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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.
1	7	22	Hayden Cardwell	35		4	11.510	77
2	2	52	James Edens	35	-0.808	1	11.594	75
3	4	85	Tyler Schell	35	-1.016	0	11.827	72
4	1	12	Alex A Bergeron	35	-1.171	30	11.347	69
5	5	17	Cameron Merriman	35	-1.424	0	11.762	65
6	19	5	Braden Eyler	35	-1.922	0	11.771	58
7	3	98	Tim Ryan	35	-2.049	0	11.817	60
8	13	35	Nick Cooper	35	-2.138	0	11.693	54
9	16	00	Kendal Tucker	35	-2.852	0	11.824	51
10	9	71	Cole V Cabre	35	-3.069	0	11.872	49
11	8	25	Tyler Ducharme	35	-3.495	0	11.938	48
12	11	18	Austen Semmelmann	35	-3.650	0	11.880	45
13	15	114	JD Brown	35	-3.944	0	11.916	42
14	6	41	Logan Rumsey	35	-5.179	0	12.048	42
15	10	56	Brett Wheeler	35	-5.614	0	12.041	39
16	12	74	Adam Elby	34	-1 L	0	11.914	37
17	18	1	Mason Hannagan	34	-1 L	0	12.085	32
18	20	21	Shae Paulo	34	-1 L	0	12.029	31
19	14	37	Zane Scott	28	-7 L	0	12.004	30
20	17	211	Alex Smolders	27	-8 L	0	11.972	27

 

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.

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