Article written by Marty Cmejla

It is with true sorrow and sadness to announce to our many supporters here at MC Motorsports that we are taking the steps to release 2 of our drivers. These drivers are named Patrick Connell and Zayden Cortinas.

Patrick Connell has been a real-life friend of Marty Cmejla's since birth and Cmejla was one of the leading factors to get Patrick into NASCAR and iRacing. This is why he was on the team. Cortinas is not a real-life friend of Cmejla's, but a long time online friend of his.

Due to the recent struggles and pressure from the community, we will be releasing these drivers. We think it is best for the team. We will be going back to the old roots here at MC Motorsports where just people with Cmejla in the last name will race for the team, meaning Marty and Bradley Cmejla will remain in the MC Motorsports cars.

It all began on Wednesday, September 4th when the Dirt Mini Stock race at Lanier happened for ASPHALT MEDIA. Zayden Cortinas self-spun in front of leader Josh Kenyon with minimal laps to go ultimately taking Josh out. Josh rightfully wasn't happy and was telling team owner Cmejla to "get his drivers in check." Then the next race at USA Patrick Connell got disqualified and it was just chaos. Cmejla was also not in the right mindset for racing and he was getting intentionally wrecked by others.

The team would fight back for Thursday night: September 5th. The night was going really well until the new Mini Stock cars strike again. With looming controversy about bad performance and decisions the night prior, on the last lap, Cmejla had enough of Elijah Parker in Charlotte. It was a 1v1 situation on the last lap. After Elijah bumped Cmejla up the track, Cmejla came down and right-rear hooked Elijah. Ultimately, former MC Motorsports part-time driver Casey Bristow won his first race, so that was good.

But the outrage after the race was just "not what we want to see." Ultimately after deep talks with the community and the drivers, Cmejla decided it was best if Patrick Connell and Cortinas parted ways permanently from ASPHALT MEDIA so the team could get back on track. 

Patrick Connell, in his time with MC Motorsports in ASPHALT MEDIA, recorded 2 wins, 5 podiums, 6 Top 5s, 21 Top 10s, and 52 Top 20s in 73 starts, all this with 20 DNFs as well. Connell will go to the #42 / #66 / #98 primarily running the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB font for ASPHALT MEDIA.

Zayden Cortinas, in his time with MC Motorsports in ASPHALT MEDIA, recorded 0 wins, 1 podium, 2 Top 5s, 3 Top 10s, 8 Top 20s in 10 starts, with 2 DNFs. Unfortunately for Cortinas he wasn't on the team long. He will drive the #34 primarily.

Patrick Connell will stay on the team for NR Night in America in the #00. He doesn't race there often and it isn't his primary series, so we will keep him on the team for NR Night in America, a much more serious and competitive series than ASPHALT MEDIA.

"This is just what's best. With school coming around again, we had to downsize to lower the work. The performance just wasn't there a lot of the time and the run-ins with other drivers on track was just getting too much for all of us. We don't want to be fully hated in ASPHALT MEDIA. It's the move we had to make as a team," were Marty Cmejla's final remarks. "It's also too bad. I enjoyed running the team, I put a lot of time into these drivers pages, schemes, and everything, just so we could have fun. I understand not listening to what others say or letting it affect you, but there's just no going back at this point. It's too bad some take it that seriously," he added.

NEWS (UPDATE): Stated in the article above is that Connell would stay for NR Night in America. On September 9th, 2024 at 7:50 PM CST, Connell sighed and said, "It is with a heavy heart that we will leave MC Motorsports in NR Night in America." With this Patrick Connell no longer drives for the team in any series.