Despite missing the season-opener at Daytona, Jeff Maconi is just nine races away from completing his first full-time campaign in the ARCA Menards Series, and although he’s faced some significant adversity along the way, he’s been able to push forward with the support of his fans and Clubb Racing, Inc.
Maconi, unlike most drivers in his position, didn’t begin his racing journey as a toddler. Growing up in the small town of Wilbraham, Massachusetts (located approximately 10 miles from Springfield), Maconi originally found interest in the sport after playing NASCAR video games.
“I didn’t grow up in a racing family or at the racetrack every day,” Maconi told JosephSrigley.com in an interview. “[I] actually got interested in the sport by playing the NASCAR video games, starting with NASCAR 2000 on my Nintendo 64 with my brother, before tuning in and watching on television.”
At just eight years old, Maconi and his family began attending his local short track, Stafford Speedway in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. Later, while studying at Purdue University, he would return to the racetrack as an intern and announcer.
It wasn’t until 2009 that Maconi attended his first NASCAR race in-person, and from that moment on, he says he has “been hooked”. Maconi would become a die-hard fan of NASCAR Hall of Famer, Jeff Gordon, and admired a lot about him.
“I was always amazed by how kind he was, even when I was just a random fan and remember all of the times he would take to talk, even for a few minutes, about how his weekend was going and what he was expecting for the race.”
His fan experiences with Gordon, really shaped the way Maconi handles the fans.
“One of the biggest takeaways that I carry now, is that every fan who is at the track will remember this interaction as the time they got to meet a real-life driver, even though I am far from being at the level of the Cup guys. Even if I am having a rough weekend at the track or just got out of the car after having a terrible race, the fans are why we’re here, and we should all be incredibly grateful for their support and time, even if we don’t want to see anyone in that moment.”
You might recognize the name ‘Maconi’ from ‘Maconi Setup Shop LLC’, which creates setups for drivers playing iRacing. Maconi first discovered the platform in 2018 while working at a golf pro shop in his hometown of Wilbraham.
“I had plenty of downtime, considering it was a small golf course in Wilbraham where most of the members played early in the morning, so I ended up watching some races of what was then the PEAK Antifreeze Series (now the Coke Series), and become interested in the platform.”
Maconi purchased a Thrustmaster T150 steering wheel and pedal set, and began running on iRacing, before trying his hand at building setups for the platform, mainly for the SK and Tour Modified vehicles.
“I began building setups for the modifieds in 2019 and did so out of pure necessity since there wasn’t anywhere available online that sold setups at all, let along the high-quality ones that I was looking for in order to compete with the other series regulars.”
How did Maconi learn to build those setups in the first place?
“I coupled my engineering knowledge with just thousands upon thousands of laps of testing, he explained. The method proved to be very successful. “By early 2020, I was the first driver to have won 100 races in the Tour Modifieds and was competing regularly for the season championships.”
After the COVID-19 Pandemic struck, Maconi began selling his setups to brand-new users that joined the platform in March of 2020. That made him a very popular figure in the world of sim racing.
“It was a completely untapped market that we entered into at the perfect time, and all of the copycat groups were never quite able to replicate our success,” Maconi added. Maconi Setup Shop LLC became a real-life business quickly, prompting the departure of his full-time engineering job at Hankook Tire in 2022.
“I sold a portion of the company to have a cash safety net, with a clause included that I could buy back the sold portion at a fixed price and was able to do so in 2025.”
Since the company was founded, Maconi Setup Shop has partnered with numerous successful eSports teams in the world of NASCAR, the most notable being JR Motorsports.
“Since 2022, we partnered with multiple real-world teams to develop setups alongside them, but most notably, with NASCAR themselves, via their eNASCAR division to become a sponsor of the Coke Series and the C Fixed Series on iRacing, which was a two-year deal that helped grow the company immensely.”
After seven years of being in the business of Sim Racing, Maconi was given the opportunity to drive a real-world race car, competing in a Late Model event for B’Laster Motorsports at Winchester Speedway – Maconi was periodically a sponsor for Laster during his ARCA starts.
“They had just acquired a new-to-them Late Model and offered me the chance to drive it as part of the CRA Sportsman Series. I was able to test at Anderson Speedway, a similar track, before jumping in the car for the actual race weekend.”
However, the race didn’t go to plan.
“We struggled with motor issues throughout the day, having one solid practice session before the motor started smoking badly in qualifying,” he explained. “We attempted to start the race, but it ended up being a broken camshaft that ended our night before the green flag.”
While the result wasn’t what Maconi wanted, he did manage to make some great connections from the weekend. A year later, he got to test an ARCA Menards Series vehicle with Alex Clubb and Clubb Racing, Inc. and Grundy County Speedway, which parlayed into an ARCA East debut at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, and five other ARCA events.
Driving a stock car for the first time, Maconi had to learn to adapt and learn the different track types he had never raced on before.
“I was lucky enough to get to experience many different track types, with Michigan being the longest,” he said. “One of the most surprising things I learned was how much more comfortable the car is at speed, which led to my love of intermediate racing.”
Driving for a small team like Clubb Racing, Inc., Maconi has had to make the most out of his equipment and the economic challenges being faced.
“Our budget for two cars is less than a tenth of what the large teams are spending per car, so realistically, we know they’re going to beat us unless they wreck,” he explained. “Not having new tires every week hurts, as does missing out on purpose-built cars for certain track types, but CRI is amazing at making the absolute most out of what they’ve got, and always hitting the track.”
Unlike sim racing, Maconi explains that real-life competition shows a major difference.
“Sim racing helps with learning lines and braking points, but as for actual comparison between the two, it is night and day. Even the setups vary wildly from the sim to real-world, though the adjustments that are made are similar at least,” Maconi explained.
When asked about his future goals in racing, Maconi expressed his interest in running a NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway someday. However, running an event like this will require more skills and sponsorship money to achieve.
“Putting together a deal like that takes a lot of time, skill, and money though, so if all I ever run is my career in the ARCA Series then that is fine by me,” Maconi explained.
So, what advice would Maconi give for younger people who want to make it to NASCAR?
“It’s never too late to get involved, and you’re never too good for an opportunity. Go and offer to help a small team at a local track, and you’ll never know where you’ll end up. Networking is everything in this sport, and everyone knows everyone. If you want a future in this sport, it’s important to make a good impression in real life and on social media, because you never know who is in whose ear.”
“Fear is a phantom, and the thing you fear the most probably won’t happen. Every driver is scared when they get behind the wheel and is fighting with everything they have every lap of every race. It doesn’t matter if you’re scared; what matters is what you do, even if you are.”
Maconi currently sits 12th in ARCA Menards Series points, 24 points behind Andy Jankowiak and 36 behind Brad Smith for a top-10 spot as the series visits Lime Rock Park. Currently, Maconi sits second in Rookie of the Year standings, behind championship leader Jake Bollman.
Should Bollman win the 2026 ARCA Menards Series title, then Maconi may just end up being Rookie of the Year.
