Track Specs: 1.017-mile oval / 200 laps
McCandless’ finish: 11th
LaPradd’s finish: 31st
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (April 9, 2025) – In a stirring return to the virtual oval at Rockingham Raceway, JR Motorsports driver Blake McCandless raced to an 11th-place finish in the 200-lap eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event that also was the final race of Segment 1. Briar LaPradd overcame last week’s computer failure to post a 31st-place result to rebound heading into the second stage of the season. (Watch the full race.)
McCandless, driving the No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet-decked out in the colors of legendary drag racing team Sox and Martin in homage to his grandfather Herb McCandless, who won the 1970 U.S. Nationals with the paint scheme-qualified 29th for the extra-distance race, which will be the longest run of the season for the series.
In the early laps, McCandless dodged an opening-lap crash and gained a ton of track position, rising to 14th by the end of the third lap before dropping back to 18th in an effort to save tires. As the laps wound down, McCandless rose to 10th at lap 68, and he would stay there until near the end of the event. Coming to the white flag, he lost 10th to a charging Graham Bowlin and took the checkered flag in 11th.
LaPradd, looking to bounce back after a computer failure in the previous race that saw him finish at the tail of the field, bobbled on his qualifying lap and started 37th in his No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet with a brand-new computer on line. Starting deeper in the field allowed the Tennessee driver to miss the opening-lap mess and rise through the order to 20th.
Given that long runs were the order of the day, LaPradd bided his time and made use of the long runs to rise in the order. An unfortunate yellow flag while he was on pit road put him a lap down, but the wave-around ameliorated the damage.
Over the remainder of the event, LaPradd pitted early in hopes of catching a yellow for track position, but it did not come and he finished 31st.
Tucker Minter won the event over Zack Novak, Collin Bowden, Michael Guest and Malik Ray the rest of the top five. The two-car JR Motorsports team will next compete in two weeks at the virtual Talladega Superspeedway.
Blake McCandless, driver No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet team
“”This was such a special night for me and one I’ve had circled on my calendar all year long. To honor my grandfather with our C4 Energy Chevrolet was something I was really proud to do and I want to thank JRM and C4 for allowing us the opportunity to do this. This is the first run I’ve had in this series where we truly executed a race from start to finish, and I couldn’t be happier to be building this type of momentum right at my favorite part of the schedule. We lacked a little speed in our car at the tail end of the run, but I feel like we about maximized just about everything we could’ve gotten out of our C4 Energy Chevrolet tonight. I’ve always been very aggressive to try and pull the strategy card when the opportunity presents itself. I was surprised not many others attempted the same thing, and given how these races typically end I thought we could gain a few spots if we caught some timely yellows. Unfortunately, it didn’t end exactly like I had hoped, but we still managed to salvage a decent day in a race where qualifying mattered so much and I just really struggled with that again. I am so pumped about the special throwback scheme we have planned for Rockingham coming up in a few weeks, and it is by far my favorite track on the iRacing service. I think we have a lot to build on to try and get back in the Top 20 in points and start chasing wins here soon!”
Briar LaPradd, driver No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet team
“I messed up my qualifying lap and put us back in the field tonight, but we knew it was going to be a long-run type of night. I managed to miss the opening-lap crash, which was good, and we also had a new PC, so I was pretty sure we were going to get much better performance on that end. On the long runs, we were able to maintain our position but we didn’t have the long-run speed we were hoping to get. If the cautions fell a little differently, it might have been a much better finish for this Ledford Billiard Supply team. We’re still deep in the points, but Talladega is coming up in a couple of weeks and hopefully we can score some points there.”
