By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
With a last lap pass for the ages, Cosmin Ioanesiu took Speed Inc. to victory lane in the Barr Visuals FTF 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Ioanesiu restarted the race outside the top-10 in overtime. His virtual No. 85 Traxion.GG NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang was lined up with his teammates Justin Melillo and Ryan Nawrocki. Further up ahead, Kevin King, Tyler Oneal, and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series driver Blake Reynolds battled for the lead.
A furious battle between the leaders led to Reynolds getting turned on the final lap in Turn 3. The crash swept up King, Garrett Konrath, John Poole III, Melillo and others. Meanwhile Ioanesiu teamed up with Oneal to chase down Chandler Parsons.
Parsons had avoided the wreck, thinking he had the race won. Then both Ioanesiu and Oneal caught the No. 72 Ford entering the Tri-Oval. Ioanesiu swung high with Oneal low. The duo cleared Parsons with ease.
Ioanesiu moved low to side draft Oneal. The two drivers collided, getting stuck together coming to the line. In a photo finish Ioanesiu edged Oneal to the line by 0.014 seconds. Parsons took third with Michael Frisch and Ryan Pandiscio rounding out the top-five.
“I would say that you were looking at an NR2003 race because that’s impossible,” Ioanesiu explained in disbelief. “All I wanted to do on the last restart was to finish. After we broke away from the field, I knew we had a really good chance at finishing top-five. Not even in my wildest dreams did I think I was going to win there. I have no idea what happened in Turn 3. It’s kind of like I blacked out. It’s like Moses honestly. I hate that expression, but literally Moses [parting the seas] happened in front of me.
“After that, I knew what this car does. Knew I had to be on the right side when making a pass. Chandler gave me the right side, I got clear of him, pulled all the way down to the yellow line. Then Tyler came up the track … and somehow we got this win.”
Chris Wetz, A.J Green, Konrath, CJ Nemetz, and John Poole III completed the top-10. Polesitter Kevin McAdams finished 34th after a late-race wreck. Pre-Race favorites Brandon Kettelle and Briar LaPradd were both swept up in early accidents.
The Barr Visuals FTF 500 at the virtual Daytona International Speedway was slowed by cautions by nine times. The cautions started early. As the field completed the second lap, an ill-timed bump by McAdams sent Garrison Hogan into the outside wall off Turn 4. The wreck collected Kettelle, Matthew Zwack, and others.
After the second lap wreck, the field freight-trained around the track single file until green flag pit stops and the end of the first two Stages. Overall, the wrecks were limited, mostly two or three car incidents.
The results:
1. 85-Cosmin Ioanesiu [29] ($500), 2. 032-Tyler Oneal [13], 3. 72-Chandler Parsons [7], 4. Michael Frisch [36], 5. 663-Ryan Pandiscio [30], 6. 71-Chris Wetz [38], 7. 01-A.J Green [28], 8. 9-Garrett Konrath [37], 9. 14-CJ Nemetz [31], 10. 21-John Poole III [9], 11. 12-Gary Watterworth [40], 12. 4-Nate Stewart [24], 13. 56-Blake Trawick [12], 14. 41-Brian Mercurio [15], 15. 66-Blake Reynolds [18], 16. 74-Michael Guest [8], 17. 42-Evan Rice [5], 18. 91-Justin Melillo [42], 19. 64-Tyler Lahnen [23], 20. 78-Rudy Valentin [32], 21. 29-Kevin King [17], 22. 6-Spenser Ray [10], 23. 88-Matt Spalding [11], 24. 099-Brandon Hawkin [25], 25. 1-Seth Noell [6], 26. 16-Justin Bentley [26], 27. 90-Zachary Roethlisberger [27], 28. 45-Lucas Ploessi, 29. 37-Ryan Nawrocki [39], 30. 13-Mitch Hobbs [35], 31. 153-Ethan Courter [16], 32. 40-Lane Tidwell [33], 33. 67-Conor Horn [19], 34. 26-Kevin McAdams [1], 35. 090-Daniel Eberhardt [21], 36. 73-Jonathan Oates [33], 37. 35-Brett Punkari [20], 38. 00-Jake Poulin [22], 39. 188-Briar LaPradd [43], 40. 99-Michael Cosey Jr [14], 41. 7-Matthew Zwack [2], 42. 080-Brandon Kettelle [3], 43. 3-Garrison Hogan [4].
Lead Changes: 46 among 18 drivers.
Lap Leader(s): Kevin McAdams POLE-0, Matthew Zwack 1, Kevin McAdams 2, Chandler Parsons 3-39, CJ Nemetz 40-43, Michael Cosey Jr 44-45, Garrett Konrath 46-47, Brian Mercurio 48, Spenser Ray 49-50, Garrett Konrath 51-59, Tyler Oneal 60-61, Blake Reynolds 62-64, Jonathan Oates 65, Blake Reynolds 66-70, Rudy Valentin 71-74, Tyler Oneal 75-83, Chandler Parsons 84, Michael Cosey Jr 85-87, Kevin McAdams 88, Chandler Parsons 89-90, Nate Stewart 91-92, Kevin McAdams 93-97, Brian Mercurio 98-107, Brandon Hawkin 108-110, Brian Mercurio 111-117, Brandon Hawkin 118, Brian Mercurio 119, Brandon Hawkin 120-131, Kevin McAdams 132-148, Kevin King 149-150, Conor Horn 151, Michael Guest 152-153, Blake Reynolds 154-162, Kevin McAdams 163, Blake Reynolds 164-167, Tyler Oneal 168-173, Conor Horn 174-175, Michael Guest 176-177, Tyler Oneal 178-181, Garrett Konrath 182, Kevin King 183-184, Tyler Oneal 185, Kevin King 186-190, Tyler Oneal 191, Kevin King 192-197, Blake Reynolds 198-203, Cosmin Ioanesiu 204.
Laps Led: Chandler Parsons 39, Kevin McAdams 26, Blake Reynolds 26, Tyler Oneal 24, Brian Mercurio 19, Brandon Hawkin 16, Kevin King 15, Garrett Konrath 12, Michael Cosey Jr 5, Michael Guest 4, Casey Nemetz 4, Rudy Valentin 4, Conor Horn 3, Spenser Ray 2, Nate Stewart 2, Cosmin Ioanesiu 1, Jonathan Oates 1, Matthew Zwack 1.
Hard Charger(s): 58-Michael Frisch and 71-Chris Wetz (+32).
Caution Flags: Nine for 28 Laps.
Margin of Victory: 0.014 seconds.
Time of Race: Three hours, 10 minutes, 53.436 seconds.
Average Speed: 160.301 MPH.
Pole Winner: 26-Kevin McAdams, 47.701 seconds (188.675 MPH).
Fastest Lap: 1-Seth Noell, Lap 93, 46.257 seconds (194.565 MPH).
Stage 1: 032, 73, 01, 9, 66, 74, 72, 6, 1, 99.
Stage 2: 099, 41, 9, 56, 26, 29, 032, 66, 74, 67.
Featured Photo Credit: Photo by Seth Eggert / Kickin’ the Tires.