Track Specs: 2.66-mile tri-oval / 80 laps
LaPradd’s finish: 29th
McCandless’ finish: 35th
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (April 24, 2025) – Briar LaPradd led the way for JR Motorsports in a wild eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event on Tuesday night at the virtual Talladega Superspeedway, taking his No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet to a 29th-place finish. Teammate Blake McCandless was caught up in a Talladega-type crash near the end of the event and placed 35th in his No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet. (Watch the full race.)
LaPradd, seeking to gain momentum after a couple of races in which he could not catch a break, qualified 12th for the event on the big tri-oval and used the signature draft to maintain that track position for the majority of the race.
As the laps wound down, however, energy in the draft picked up and so did the action. LaPradd’s No. 88 Ledford Camaro hung tough in the pack, but the inevitable incidents took a toll on his track position. Battling through the pack, LaPradd eventually finished 29th on the night.
McCandless, who had NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar as a spotter for the event, looked to improve on his career-best finish from Rockingham in the last race. Starting 40th, the driver of the C4 Energy Chevrolet set out to gain track position from the green flag, ending up second nearly 20 laps in.
A caution flag with around 25 laps remaining saw McCandless still hanging in the lead pack, but a string of caution flags followed, slowing his charge. With just two laps to go, McCandless was 14th on a restart. Driving forward, McCandless took the white flag still in contention, but a two-car incident ahead of him on the final circuit caught him up. The resulting suspension damage was enough to end his race on the spot, and he finished 35th.
Bobby Zalenski led the race to the checkered flag for the win, with Malik Ray, Dylan Duval, Quentin Warman and Donovan Strauss the remainder of the top five. The two-car JR Motorsports team will have an extended break, with the next event set for the virtual Charlotte Motor Speedway next month.
Briar LaPradd, driver No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet team
“We were in the mix late with our Ledford Billiard Supply Camaro, but the draft was intense and track position was all over the place. I started 12th and that was great, as I was able to work my way up the order a few times. Because it’s Talladega, it got dicey later in the race and I got caught in a couple of incidents and lost all my track position. It wasn’t where I wanted to be with this Ledford Billiard Supply Chevy, but we’ll take the break and regroup for Charlotte.”
Blake McCandless, driver No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet team
“One of those nights where I feel as though we executed a very solid race, but there’s only so much you can do at the end when everybody starts making aggressive moves and inevitably a crash happens. I really want to commend Carson Hocevar for the marvelous job he did on the roof, his experience running this car in Cup at these types of tracks got us through a lot of difficult situations early. I hate this will hurt our standing in the points, but with a lot of 1.5-mile tracks coming up, we are going to hit our strong suit after this spring break.”