Cardwell Reclaims Momentum With iRacing World of Outlaws Sprint Car Win at Kokomo

The pendulum continues to swing on a weekly basis in the iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship, with Hayden Cardwell now just two points back of two-time defending series champion Alex Bergeron thanks to Monday night’s win at Kokomo Speedway. Bergeron dominated most of the night, leading the first 30 laps of the 35-lap feature, but lost the lead after making contact with lapped traffic, giving way first to James Edens before Cardwell led the final four laps of the race.

It was Cardwell’s first win since the series visited Fairbury American Legion Speedway, making him two for two on quarter-mile tracks on the season. The win also marked a strong rebound from last week’s struggles at Cedar Lake Speedway, which sent him through the last chance qualifier after a crash in the heats. Longtime series front-runner James Edens was second, while the consistent Tyler Schell completed the podium in third. Bergeron would drop to fourth after the incident, just ahead of Weedsport race winner Cameron Merriman at the bottom of the top five.

The back-and-forth nature of Bergeron and Cardwell’s battle has come to define the second half of the season, with both drivers pulling well away of the rest of the field in the championship standings. Their contact at Weedsport knocked both drivers off the podium, while Cardwell had to put forth a heroic effort at Cedar Lake to recover from his LCQ trip and salvage fourth place points. The duo have been separated by single-digit points for nearly the entire season, and have just two races left to settle the most exciting title fight in series history.

Full results from the iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship feature at Kokomo Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts.

1722Hayden Cardwell35411.51077
2252James Edens35-0.808111.59475
3485Tyler Schell35-1.016011.82772
4112Alex A Bergeron35-1.1713011.34769
5517Cameron Merriman35-1.424011.76265
6195Braden Eyler35-1.922011.77158
7398Tim Ryan35-2.049011.81760
81335Nick Cooper35-2.138011.69354
91600Kendal Tucker35-2.852011.82451
10971Cole V Cabre35-3.069011.87249
11825Tyler Ducharme35-3.495011.93848
121118Austen Semmelmann35-3.650011.88045
1315114JD Brown35-3.944011.91642
14641Logan Rumsey35-5.179012.04842
151056Brett Wheeler35-5.614012.04139
161274Adam Elby34-1 L011.91437
17181Mason Hannagan34-1 L012.08532
182021Shae Paulo34-1 L012.02931
191437Zane Scott28-7 L012.00430
2017211Alex Smolders27-8 L011.97227

 

iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship points through eight rounds are as follows:

  1. Alex Bergeron, 583
  2. Hayden Cardwell, 581
  3. Kendal Tucker, 454
  4. James Edens, 445
  5. Tim Ryan, 413
  6. Tyler Schell, 394
  7. Tyler Ducharme, 386
  8. Nick Cooper, 385
  9. Cameron Merriman, 384
  10. Braden Eyler, 348

The iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship runs its penultimate round next Monday at Williams Grove Speedway, a track where Nick Cooper swept two visits in 2018, Bergeron won in 2019, and Edens took the victory last season. As always, the race can be streamed live on DirtVision on Monday at 9PM ET. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.