- Name
- Briar LaPradd
- Birth Date
- Aug 27, 2002
- Hometown
- Manchester, Tenn.
Briar LaPradd returns to JR Motorsports for the 2024 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing season, driving the No. 88 Ledford Billiard Supply/Race Face Digital Chevrolet. LaPradd makes his return after first racing for the team in 2022 as a teammate to Michael Conti.
LaPradd, returning to the series after a year away, has a lot of experience in the discipline. He first arrived on the scene after a stellar performance in the Contender Series, part of the ladder system for aspiring sim racers. In his first season with JRM, he took over the No. 88 Chevrolet from longtime series veteran Brad Davies.
LaPradd had a fairly meteoric rise to the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. He first became a full-time eSports driver in 2019 and worked his way up the ladder to the top ranks of NASCAR sim racing. After starting on console games, LaPradd took the advice—and help--of his father Bob and moved to iRacing in 2017.
In 2019, LaPradd joined LockDown Racing, run by perennial eNCCiRS stars Jimmy Mullis and Zack Novak, to learn the craft and advanced through several ladder series to reach the top level with JR Motorsports. One of his partners on that journey was Cameron Ledford of Ledford Billiard Supply.
“I met (Ledford) at the 2019 Bristol Night Race and we got a chance to sit down and talk,” LaPradd said. “He’s a great businessman, does well in everything he does. He threw an offer at me for the 2020 season in Road to Pro and decided to sponsor me. That’s the best thing that’s happened to me and I was able to grow a really good friendship relationship with him.
“It’s a cool thing to see because not many people in the Road to Pro series are able to take their sponsor all the way to the Coca-Cola Series like we have. He said he invested in me and that I was on the rise.”
The Tennessee native crafted his on-track presence in the mold of a NASCAR superstar.
“I’m definitely a Mark Martin type of driver,” he said. “I’m the Mr. Nice Guy. I do my best to make sure I’m racing everyone clean and hopefully getting raced clean out there. I try my best to earn the respect.”