McCandless 27th, Lane 35th in Wild eNASCAR iRacing Chicago Street Course Rumble

July 3, 2025

Track Specs: 2.2-mile street course / 30 laps
McCandless’ finish: 27th
Lane’s finish: 35th

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 3, 2025) – The Streets of Chicago were not kind to the two-man JR Motorsports iRacing team this week, as Blake McCandless finished 27th and Ethan Lane wound up in 35th in relief of Briar LaPradd in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event at the virtual Chicago Street Course. (Watch the full race.)

McCandless, driving the No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet with a special paint scheme, qualified 29th and posted a 33rd-place result in the 15-lap heat race, which determined his starting spot in the field, thanks to an early Turn 1 altercation with a spinning Dylan Ault.

On the initial start of the feature on the 2.2-mile street circuit, McCandless managed to avoid the melee in Turn 1 and picked up seven positions on the opening lap to run 27th. Over the remaining laps, McCandless held his position and crossed the line in 27th to lead the two-car JRM squad on the day. After 12 races, McCandless is currently fifth in the points for Rookie of the Year in the series.

Lane, an accomplished road-racer, subbed for LaPradd in the Ledford Billiard Supply No. 88 and finished the sprint in 27th place. During the race, the tight quarters and traffic squelched his opportunity to make much headway around the cramped course and he soldiered to a 35th-place finish in the main.

Vicente Salas won the main ahead of road-course wizard Bobby Zelenski, with Steven Wilson, Casey Kirwan and Garrett Lowe the remainder of the top five.

Next up on the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series schedule is the virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 22.

Blake McCandless, driver No. 8 C4 Energy Chevrolet team

“I know 27th may not seem like a great result to a lot of folks out there, but I’m really proud of the personal progress I’ve made on the road courses this year. I knew this series would be tough in a lot of aspects and the road courses were one that I knew I would likely be way behind. I put in a lot of time to these races and felt like I made a huge improvement as a driver, and just ran some smart races to get some solid results. The C4 Ultimate Energy scheme looked awesome through the streets of Chicago. We have roughly 50 points to make up in the next six races to stay in the top 20 in points, and Indy is a perfect time to start eating into that gap.”

Ethan Lane, driver No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet:

“It wasn’t the race we wanted, but we did the best we could under the circumstances. Hopefully I’ll get another chance this year. Thanks to JR Motorsports for allowing me the opportunity to race this Ledford Billiard Supply Chevrolet and it certainly was a pleasure.”