Casey Kirwan led the final 37 laps and won the Clash at the Coliseum on Tuesday at a virtual Los Angeles Coliseum, the unofficial season opener of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.
“That’s awesome, man,” Kirwan said. “Ever since the idea of this racetrack being (involved), I loved the idea. … I wanted to win this race so badly. I loved it so much that I’m going to L.A. to the Clash this weekend.”
Kirwan, from Matthews, N.C., drove the No. 95 Chevrolet to the victory that netted him four tickets to the Clash in Los Angeles and $250.
“We changed the No. 95; the Lightning McQueen vibes carried us, red rims and all,” he said, referring to the cartoon character with the same number and paint scheme. “That’s the sole reason we won. This is kind of like in the ‘Cars’ movie when they ran in the Los Angeles Coliseum there, so I think it’s just fitting.”
Mitchell deJong of Temecula, Calif., came in second place in the No. 23 Toyota.
“It was a wild race,” deJong said. “It was a lot of fun, but this is such a tough track. … We had the lead … maybe twice. We just tried to survive. …
“We had a lot of good building blocks from last year. The goal is just to cut out a lot of the mistakes that I had last year in certain races that cost me a lot of points. … Hopefully we make it to the final four again. That would be really cool.”
Rookie Briar LaPradd of Manchester, Tenn., came in third place in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
“That was a roller coaster of emotions,” LaPradd said. “We started 18th in the feature and somehow climbed our way to third with all the chaos going on around us. … Talk about a confidence-booster.”
The season’s first official race will be at a virtual Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 15.
–Field Level Media