Track Specs: 2-mile oval / 100 laps
Davies’ finish: 12th
Conti’s finish: 15th
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 29, 2020) – Race 11 in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series turned out to be a barnburner, and neither Brad Davies nor Michael Conti got caught up in the conflagration at the end. The Tuesday-night event at the virtual Michigan International Speedway featured a pair of crashes on two overtime restarts, but both JR Motorsports drivers were able to pick their way through the debris and earn top-15 finishes. (Watch the full race.)
Davies, driving the No. 88 TrueTimber® Camo Chevrolet for JRM, caught part of the final crash, as Justin Bolton’s machine slapped the rear of Davies’ car heading to the white flag and triggered a massive melee on the front straightaway. The Florida driver shook it off and finished 12th. Conti avoided the spinning mess and guided his No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet to 15th at the checkered.
Davies, whose misfortune at New Hampshire two weeks prior had kicked him out of the playoff field, started 17th in the 100-lap event despite being a half-tenth off the pole speed. An early caution flag at lap 3 gave him the opportunity to save fuel over the initial run and stretch until past the halfway point, which potentially made it a one-stop race.
Much of the field had the same strategy, and once green-flag stops were finished, the field slowly pulled back together and set up the fireworks at the end. With three laps remaining, a pair of cars in front of Davies touched off a crash, bringing out the caution and allowing Davies to duck onto pit road for two tires and a splash of fuel. That gained him five spots on the track to 12th. On the ensuing restart, Bolton’s car veered to Davies’ left rear and triggered the second massive pileup. The following restart came without incident and Davies brought it home in 12th position.
Conti, fresh off a solid top-five run in the last race at New Hampshire, had a tough start to his night at Michigan. After qualifying 22nd in a tick-tight field, Conti was fine for the first 25 laps of a run before his No. 8 machine trended to the tight side. The lack of caution flags meant he couldn’t work on the handling, either, and with three laps to go, the New Jersey driver found himself deep in the field. The restart after the first caution flag saw him move from 30th to 21st, and after narrowly avoiding the frontstretch crash on the second overtime start, he blasted from 21st to 15th in the two laps to finish there.
With five races remaining before the playoffs, Conti is comfortably in the field, sitting fourth just 26 points out of the lead. Davies, suddenly outside the top eight after his adventures at New Hampshire, stayed 12th in points but cut the deficit to the playoffs to just 13 points.
Kasey Kirwan won the event, with Alex McCollum, Ray Alfalla, Chris Shearburn and Christian Challiner rounding out the top five.
Next up for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series is an Aug. 11 visit to the virtual road course inside Daytona International Speedway. Coverage will be shown on eNASCAR.com and twitch.tv/iracing.
Brad Davies, driver No. 88 TrueTimber® Camo JR Motorsports Chevrolet team
“I’m pretty happy with the result tonight. It could have been much worse, especially at the end when the 10 car hit us. It was almost like racing Talladega or Daytona out there with this package. A lot of grip, a lot of drafting and high speeds made for some serious pack racing. You almost needed drafting partners just to make passes. It was very difficult. Another great call by Derek [Wood, crew chief] at the end to gain us some spots on pit road. That really put us in a good position at the end. Unfortunately, I think we were just trimmed out a little bit too much to really be able to get up to the front. A little more downforce built in to the setup and I think we would have had a real shot. On the bright side, we had a good night in the points and are only sitting 13 points out of the playoffs at the moment. A good run at Daytona Road Course in two weeks should put us back in the hunt so we’re really looking forward to that.”
Michael Conti, driver No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis JR Motorsports Chevrolet team
“With about three laps to go, it looked like all we had in us tonight was 25th. I'm not going to sugarcoat it - we did not perform to our standards tonight. It wasn't even close. Through a stroke of luck, we received a lifeline tonight when the caution came out with three to go. Restarts sometimes go your way and oftentimes don't, but tonight, we had two good ones right there at the end. P30 to P15 in the span of five laps is nothing short of a miracle. After how poor we ran up until that point, 15th feels like a win. Looking forward, we are going to the Daytona Road Course for the first time in two weeks and I couldn't be any more pumped! We're always in contention with Zalenski and Ottinger when we get to road courses, so hopefully we can put the WR1 machine up front again and fight for another win!”