McCandless 27th, LaPradd 40th in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Playoff Opener at Michigan

August 21, 2025

Track Specs: 2-mile oval / 70 laps
McCandless’ finish: 27th
LaPradd’s finish: 40th

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 21, 2025) – Briar LaPradd had a solid race for the second week in a row on Tuesday night, steadily running in the front half of the 40-car field at the virtual Pocono Raceway before losing ground on a late pit stop and finishing 26th. Blake McCandless had much the same journey as his teammate, finishing 32nd after pitting late in the event and losing track position in the run to the checkered flag. (Watch the full race.)

McCandless, driving the No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet, started 31st on the night and set about moving forward up the order. The first-year JRM driver made his way into the top 20 late in the event and looked to move forward before a late-race caution flag upset his plan.

Running 20th with less than 10 laps remaining thanks to impressive long-run pace, McCandless saw a caution flag waved with three laps remaining, which negated his advantage. On the ensuing restart, McCandless got caught in the inevitable shuffling and fell back to 27th at the checkered flag.

LaPradd, who won this race last year to earn his first eNCCiRS triumph, carried some of that momentum into qualifying, posting the 12th-fastest speed in his Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet.

Unfortunately, internet connection issues plagued his run from the start and he was forced to withdraw before the conclusion of the event. He was scored 40th at the finish.

Steven Wilson won the race again, prevailing on the final restart despite serious challenges over the two-lap green-white-checkered finish. He is the first driver to have won seven series events in a single season and punched his ticket to the Championship 4 with the win.

Casey Kirwan finished second, with Femi Olatunboson third, while Parker White captured fourth and Vicente Salas rounded out the top five.

Next up on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series schedule is the virtual Texas Motor Speedway on Sept. 2nd, where the second round of the eNCCiRS Playoffs will play out.

Blake McCandless, driver No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet team

“Out of the races we’ve run this year, I was pretty proud of the progress we made in this race. These Next Gen cars are so difficult to bring back from the brink and we were building really free to start the long run that we had. Fortunately, through being able to move around lanes, we worked our way through that difficult phase and ended up running some of the fastest laps at the end of the race. I would’ve been happy with grinding out a solid Top 20, but unfortunately, we’re just never lucky enough to end these races with long runs. Something always seems to happen. Looking forward to Texas next race though, it runs amazing on iRacing, is one of my best tracks, and it’ll be nice to finally get back to a traditional mile-and-a-half which is what we’ve been fastest at all year.”

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

“We felt like we had a fast Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet for the race, but it turned out to be disappointing in the end, especially having won this race last year. We laid down a solid qualifying lap to start 12th, and I felt like we had a good piece to race with. Unfortunately, my internet was unstable from the drop of the green, and I was fighting connection issues the whole time. Eventually, I had no choice but to park it early, ending our night in 40th. Tough to swallow, especially with the speed we had, but we’ll reset and be ready to go again next race.”