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Most sports leagues have a typical path to the pros: You start in the juniors, play at the collegiate level, and then work your way to the pro level. NASCAR is a little different. Ladder systems are no stranger to motorsport, with IndyCar and Formula 1 having such systems, but NASCAR lacks that. While ARCA, the Craftsman Truck Series, and Xfinity Series are sometimes treated as feeder series, they’re not in actual meaning. Does this mean the sport lacks a piece of the college sports pie? Not exactly.
NASCAR does have a college series. In collaboration with iRacing and Playfly College Esports, they created the eNASCAR College iRacing Series (College Series). Founded in 2022, the series features iRacing’s top collegiate sim racers competing in nine races. Racing the Xfinity Series car and Craftsman Truck Series truck, students from around the country compete for an entire school year and a share of the $60,000 scholarship prize pool. There is so much to the eNASCAR College iRacing Series that needs to be explored. Where does someone start? How does someone qualify? Can it lead to future endeavors in the sport? With the series starting its 2024-25 season this coming Tuesday (Sept. 24), it’s a great time to dive deep into the eNASCAR College iRacing Series.
The sign-up process for the College Series is simple. Students must first complete a registration form before competing. If they try to compete without registering, they will not be allowed to compete in College Series races until they complete the form. To be eligible to qualify as a Finalist at the end of the year, drivers must register before the end of the first Time Attack. The form includes information needed to prove a driver is a current student at a university. Some of the required information is as follows:
There is no required iRating for drivers to compete in the series. Rookies to iRacing and veterans with years of experience battle it for the grand prize. In addition, there is a Discord server that students are encouraged to join once they register. The server includes news about the series, deadlines for Time Attacks, and much more. The official rulebook for the College Series can be viewed here.
As mentioned earlier, the College Series has something called Time Attacks. Before every race, drivers have 10 days to put together the fastest laps possible to try to make one of the three mains in the College Series. That’s right, similar to local short-track racing, there are three mains: the A-Main, the B-Main, and the C-Main. The A-Main consists of the fastest 40 laps of the Time Attack, with the B-Main having times 41st-80th and the C-Main with the 81st-120th fastest. Drivers get unlimited attempts to go faster and leap into a higher main. The A-Main is the only primary that awards prize money and is the only main streamed on NASCAR’s official YouTube channel. If you want to get your name out there, the A-Main is your goal.
Each main is held after Time Attacks conclude. Race day is the standard iRacing affair. Drivers get around 45 minutes of practice before they qualify and compete in their respective mains. After each race, points are awarded to the top 40 in the A-Main. At the end of the season, the top 25 in points advance to the championship race, where they’ll compete for the championship and the top prize.
The College Series schedule consists of nine races held during the fall and spring semesters. Every season kicks off at Daytona International Speedway, with the middle changing tracks before wrapping up at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Originally, the series would split the season into semesters, but combined the two during the 2023-24 season. The 2024-25 schedule is as follows:
| Track | Vehicle | Time Attack | Race |
| Daytona International Speedway | Xfinity | Sept. 10-19 | Sept. 24 |
| Lucas Oil Raceway | Trucks | Sept. 24-Oct. 3 | Oct. 8 |
| Kansas Speedway | Xfinity | Oct. 15-24 | Oct. 29 |
| Michigan International Speedway | Trucks | Nov. 5-14 | Nov. 19 |
| Watkins Glen International | Xfinity | Jan. 7-16 | Jan. 21 |
| Talladega Superspeedway | Truck | Jan. 21-30 | Feb. 4 |
| Iowa Speedway | Xfinity | Feb. 18-27 | Mar. 18 |
| Charlotte Motor Speedway | Truck | Mar. 18-27 | Apr. 1 |
| Homestead-Miami Speedway | Xfinity | N/A | Apr. 15 |
The overall prize pool for the College Series is $60,000. This is split between the top 10 finishers in the A-Main and the Championship Race at season’s end. Each A-Main winner wins $1,000, with the money coming down until 10th place earns $100. The payout is as follows:
The winner of the Championship Race will take home $10,000 in scholarship money. If a driver can win all nine races and the championship, that’s a $19,000 payday, almost a third of the prize pool! Like the A-Main, the prize money goes down until 10th place earns $1,000. Here is the payout for the top 10 in the Championship Race.
Don’t worry about the runner-up, however. Despite not earning half of the winner’s prize, the top two earn a bonus reward not given to any other driver. If they don’t already participate, they earn an automatic spot in the 2024-25 Road to Pro Round 2. As one of NASCAR’s premiere iRacing series, this allows for a more significant opportunity for students to show what they have on a larger scale than the College Series in front of a bigger audience and more to win.
That’s everything you need to know about the eNASCAR College iRacing Series. What do you think about all this? Let us know on Discord or X what your take is, and don’t forget you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
