Sunday Night Showdown Series: Welcome to Season 5!
Sunday Night Showdown Series: Welcome to Season 5!
Welcome everyone to the highly anticipated Season 5 of the Sunday Night Showdown Series! Get ready, because this season is going to look completely different from top to bottom. We are bringing you a brand new schedule, a totally revamped chase format, fresh faces on the grid, a powerful new car package, and an incredible lineup of all new sponsors. Strap in, because Season 5 is guaranteed to be our biggest and best one yet!
Welcome to Our Brand New Sponsors!
For the first time in league history, we are thrilled to be partnering up with some amazing sponsors that are helping take this series to the next level. Let's give a massive welcome to our Season 5 partners:
Wraps by JB: The official paint shop and custom Goalie mask provider of the Sunday Night Showdown Series.
Realty Executives Saskatoon: The official realty company of the Sunday Night Showdown Series.
SimFits: The official home of the Sunday Night Showdown Series merch!
FullThrottle Frames: The official photography studio capturing all the high speed action of the Sunday Night Showdown Series.
The All New Chase Format
Throw out the old playbook, because we have a brand new chase format! This season, we are waving goodbye to the traditional playoff format, no more "win and you're in," and no more elimination styles or points resets.
Instead, 10 drivers will make the chase, joined by 2 wild card spots. The champion will simply be whoever accumulates the most points across the 8 post season races. May the best and most consistent driver win!
A Punishing New Points Format
Being consistent has never been more critical. We’ve overhauled the points system to reward high finishes heavily:
A win grants you 25 more points than a 2nd place finish.
Finishing in the top 10 is massive: 10th place scores 21 more points than 11th!
With this new format, and with stages still paying points, maximizing every single lap and consistently running up front is your only ticket to the championship.
Season 5 Schedule Highlights
Our schedule is packed with iconic venues and new challenges.
The JB Wraps 500 at Daytona: The biggest race of the season that absolutely everybody wants to win.
COTA: The sole road course on the schedule. Time to turn right!
Darlington: Hosting our very first throwback event.
EchoPark Speedway: The dramatic finale to wrap up the regular season.
The 8 Race Chase: The battle for the championship will run through a gauntlet of tracks: Chicagoland, Bristol, Auto Club, Martinsville, Talladega, Charlotte, Richmond, and finally, we will crown our Season 5 Champion at Las Vegas!
Introducing the Dash4Cash!
New to this season, drivers will have the chance to battle it out in the Dash4Cash!
Here is how it works: The top 4 finishing drivers (plus one wild card) from the previous race will go head to head to head to head to head. The highest finisher of that exclusive group wins $25.00! If a driver gets on a hot streak and wins multiple Dash4Cash races, the prize pool increases by $5.00, making it possible to walk away with a total of $130.00!
The first qualifying race takes place at COTA, setting up the 4 Dash4Cash races at: Atlanta, North Wilkesboro, Michigan, and Gateway.
The In-Season Challenge Returns
The in-season challenge is back for its 2nd consecutive season! Running side by side during the chase, everyone in the league will be eligible to compete. The exact format and prize money are still TBD, so stay tuned with TSM for more information as the season progresses.
The New Car & Package: More Power, Less Grip
For the first time in league history, we will be racing the O'Reilly series car! The drivers asked for an extra challenge, and we delivered.
We bumped up the horsepower by 10%! What does that mean for the racing? Speeds will be way up, handling is going to be much worse, and tires are going to wear out faster than ever before. Throttle control and tire saving will separate the contenders from the pretenders this season.
Championship Hopefuls
These four drivers are always running up front, leading laps, and inserting themselves into the championship hunt. Here are your early favorites for Season 5:
Reece Schaefer
In just 4 seasons, Reece boasts a staggering 24 wins, 21 poles, and a 4.5 average finish.
"I’m 24 years old, born and raised in Midland, Michigan... I am a mechanical engineer who graduates this coming year and I work for a specialty lubricants company where we specialize in greases, pastes, anti-friction coatings—a bunch of nerdy stuff that is super fun."
Reece cut his teeth on NASCAR 2011 Inside the Line before transitioning to iRacing (initially with a Mac and a PS2 controller!). After a stint racing real life go karts at Arthur Raceway, he returned to the sim. Today, he races in top split Cup Series fields against real pro drivers, but notes, "the real reason I race... is to have fun and do it with friends." Outside the sim, Reece is a massive weather geek who loves storm tracking and tornado documentaries!
Joseph Causey
A seasoned veteran in the league, Joseph has racked up 17 wins, 14 poles, and an incredibly strong 5.5 average finish over his 4 seasons. He is an absolute threat every single time he loads onto the grid.
Justin Levine
Justin is newer to the series, but in just one full time season and a handful of part time starts, he has secured 9 wins, 1 pole, and a 5.4 average finish.
“I'm a streamer on TikTok which is JdotLevine! I’m always outdoors as much as possible. There’s two places I’ll either be. On my jetski exploring or racing on the sim lol. Besides that I’m a longshoreman on the docks.”
Derek Garrison
Derek made the Final 4 last season and remains one of the most reliable drivers on the track. He brings 6 wins, 3 poles, and a 6.1 average finish into Season 5. If consistency wins this new chase format, Derek is perfectly positioned to make a deep run.
Meet the Drivers: New & Returning Faces
We caught up with a mix of rookies and veterans to learn a little more about the folks behind the wheel!
Keegan Sobilo: This 18-year-old from the Metro Detroit area is a real life racing phenom. Starting in mini cups at age 8, he eventually launched his own late model team. Despite a scary wreck at Salem, Keegan went on to win a CRA Late Model Sportsman championship against adults. Now competing in the CRA Pro Series, he's even approved to race nationally in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (tracks under 1 mile) and ARCA! In the sim world, mentored by Justin Levine, Keegan is currently sitting top 5 in the NASCAR iRacing Series points.
Justin Day: Returning with 1 career win and an 8.3 average finish, Justin is active duty in the Air Force with 10.5 years left. Having lived overseas in 20 different countries, he enjoys traveling (especially to Disney parks) and playing a variety of video games in his downtime.
Reece Hamilton: Another highly consistent driver (1 win, 8.5 average finish). Born and raised in South Georgia, Reece runs a commercial roofing company. His true passion, however, is aviation! He holds his pilot's license, loves flying ultralight planes to land on river sandbars with buddies, and plans to start training for his helicopter license soon.
Rob Hamp: A Marine Corps veteran who worked on jet engines, Rob's hobbies include racing, guns, cars, and motorcycles. He's been knocking on the door of victory lane and is hungry to finally secure that first career league win this season.
Carson Neel: At just 15 years old, Carson professionally races Spec Miatas with SCCA and NASA! He's heading to the NASA National Championship next month. When he isn't real life racing or sim racing, you can usually find him weightlifting.
Colby Jackson: The reigning Intimidator Award winner is a real life Dirt Legend car and karting champion! Colby also owns Wide Open Network, an esports team and social media channel where he and his friends create wild YouTube videos.
Ian Blanchard: Returning to league racing after a three-year break! The owner of Blanchard Creative is a married father of three who coaches rep hockey and baseball. With over 20 years of sim racing experience, Ian formed B&B Motorsports with his buddy Trevor and is rebuilding his setup to start streaming again.
Chucking Sweeting: Chucking brings incredible history to the grid. Growing up in Miami across the street from Donnie Allison’s in laws, his father raced, and even had Donnie drive his car at Hialeah Speedway! Chucking raced street stocks and dirt late models himself, and in the sim, he is the 2015 NIS Open Setup Champion.
Nick Ocepek: Working a normal 9-5 at a BMW dealership, Nick is on a mission with his girlfriend to visit all 30 MLB stadiums. He's a massive wrestling fan (attended 10 Wrestlemanias!), an F1/Lewis Hamilton supporter, and a Kyle Larson fan. A 2x champion in the Casuals F1 Racing League, Nick streams on YouTube and loves running the Ligier JS P320.
Judson Curtis: Making the jump to full time this season! Judson (twitch.tv/judsonhornet) holds the record for the closest finish in VSpeed history. He’s been delivering those beautiful brown boxes for UPS for 17 years and is a former touring drummer for the band Fire from the Gods.
Stoney Benefield: A returning veteran who pastors Prospect Baptist Church in Albemarle, NC. Stoney uses his passion for racing as a unique ministry to share the Gospel, with some of the drivers even tuning in online to hear him preach!
A Massive Thank You to Our Drivers!
We want to send a massive thank you to all the drivers who took the time out of their busy schedules to sit down and speak with us this week! Getting to hear your stories, whether you're flying planes, pastoring a church, racing real life late models, or delivering those beautiful brown boxes for UPS, these stories truly brings this league to life and shows just how incredibly diverse and talented this community is. We loved learning about the people behind the wheel, and we know the fans and fellow competitors enjoyed getting to know you all a little better, too. Your passion for racing, both on the sim and out in the real world, is exactly what makes the Sunday Night Showdown Series so special. Thank you for sharing your journeys with us, and we absolutely can't wait to see all of you battle it out on the track this season!
Good luck to all of our drivers, sponsors, and fans! let's make Season 5 of the Sunday Night Showdown Series one for the history books! With the untamed horsepower of the new O'Reilly series car, a grueling new points format that demands absolute perfection, and a stacked field of both seasoned veterans and hungry rookies, this championship is completely up for grabs. Whether you are battling for the Dash4Cash, hunting down one of those 12 coveted chase spots, or simply trying to keep your tires under you on a long green flag run, every single lap is going to matter this season. A massive thank you once again to Wraps by JB, Realty Executives Saskatoon, SimFits, and FullThrottle Frames for helping us take this league to the next level.
