Track Specs: 1.5-mile oval / 167 laps
Conti's finish: 3rd
Davies' finish: 26th
Team Standings: 8th (-224)
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 13, 2021) – Michael Conti ended the 2021 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing season with a third-place finish at the virtual Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday to clinch a seventh-place finish in the driver standings, while teammate Brad Davies finished 26th. The two-car JR Motorsports contingent finished eighth in the team standings as well. (Watch the full race.)
Keegan Leahy won a tense battle at the finish of the 167-lap race on the digital layout, holding off a closing Logan Clampitt to claim the $100,000 prize for winning the series championship. Leahy battled with 23XI teammate Mitchell de Jong for the first half of the race before taking command at lap 92, and the Canadian driver held that advantage through the checkered flag.
Leahy's victory was the 11th of his career and tied him with Conti for fourth on the all-time wins list.
For his part, Conti put in a solid qualifying lap to start sixth in the 40-car field, but dropped back to 11th with an ill-handling WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet. On the first round of stops, Conti's crew made solid adjustments and the handling stabilized enough for the New Jersey driver to move back into the top 10.
Battling a still-loose Camaro on corner exit, Conti used an aggressive entry to pit road and a bigger swing on adjustments on the second and final stop, blazing from ninth to fourth once green-flag stops cycled out. Over the remaining laps, Conti swept past both deJong and Steven Wilson to run third, directly behind the battle for the championship between Leahy and Clampitt. The run, Conti said, was the best for his team all season, and it pushed Conti two spots forward in the final driver standings to seventh.
Davies qualified his No. 88 AXE Chevrolet Camaro in 20th position with a new setup, one very different from the package he had been running on the 1.5-mile tracks in the series. The season finale could be the final race for the Gen 6 Chevrolet Camaro, and Davies experimented in an effort to gain speed and handling.
The new setup was more aggressive on downforce and camber and was fast on fresh tires, but the cost at the end of a long run was a worn-out right front tire. A caution-free race did not allow for significant adjustment, and while faster, the new setup trended tighter as a run went on. Davies kept with it and brought his AXE-backed Camaro home in 26th position.
Michael Conti, driver No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis JR Motorsports Chevrolet team
"We may not have made the Final 4, and we may not have won the race, but I couldn't be happier with how we closed out the 2021 season. We fought hard all night, made gains on the car with every stop we made and ran with the best of the best. All year, our WR1 Sim Chassis team prepared solid Chevrolet Camaros which translated into making this the most consistent season we've put together in a few years. All of the guys who contributed to our success, I thank you for your unrelenting efforts. To my crew chief Adam, thanks for keeping me level-headed and focused. You kept us in the game all year. And finally, to Dale, Chad, and everyone at JRM, thanks for allowing me to drive your car. Hope we made everyone proud this year."
Brad Davies, driver No. 88 AXE JR Motorsports Chevrolet team
"Hats off to Keegan Leahy tonight. He had an incredible season with three wins and was super consistent all year. He's been in the running every year but hasn't won it until now, so I've got to say congrats to those guys.
"For us, it wasn't the way we wanted to end the year but it certainly wasn't from lack of effort. We had a lot of misfortune this season but I have to say overall it was still a lot of fun to mix it up with the best of the best. The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series provides the best racing on the internet and I think we proved that again this year. Big thanks to iRacing.com, Coca-Cola, AXE, Chevy, and of course JR Motorsports for all of their support his year. We've got our work cut out for us in the offseason if we want to make it back into the series next year but I can assure you we'll be giving it our all to make that happen."