CONCORD, N.C. – Hendrick Motorsports Gaming Club made a valiant effort in the eNASCAR Heat Pro League regular season finale, but ultimately fell just one point shy of making the 10-team playoffs.
Wednesday evening at Daytona International Speedway, both Nick Jobes on PlayStation 4 and Sam Morris on Xbox One took home top-10 finishes, but it wasn’t quite enough to jump inside the top 10 in the season standings.
The PlayStation 4 race was up first, and Jobes started 11th. He jumped up to eighth on the opening lap and advanced one more spot to seventh before the competition caution.
On the other side of the caution, he leaped to fifth on the restart but lost control of the No. 25 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after going below the apron and was involved in a multiple-car incident.
He returned to the track once again in 11th but moved back inside the top five as competitors made a round of green-flag pit stops. He headed to pit road himself from the third position with nine laps to go and cycled back in ninth.
Despite briefly falling outside of the top 10, he recovered to secure a ninth-place finish at the checkered flag following contact from a competitor.
Morris started the Xbox One race in seventh as the second race of the evening got underway. Early in his event, he moved to the outside line and raced his way up to the runner-up position, where he ran until a caution flag waved due to a multiple-car incident.
Restarting on the outside, he fell back to seventh but climbed to sixth before making a green-flag pit stop. He returned to the track in a pack of two cars and ultimately moved back up to second before the rest of the field caught up and he dropped to fourth.
He pitted one final time with seven laps remaining and fell a lap down in the process, racing his way back up to eighth before the checkered flag waved.
Hendrick Motorsports GC finished the regular season 12th in the standings, tied with the 11th-place team just one point shy of 10th.
The playoffs begin on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on eNASCAR.com, Twitch and Facebook.