Conti Seventh, Davies 18th in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Rumble on Daytona Road Course

JR Motorsports | 8/12/2020

Brad Davies Michael Conti News TrueTimber WR1 Sim Chassis

JR Motorsports drivers Michael Conti and Brad Davies fared well in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event on the road course at Daytona.

Track Specs: 3.61-mile road course / 45 laps
Conti’s finish: 7th
Davies’ finish: 18th    

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 12, 2020) – The first race on the new 3.61-mile road course at Daytona International Speedway proved to be a solid one for the two-car JR Motorsports contingent of Michael Conti and Brad Davies, as the duo finished seventh and 18th, respectively.

The 12th race in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series took place on the brand-new, made-for-stock-cars road course at the World Center of Racing, and it did not disappoint. (Watch the full race.)

Conti qualified his No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet in eighth after missing Turn 10 and needed to gain track position from the jump. He did so with a strong start, moving up two positions on the first lap. Trouble in the International Horseshoe on the second circuit cost him a spot on the next lap, locking him into a group that also contained Corey Vincent and Garrett Lowe. Always a threat on road courses, Conti continued to battle with those two until just 15 laps remained in the 45-lap event.

Lowe made a mistake off the final turn while battling with Vincent for position, and the New Jersey native pounced, cutting under Lowe’s machine for seventh place and held it to the finish. The top-10 result allowed Conti to pad his buffer over the cut line by seven points, and it now stands at 56 points over the ninth-place driver.

Davies blew an engine in qualifying while on a run that would have put him in the top 10 and had to start 34th. Starting that far back on a track no one had ever raced before put him at a disadvantage from the get-go, but the Florida native stuck to his two-stop strategy. When the green waved to start the race, Davies began moving forward with a vengeance, and when he hit pit road for the first time at lap 12 he was on the cusp of the top 20.

Once he made his pit stop, he was inside the top 20 and battled with Graham Bowlin for 15th toward the end of the second stint. During the battle for position, Davies got to the inside of Bowlin entering the kink and clipped the inside curb, sending his TrueTimber® Camo Chevrolet onto the splitter and eventually up into the outside wall.

The damage was relatively minor, but it cost Davies five positions. He made his second and final pit stop a few laps later, settling into 19th place until the last lap, when he passed Casey Kirwan to finish 18th.

With four races remaining before the playoffs, Conti holds fourth place in the standings, comfortably in the field, sitting just 24 points out of the lead. Davies stayed 12th in points, 22 points behind Logan Clampitt for the final playoff spot.

Bobby Zalenski won the race, his fifth straight road-course victory, over Jimmy Mullis, with Nick Ottinger, Christian Challiner and Clampitt rounding out the top five.

Next up for the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series is an Aug. 25 return to Daytona for a race on the 2.5-mile oval. Coverage will be shown on NBCSN as well as on eNASCAR.com and twitch.tv/iracing.

Michael Conti, driver No. 8 WR1 Sim Chassis JR Motorsports Chevrolet team

“I can't say I'm pleased with seventh, as we always have extremely high expectations whenever we take our No. 8 WR1 Chevrolet to a road course. Heading into tonight, my worst finish at a road course was third, so anything less was going to be a disappointment. We worked hard on the setup this week and thought we had something to place in the top three again, but the rest of the field has definitely stepped up their game, and seventh was really all we had tonight. I made a few mistakes tonight too which probably cost us a spot, so between the driver not being 100-percent on it and the car leaving a bit to be desired, we just couldn't get any closer to the front. Fortunately, we were able to pad our cushion to the cutoff line, so we head into Daytona on the oval a comfortable fourth in points. Daytona is always a wild card, so counting our points before the checkered flies would be shortsighted. We'll keep an open mind going into it and try to get our WR1 Chevy its first win of the year.”

Brad Davies, driver No. 88 TrueTimber® Camo JR Motorsports Chevrolet team

“Qualifying was pretty disappointing because we ran several mock runs with the grille completely taped up in practice and while the motor did run hot, we never had one let go on us. When it counted, we played it safe by letting the motor breathe a little during our run and we still blew up.  That’s pretty rough luck if you ask me. Other than that, the No. 88 TrueTimber Chevy handled very well tonight and we made a lot of passes to get up to 18th. Had we started where I felt like we should have, I believe we could have had a top-10 today but the cards just weren’t in our favor from the start. We still sit 12th in points and only 22 points out of a playoff spot but we need to put a few good runs together to get back in it in the coming weeks. Next race is Daytona in two weeks and I think we all know anything can happen there.”

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