recent years.

“With respect to changes I’m going to make, or a vision statement that would be different from where we’ve been, I think the path that we are on right now, which is one of industry collaboration and industry input, is one that we’re going to continue and one that I see as very important to the sport,” Phelps said.

“What Brent (Dewar) has done, first as chief operating officer and then as president of NASCAR, to try to bring the industry together—that’s something that we’re going to continue. Our sport has headwinds, for sure, and we’re addressing those headwinds head-on, and we’re going to do it as a sport. We’re going to do it with our teams, with our drivers, with our track and media partners and our sponsors.”

For those who pine for the early days of NASCAR, when founder Bill France Sr. and his son, Bill France Jr., ran the sport with what was perceived an autocratic authority, Phelps points to the importance of collaboration within a structure that gives all stakeholders their respective voices.

“There’s a school of thought out there that NASCAR should go back to the way it was, when Bill France Jr. very, very successfully ran this sport,” Phelps said. “It was Bill’s will, right? He was taking input from people behind the scenes, from drivers and team owners, but at the end of the day, it was his decision.

“Having a formal process in place with councils, I think, allows us to put things onto the calendar, have people understand when they’re going to happen, put agendas together and then collectively decide… When you look at an agenda for the drivers’ council, it will look remarkably similar to an OEM council, to a track council, to a team owner council.

“The general ideas are all the same, frankly, and the agendas are very similar. How we approach them might be a little bit different. With that said, it has allowed us to hear those voices in an environment that is private, but they can all hear what each other are saying as well. So if I’m an OEM, if I’m Toyota, I hear what Ford and Chevy are saying.”

In that spirit, NASCAR is listening to all voices when it comes to possible changes to the racing schedule. Events for 2019 already have been established an announced for all three national touring series, but for 2020, Phelps says almost all ideas will get a hearing.

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“Obviously, for our ’19 schedule, our ’19 schedule is done,” Phelps said. “We announced that in April, and it’s going to be exactly the same schedule we have in ’18. So, with respect to any changes we make to the schedule moving forward, whether they’re new venues, doubleheaders, midweek racing—all these things that are being thrown around at this particular point—we’re looking at everything.

“We’ll get with our industry and get input from them, and at the end of the day, we will take all that information and cull it down, and we will make a decision that we believe is in the best interest of NASCAR.”

Phelps also promised a revamped approach in underscoring and promoting the individual races on the calendar.

“We need to make sure that the race product that we put on the track is as good as it can be, which is what we’re going to do,” Phelps said. “We do know that the race day experience or the race weekend is really important, and we’re working with our tracks to make them understand that. And we need to reinvent what I would call the event promotion, as to what that looks like.

“That gets back to a collaboration effort which we are going to see between our race tracks, NASCAR, our broadcast partners and our teams and drivers in order to promote the sport in a way that we haven’t in the past. That means really coming together and creating opportunities that reach fans and asks them to come out and see what’s going on in NASCAR.”