Marty Cmejla Gets First NR Night Win of 2026
Published April 19th, 2026
Marty Cmejla Gets First NR Night Win of 2026
Published April 19th, 2026
Article written by Marty Cmejla
Marty Cmejla picked up his 4th-career NR Night in America win Friday night at Daytona. The win marks the 103rd team win for MC Motorsports all time.
The race was very interesting. It was the first BR Night race with iRacing’s new horsepower addition options update. This made the Gen 6 stock cars travel up to 210 MPH in the draft.
MC Motorsports saw 4 team entries race. Marty Cmejla in the Warner Commercial Roofing #8, Patrick Connell in the Q90 FM Christian Radio #44 Toyota, Cole Trudeau in the Fox Valley Mosquito & Tick Control #84 Chevy, and Masyn Liedke in the Warner Commercisl Roofing #88 Ford. This race marked Patrick Connell’s first NR Night start since June of 2025, and it marked Cole Trudeau’s first ever NR Night start with MC Motorsports.
The race started with Cmejla qualifying 4th and running strong. He got hung down to the inside lane, where team mate Patrick Connell got in front of him. Unfortunately a crash happened in Turn 1. Patrick Connell would receive terminal damage and his return would end in a DNF and a 40th place.
Cmejla would stay up front for majority of the race. Trudeau and Liedke elected to start in the back for the first quarter of the race to avoid trouble. Cole Trudeau then found his way to the front after staying out during a pit stop. What happens next is crazy!
NR Night host Jon Ramos lost his power for a brief moment, resulting in the race to be red flagged. Trudeau would be 2nd, Cmejla 8th, and Liedke 11th. It was the first red flag in NR Night history. Typically when technical difficulties happen Jon ends the stream and postponed the night. Luckily Jon returned quickly. Aaron Raymond, who was leading, got an L1 penalty for causing the previous crash. Cole Trudeau would be positioned in the lead and would lead his first ever laps in the series.
The restart happened and quickly a caution came out, unfortunately collecting Masyn Liedke. Liedke would repair his car falling 3 laps down, but he quickly was able to get his laps back. The next restart came with Cmejla in 4th, and Trudeau in 7th. Cmejla would push Ryker Byrom until the next caution. Trudeau received minor damage in the crash. Cmejla would restart 2nd, now with 10 laps or so to go.
Cmejla would run behind Brian Moranski for a few laps before getting shuffled out of the lead pack by Daniel Mosteller. Cmejla would fall all the way outside of the Top 15. Cole Trudeau meanwhile, was battling for the lead. Then, the leaders turned each other and Trudeau found himself in the lead at the caution. Cmejla worked his way up to 8th.
Trudeau would be in a crazy situation for only his first NR Night starts; leading on an overtime restart. The green flew and Cole was stuck on the inside, which had no momentum. Meanwhile Cmejla was on the outside. Cmejla stayed patient all the way to the white flag, moving up to 3rd on the outside lane.
Down the backstretch Cmejla moved Jacob Brown out of the way and was now in a familiar position… just him and Mosteller with Cmejla in 2nd on the last lap in the first corners of a Superspeedway race.
“The flashbacks were going through my head at this point. The four times or so where I was 2nd to Mosteller exiting 4 and had to make the right move; failing every time,” Cmejla told us.
Cmejla would aggressively push Mosteller through the final corners. Finally, exiting 4, Cmejla shot up to the outside, getting to the right rear quarter panel of Dmos. Dmos finally missed the block! Cmejla side drafted and door banged all the way to the line.
“I thought I didn’t get it,” Cmejla said. “I was using my look left button across the line and I thought once again I finished 2nd to Dmos. It’s not like J choked it away this time though.”
To Cmejla’s surprise, he was scored first by .006! Cmejla would win at Daytona, marking his first NR Night in America win in over a year and his 4th career NR Night win. The win was also his 68th team win amongst our virtual participated series, all-time.
Cmejla got an interesting interview not just from Ramos but from an entire base of drivers. Cmejla finally dethroned Mosteller in NR Night in America. The win means a lot to the team as NR Night hardly races anymore. Wins come very rarely, and we cherish these times.
The win marked the 5th win of the week for MC Motorsports. On Wednesday, both Logan Boldt and Masyn Liedke won in the R2R SimStock series, claiming MC Motorsports’ 100th Virtua Win All-Time. Then on Thursday, Marty Cmejla won his 3rd race of 2026 in SimStock at Daytona. Then in Rebel Valley that night, Cameron Face got his 8th win for MC Motorsports in his long-awaited return to victory lane at Phoenix. Then here Friday Cmejla ends the week off with what we consider the most significant win in MC Motorsports’ history.
The win also marked Cmejla’s first “feel-good” NR Night in America win; where there was no controversy or shenanigans involved in the last lap.
Cmejla has won 3 races in his last 32 NR starts, with an additional 2 of those races having major asterisks. In February 2025, Cmejla got into a car coming down on him on the frontsretch, resulting in him turning the car into the other cars in the field. Cmejla crossed the line first but got his win taken away from him. Cmejla still is angry about the call to this day as it’s very clear there was no intent with the crash. Cmejla would be regulated to 2nd.
Finally the 2nd mentioned race was in May of 2025, with the IndyCar at Texas. Cmejla was leading on the last lap, and all he had to do was hold the bottom. James Bomar tried to fake Cmejla out and got Cmejla’s perception disoriented down the backstretch. Bomar got to the outside of Cmejla exiting 4. Cmejla channeled his inner NASCAR and tried to door bang Bomar exiting 4, but they touched wheels and Cmejla crashed into the wall. Jackson Bise went on to win and the race goes down as another Cmejla choke… all he had to do was not door Bomar. If these races went properly that would be 5 wins in the last 32 races, which is pretty incredible.
NR Night clearly has been slowing down their frequency of race hosting, so having such a strong run for the team and picking up a win is truly special!
MC Motorsports © 2026 Press Release
Article Created at 7:31 PM 4/19/2026