Late caution leads to eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series Top Split victory lane for Garrett Manes at Bristol

Bristol Motor Speedway made its exciting return to the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series calendar on Tuesday night with the eighth race of the Qualifying Series season utilizing the NASCAR O’Reilly Series vehicles. The last race of the O’Reilly run, 11 splits were made among nearly 400 drivers, the majority of the players for the top-30 now residing among the first and second splits.

Garrett Manes pulled off his second win of the 2026 Qualifying Series season, becoming just the second driver this year with multiple Top Split victories. The other driver with that accolade, Sebastian Marin, qualified second and finished second after leading the majority of the race. It came down to eNASCAR Overtime and a number of split strategies among the field that allowed Manes to claim his first O’Reilly Series vehicle win with his internet connection just barely holding on at the finish.

The Big One at Bristol happens coming to the white in Top Split

But @GarrettManes had all the time he needed to take the victory

Even blinking out pic.twitter.com/Xv71q5K54n

— NASCAR Gaming and Esports (@ENASCARGG) April 8, 2026

“I didn’t know how that was going to pan out, I just knew that there was going to be a wreck,” Manes said about the final two restarts. “I didn’t want to be in it, so I went as high as I could, all the way through the bad rubber at the top, and I prayed I wasn’t in it… I had to start behind the eight ball, and it’s kind of hard to pass, especially because I had a hard time getting enough traction off of the bottom to be able to make something work… (When the caution came out), I knew what I was going to do… we were just in the right place.”

Ryan Doucette, another driver like Manes that used to be in the Championship Series, claimed a win down in Second Split, also in dramatic fashion, stealing it away from Daniel Nanney in the closing laps on the outside. A giant wreck towards the end jumbled the running order up, and in stark contrast to the three-caution race in Top Split, the second one had double digits with 10.

With the Trucks and O’Reilly machines in the mirror, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series hits its final stretch of the season, with three races scheduled in the NASCAR Cup Series Gen 7 car, starting at Chicagoland, and wrapping up with Michigan and Texas.

TOP SPLIT: PIT ROAD DRAMA SETS UP LATE RACE HEROICS

It was a race that most people had circled for all of the wrong reasons, but the Top Split proved that good racing can exist on the half-mile battle arena known as Bristol Motor Speedway. For the second-straight week, Brian Mercurio claimed the pole position, and for the second-straight week, he did not lead any laps.

This time, it was the three-time winner this season, Sebastian Marin, who powered around Mercurio on the outside to claim the lead on the opening laps. As seen multiple times throughout the season, Marin in clean air is something most haven’t been able to overcome.

For the first 80 laps or so, the race ran under green conditions, with the field shuffling around nearly four seconds back of Marin. On Lap 81, Andrew Navarro managed to find his way around Mercurio in second with Garrett Lowe following through into third. Lowe then threw it in a lap later and took the second spot from Navarro and started to set his sights on Marin at the front, who had just caught the tail-end of the field to start lapping them.

The race, scheduled for 175 laps, saw the first pit stop at Lap 85 from Ray Alfalla. Eddie Kerner was the next to follow a lap later, and the overlapping and undercutting was underway. To pit from the lead lap, depending on where a driver pits from, may cost either two or three laps to the leader due to the track having a single pit road that starts in Turn 2 and ends in Turn 1.

With Shawn Conklin making his move down pit road as the third driver to pit on Lap 88, the caution flew as the strategies clashed at the front of the field. Kerner, on a huge tire advantage, closed in too quickly on the ailing Navarro, struggling to get grip off of the corners. The contact sent Navarro in the wall head on, ending his chances, trapping Alfalla and Kerner both multiple laps down for the remainder of the race.

As Marin caught the pace car, pit road immediately opened, something that the leader possibly wasn’t expecting so soon. As Marin had no choice but to pass by pit road entry, Lowe managed to sneak into the lane and take his service. Marin was forced to pit the second time by, which meant that he would lose the lead and restart outside the top-10.

Like the first half, the second half stayed mostly green as well, now with a gaggle of Garretts at the front of the field. Lowe led, but it was Garrett Manes now in second, chasing down the hybrid driver from BS+COMPETITION for the lead. There were a few dicey moments, including an incredible save from Michael Frisch and another from Kevin Champagne, but the race stayed green long enough for Lowe to catch the back half of the field.

Manes was closing in as the traffic held up Lowe. Suddenly, one of the lap cars ahead—Blake McCandless—got a shot into the corner from Justin Campbell. McCandless slid through the corner, then overcorrected into the wall, right in front of the leaders!

This moment set up for the end of the race. A restart was coming up with five laps to go. Five drivers—Cody Byus, Blake Reynolds, Matt Bussa, Thomas Lloyd in his Top Split debut, and John Forbes Jr, all opted to stay out. Manes led a group of drivers on two tires, including Marin, now restarting ninth. Lowe went the four-tire route, and would have to restart back in 12th.

A quick caution as the field collapsed around the converging strategies set up the race for eNASCAR Overtime. Manes made it up to third, now with just Byus and Reynolds to go through. Lowe made up no ground, caught in the wrong lines on both of the final restarts. Into Turn 1 for the second-to-last time, Manes cleared Reynolds, who started to immediately plummet, and got to the outside of Byus, clearing to the lead on the backstretch. As the field collapsed once again, the white flag was out, making the race official. Manes had a quick internet scare as he came to the line, but it held on just enough to clinch the win.

AROUND THE OTHER SPLITS

Second split was much more of a typical short track race, as mentioned before seeing 10 cautions in the 175 lap event. Nate Stewart claimed the pole and led for a while, but the cautions began rolling in early and often, setting up for a lottery of sorts as to when the proper time to pit would be.

Like what had happened to Marin in Top Split also wound up biting Stewart in second, as a caution flew after one of the longer runs of the race, which meant that it was a perfect moment to pit. Stewart got the call that pit road was opened too late for him to react, which meant he would pit the second time by and lose control. Blake Near wound up in control of things, that is until a jump start penalty caught him out and ended his chances of winning after leading 45 laps.

This gave control to Daniel Nanney, who would lead the most laps on the night at 65. After a few more cautions and restarts, the field got going in regulation with four laps to go. Nanney had control on the bottom, while Ryan Doucette led the top. The second row had Joe Armstrong inside and Stewart on the outside. Doucette didn’t get the best of starts, allowing Nanney to clear and for Armstrong to get alongside for second, but as they exited Turn 2, the leaders were three-wide!

Armstrong bounced off of Nanney, not knowing Doucette had gotten to the outside of them both, and had to settle back into line behind. Jake Nichols would take advantage and claim the final podium spot as a result. Up front, Doucette and Nanney were leaning on one another, with Doucette ultimately winning that battle and claiming his first win of the 2026 season.

TOP POINTS SCORERS IN RACE NO. 8 AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Pos.	Driver	Pts.	Split	Finish	Led	Wins
1	Garrett Manes	432	1	1	2	1
2	Sebastian Marin	419	1	2	90	0
3	Quami Scott	406	1	3	0	0
4	Cody Byus	393	1	4	8	0
5	Ryan Doucette	388	2	1	4	1
6	Quentin Warman	381	1	5	0	0
7	Daniel Nanney	376	2	2	65	0
8	Kenny Brady	368	1	6	0	0
9	Jake Nichols	365	2	3	0	0
10	Matt Bussa	355	1	7	0	0

DRIVERS STANDINGS FOLLOWING RACE NO. 8 AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Pos.	Driver	Pts.	+/-	Starts	R8 Split	R8 Fin.	Wins	T5’s
1	Sebastian Marin	3016	+1102	8	1	2	3	5
2	Quentin Warman	2889	+975	8	1	5	0	4
3	Garrett Manes	2854	+940	8	1	1	2	4
4	Matthew Morton	2654	+740	8	1	11	0	2
5	Andrew Navarro	2597	+683	8	1	35	0	5
6	Eddie Kerner	2370	+456	7	1	29	0	5
7	Cody Byus	2319	+405	8	1	4	0	3
8	Seth Noell	2309	+395	8	2	20	1	3
9	Dylan Basen	2302	+388	8	1	26	1	3
10	Logan Helton	2292	+378	8	2	23	1	4
11	Wyatt Tinsley	2264	+350	8	1	23	1	3
12	Jayden Hopp	2250	+336	8	2	8	1	3
13	Michael Cosey Jr	2249	+335	8	1	15	0	1
14	Joe Armstrong	2226	+312	8	2	4	1	4
15	Jose Solis Jr	2201	+287	8	3	22	1	3
16	Kenny Brady	2180	+266	8	1	6	1	2
17	Nate Stewart	2160	+246	8	2	7	0	3
18	Tyler Latterell	2143	+229	8	2	11	0	4
19	Shawn Conklin	2141	+227	8	1	19	0	1
20	Jake Nichols	2132	+218	8	2	3	1	2
21	Garrett Lowe	2131	+217	8	1	20	0	1
22	Blake Giglio	2101	+187	8	3	15	0	3
23	Abraham Vela	2063	+149	8	3	23	0	3
24	Ethan Eckert	2035	+121	8	4	3	1	4
25	Timothy Holmes	2021	+107	8	2	6	1	4
26	Mitchell Hunt	2018	+104	8	3	2	0	2
27	Thomas Lloyd	2011	+97	8	1	12	0	1
28	Tommy Gossett	1989	+75	8	2	9	0	1
29	Blake Reynolds	1957	+43	8	1	16	0	1
30	Aaron Lee	1940	+26	8	4	6	0	2
—	————–	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
31	Kevin West	1914	-26	8	4	5	0	2
32	Adam Garza	1898	-42	8	1	9	0	0
33	Ryan Doucette	1886	-54	8	2	1	1	2
34	Daniel Faulkingham	1872	-68	8	1	28	1	1
35	Lucas Cram	1867	-73	8	2	25	0	2
36	Nick Olsen	1865	-75	8	3	5	0	2
37	Justin Levine	1850	-90	8	2	15	0	0
38	Dallas Pataska	1816	-124	8	2	10	0	1
39	Jacob Wilkerson	1814	-126	7	1	8	0	0
40	Daniel Nanney	1796	-144	7	2	2	1	2

*Current standings do not include Drop Week

POINTS SITUATION: TOP DRIVERS ALL BUT LOCKED, CUT LINE HEATING UP

For the first time all season, the top-10 points scorers all came from the top-two splits, with the third split winner—Willy Stevens—only scoring the 11th-most points for the week. While a Top Split win is still only eight points less than where it started the year, now at 432 points, the points distribution down the other splits are starting to dwindle.

Inside the top-30 as it stands, 25 of those drivers competed in the first or second split this week. Only two drivers—Ethan Eckert and Aaron Lee—exist inside the top-30 from their results in Split 4. These points are still without a drop week included, but the drops are likely going to hurt those in the lower splits more, as they have needed every finish of theirs to be solid to currently be in the conversation. While someone at the top, like Andrew Navarro, is going to get to drop a six-point race from this week, or Eddie Kerner who missed a race in the middle of the season worth zero points, Lee would currently be out if a drop were to be considered.

The bubble is getting spicy in any case, as Daytona Top Split winner Daniel Faulkingham has had a terrible stretch as of late and now sits on the wrong side of it leaving Bristol. Adam Garza has been rising up the ranks, now sitting just outside the top-30 before a drop, as has Doucette due to his win, now in 33rd. Mathematically speaking, the top-three will lock into the top-30 should they start at least one more race over the next three. Of course, finishing out the season at the top will be a driver’s best friend in Free Agency, so I wouldn’t expect any of those three—Marin, Manes, or Quentin Warman—to just up and quit now, especially with the Championship Series car on display, where they will be able to show prospective teams that they can compete with the best in the top-level car.

NEXT RACE: THE NEXT GENERATION OF DRIVERS TAKE ON THE NEXT GEN AT CHICAGOLAND

The ninth race of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series season, the first of which that will utilize the NASCAR Cup Series Generation 7 car, will take place at Chicagoland Speedway next Tuesday night. Chicagoland has never been seen on a Championship Series schedule in the Coca-Cola era, the last time it appeared was in 2019, during the PEAK days, that race won by Keegan Leahy.

Coverage at Chicagoland on April 14th begins at 8 p.m. ET at eNASCAR.com/live and across iRacing social media channels. Tune in 15 minutes earlier to catch the Countdown to Green at 7:45 p.m. ET.

For more information on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, visit eNASCAR.com or iRacing.com/eNASCAR.
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