iRacing Firecracker 400: Kettelle wins inaugural battle

Brandon Kettelle survived the madness of 160 laps at Daytona International Speedway in the finest machinery the 1987 NASCAR Cup Series had to offer, winning the inaugural eRacr Firecracker 400 presented by INFRA Resolutions in a one-lap dash to the finish.

After multiple wrecks with five laps to go set up the chase to the finish, Kettelle avoided additional carnage to grab the checkered flag ahead of fellow eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series drivers John Gorlinsky and Bob Bryant.

Wednesday night’s event was the culmination of a three-week buildup to one of the biggest independently promoted events in iRacing history. 344 drivers of all license classes and professional backgrounds lined up for eight qualifying races, where real-world racing legends like Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ed Carpenter, Bobby Labonte, and Ron Capps were all left on the outside looking in.

From there, the top 88 contested two days of single-car qualifying to set lineups for both the Firecracker 400 and Monday’s Firecracker 200. The field was so tight that NASCAR Hall of Famer and two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. only made the 400-miler when Josh Parker withdrew from the event due to a scheduling conflict.

Big wrecks were the name of the game throughout the first portion of Wednesday’s race, as even the best of the best struggled with consistent speeds of over 210 miles per hour and low grip. Four cautions in the first 34 laps of the race pared down the field, with eNASCAR drivers Kollin Keister, Malik Ray, and Nathan Lyon—as well as Earnhardt Jr.—finding their nights cut short early. Even NASCAR Cup Series star William Byron, who led the most laps with 35, found himself out of winning contention as the field continue to pare down.

The late-race surge of incidents first threw a wrench in the strategy of drivers looking to save fuel during the longest green flag of the race, and then set up a final-lap chase for the $2,000 winner’s prize. Colton Salek and Joshua Chin were first and second coming to the green and white, but neither finished in the top 10 thanks to contact between them; after contact between all of the remaining front runners, Kettelle was able to regain his momentum the quickest to get across the finish line.

Monday’s Firecracker 200 was similarly dramatic, with a number of additional wrecks and more last-lap carnage shuffling the field. In the end, it was Jake Poulin, carrying the colors of iRacing predecessor Papyrus, who eked out the photo finish victory over Justin Botelho. Despite starting fourth, the only lap Poulin led in the race was the most important one.

Full results from Wednesday’s eRacr Firecracker 400 presented by INFRA Resolutions were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Led	Interval	Best
1	6	14	Brandon Kettelle	Ford	160	21	0.000	42.130
2	36	97	John Gorlinsky	Chevrolet	160	0	-0.215	42.363
3	21	42	Bob Bryant	Chevrolet	160	0	-0.278	42.548
4	8	89	AJ Henderson	Chevrolet	160	0	-0.965	42.807
5	5	7	Kyle Putz	Ford	160	0	-1.276	42.674
6	33	00	Will Cooley	Chevrolet	160	0	-1.652	42.486
7	42	31	Justin Lisonbee	Chevrolet	160	0	-1.703	42.624
8	38	75	Dylan Goodin	Chevrolet	160	0	-2.225	42.806
9	25	95	Adam Gordon	Chevrolet	160	0	-2.270	42.728
10	34	9	Eric J. Smith	Ford	160	11	-2.416	42.505
11	11	23	Casey Kirwan	Chevrolet	160	11	-6.156	42.669
12	41	93	Joshua Chin	Chevrolet	160	0	-7.161	42.446
13	31	18	Alek Martinez	Chevrolet	160	0	-9.480	42.603
14	40	81	Brad Slaughter Jr	Chevrolet	160	0	-16.122	42.474
15	12	43	Collin Bowden	Chevrolet	160	3	-16.131	42.627
16	17	99	Colton Salek	Chevrolet	160	4	-17.153	42.719
17	16	5	Matt Bussa	Chevrolet	160	1	-42.999	42.426
18	37	28	Alonzo Morales	Chevrolet	159	0	-1 L	42.495
19	22	83	David L Brown	Chevrolet	159	0	-1 L	42.608
20	18	54	Christian Pedersen	Chevrolet	159	0	-1 L	42.448
21	23	49	Garrett Konrath	Ford	159	0	-1 L	42.714
22	24	19	Briar LaPradd	Chevrolet	158	0	-2 L	42.360
23	2	73	Jake Nichols	Chevrolet	158	22	-2 L	42.369
24	7	32	Bryan Blackford	Ford	158	0	-2 L	42.563
25	19	33	Michael Guest	Chevrolet	156	5	-4 L	42.596
26	13	25	William Byron Jr	Chevrolet	156	35	-4 L	42.682
27	15	10	Tucker Minter	Chevrolet	156	1	-4 L	42.607
28	29	84	Tony Ball	Chevrolet	155	0	-5 L	42.535
29	27	98	Eddie Kerner	Chevrolet	155	0	-5 L	42.384
30	26	2	Jordan Herrley	Chevrolet	154	0	-6 L	42.508
31	14	57	Seth DeMerchant	Ford	154	11	-6 L	42.349
32	4	55	Caine Cook	Ford	139	1	-21 L	42.562
33	39	96	Mitch Rollo	Chevrolet	128	0	-32 L	42.503
34	10	88	Michael Conti	Chevrolet	127	20	-33 L	42.473
35	1	86	Joseph Gulotta	Chevrolet	127	1	-33 L	42.808
36	9	26	Kevin McAdams	Chevrolet	109	0	-51 L	42.810
37	20	46	Jimmy Mullis	Chevrolet	108	0	-52 L	42.409
38	32	199	Jared Ickes	Chevrolet	69	5	-91 L	42.462
39	3	6	Nathan Lyon	Ford	27	8	-133 L	42.793
40	35	37	Zane Scott	Chevrolet	26	0	-134 L	42.525
41	43	8	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Chevrolet	25	0	-135 L	42.575
42	28	51	Malik Ray	Chevrolet	20	0	-140 L	42.715
43	30	17	Kollin Keister	Ford	7	0	-153 L	42.576

 

Full results from Monday’s eRacr Firecracker 200 presented by INFRA Resolutions were as follows:

 

Fin.	St.	No.	Name	Manufacturer	Laps	Led	Interval	Best
1	4	21	Jake Poulin	Chevrolet	80	1	0.000	43.191
2	22	20	Justin Botelho	Chevrolet	80	0	-0.013	43.043
3	15	11	Andy Hunter	Chevrolet	80	0	-1.276	43.342
4	18	15	Steph Marinak	Ford	80	0	-3.224	43.137
5	33	27	Kyle Trudell	Ford	80	0	-3.334	42.920
6	20	3	Dylan D Thomas	Chevrolet	80	0	-13.786	42.997
7	26	87	Peter Bennett3	Ford	80	4	-15.484	43.252
8	14	76	Craig Arvanites	Chevrolet	80	1	-17.813	43.108
9	24	79	Barrett Polhemus	Chevrolet	80	0	-18.959	43.063
10	37	270	Marshall C Gabell	Ford	80	0	-19.027	43.011
11	21	41	Brian C Mullin	Chevrolet	80	0	-20.604	43.477
12	8	22	Alex Kolonics	Ford	80	5	-25.145	42.955
13	3	68	Mike Rasimas	Ford	80	2	-28.352	43.138
14	2	3	Blake Reynolds	Chevrolet	80	54	-29.151	43.072
15	28	444	Monon Rahman	Chevrolet	80	0	-37.000	43.105
16	31	72	Nick Holland	Ford	79	0	-1 L	43.187
17	40	13	Trevor Perry	Chevrolet	79	1	-1 L	43.109
18	39	35	Brett Punkari	Chevrolet	78	0	-2 L	43.222
19	9	12	Nicholas Morse	Chevrolet	78	10	-2 L	43.206
20	17	65	Keith Jeffery	Ford	78	0	-2 L	43.178
21	30	50	Cristian Sanford	Chevrolet	77	0	-3 L	42.970
22	27	29	Will Weber	Ford	77	0	-3 L	44.375
23	34	30	Colton J. Harvey	Ford	77	0	-3 L	43.415
24	32	4	Kenny Kibbey	Chevrolet	76	0	-4 L	42.989
25	6	166	Blake McCandless	Chevrolet	75	0	-5 L	46.043
26	23	77	Devon C Henry	Chevrolet	75	0	-5 L	43.252
27	38	16	Aron MacEachern	Ford	75	0	-5 L	43.303
28	29	40	Cayden Rush	Chevrolet	73	2	-7 L	43.099
29	35	45	Brennan Murdza	Chevrolet	73	0	-7 L	42.968
30	7	939	Nathan Rabideau	Chevrolet	71	0	-9 L	43.117
31	1	71	Mitchell Hunt	Chevrolet	70	0	-10 L	43.201
32	41	53	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	64	0	-16 L	43.695
33	16	8	Michael Jeanes	Chevrolet	64	0	-16 L	46.091
34	19	236	Gilles Chatelain	Ford	60	0	-20 L	43.232
35	11	920	Tom Abromaitis	Chevrolet	44	0	-36 L	44.564
36	36	36	Shane Iliff	Chevrolet	38	0	-42 L	43.192
37	13	0	Gary Sexton	Chevrolet	16	0	-64 L	44.189
38	12	1	Gary Cronenwett	Ford	11	0	-69 L	44.851
39	10	70	Aaron Smith II	Ford	2	0	-78 L
40	5	7	Matt Everhart	Ford	1	0	-79 L
41	25	90	Logan Hagerman	Chevrolet	0	0	-80 L