McCandless Battles to 18th, LaPradd Caught in Big Crash in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Tilt at LVMS

February 26, 2025

Track Specs: 1.5-mile tri-oval / 100 laps
McCandless’ finish: 18th
LaPradd’s finish: 39th

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 26, 2025) – In a wild eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing race Tuesday night at the virtual Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the JR Motorsports tandem of Blake McCandless and Briar LaPradd had varying degrees of difficulty. In the end, McCandless fought late-race damage to finish 18th, while LaPradd was eliminated in a multi-car crash just 19 laps from the finish and was scored 39th. (Watch the full race.)

McCandless had a solid qualifying run which put him 12th in the starting field for the 100-lap run, and had his No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet in the top 10 for the first 49 laps, when the yellow flag waved over the field. Both he and LaPradd, who started 27th in the No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Camaro, took the opportunity to come to pit road for four tires and fuel.

McCandless stayed in the top 20 for the next run, but picked up right-side damage while avoiding a spinning car at lap 64. On the ensuing restart, McCandless once again found himself involved in an on-track incident, spinning on the apron from 13th position and picking up a little more damage to his Chevrolet. That sent him to the pits again for damage control, and LaPradd came down for four tires and fuel to the end.

On a restart with 24 laps remaining, both cars were near the back of the field. LaPradd, taking the high line off Turn 2 at lap 81, was pinned to the barrier by a spinning car and suffered terminal damage, ending his race in 39th position.

McCandless, still battling the damage from earlier in the race, caught another incident at lap 86 and was forced to pit lane, restarting 28th for the final 10 laps. Over that distance, he moved up 10 positions to wind up 18th at the checkered flag.

Kollin Kiester won the race in a shootout following yet another late-race caution. Michael Cosey Jr. was the runner-up, with Parker White, Donovan Strauss and Seth Demerchant the top five. McCandless and LaPradd will next compete on March 4 at the virtual Autódromo José Carlos Pace, home of the Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix.

Blake McCandless, driver No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet team

“This was an absolutely wild night, especially after the first half of the race went so well for us. I want to give a lot of credit to everyone on my C4 Energy JR Motorsports team who built one of the best cars in the field, and especially my spotter Matthew Zwack, who made some great calls there late and made our recovery drive at the end possible. We had so much thrown at us tonight, but we never gave up and we were able to salvage a pretty decent day all things considered. Tonight was a huge confidence booster to show that we really belong here and can be a real contender to make the Playoffs once we get in the groove.”

Briar LaPradd, driver No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet team

“I knew early on that we completely missed the setup for Vegas. The car just did not have the speed we needed, and I struggled to keep pace, running around 30th for most of the race. It was a frustrating night, just trying to hang on, and to top it off we got caught up in a wreck on lap 80 that ended our race early. It definitely wasn’t the result we wanted, but we’ll regroup and come back stronger in Brazil next week!”