Edens’ Fourth Win of 2020 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Season Sets Up Title Showdown
May 20th, 2020 by Chris Leone
For the series-leading fourth time in the 2020 iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship season, Swindell Speedlab Esports’ James Edens found himself on top of the box on Monday night with a victory at Williams Grove Speedway. And after an intense last-lap battle between defending series champion Alex Bergeron and top challenger David Heileman, he’ll be looking to make next Monday’s season finale at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway a true three-way title fight.
Edens’ sixth career series win enabled him to pull to within four points of Heileman for second in the championship, after one of the most intense main events of the season ended with contact between Heileman and Bergeron in the battle for a podium spot. Bergeron would sneak into third, just behind Edens’ teammate Blake Cannon, while Heileman would drop to sixth, a significant point swing that means Heileman will have 34 points to make up in the season finale.
Although Edens would take the win, it was actually yet another Swindell car, driven by Kendal Tucker, that qualified first, won the first heat, and led the first 10 laps of the final. Tucker and Edens would trade the lead briefly in the middle section, before three lead changes in the final 15 laps (and Heileman sneaking in a lap up front of his own) set up the most dramatic finish of the year.
When Edens and Cannon asserted the top two spots, Bergeron, who had been hanging on the fringes of the top five for most of the race, finally found his opportunity to strike in the final corner. He made contact with Heileman for the second time in three weeks, after banging between the two at Volusia Speedway Park ended Bergeron’s hopes of sweeping both races from the Florida track. While Bergeron chalked up the contact to a racing incident, a fired up Heileman all but guaranteed that he’ll find a way to bring home the title in next weekend’s season closer from Charlotte during post-race interviews.
Full results from Monday’s iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship final at Williams Grove Speedway were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Led |
Interval |
Best |
Pts. |
1 | 2 | 52 | James Edens | 35 | 16 | 0 | 18.266 | 78 |
2 | 9 | 44 | Blake Cannon | 35 | 0 | -1.028 | 18.309 | 73 |
3 | 3 | 12 | Alex A Bergeron | 35 | 0 | -1.565 | 18.291 | 72 |
4 | 8 | 81 | Dillon Semmelmann | 35 | 0 | -1.71 | 18.346 | 68 |
5 | 15 | 4 | James Tiernan | 35 | 0 | -2.273 | 18.464 | 63 |
6 | 4 | 49 | David Heileman | 35 | 1 | -2.279 | 18.27 | 63 |
7 | 11 | 85 | Tyler Schell | 35 | 0 | -3.381 | 18.45 | 58 |
8 | 1 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 35 | 18 | -3.655 | 18.264 | 57 |
9 | 5 | 18 | Austen Semmelmann | 35 | 0 | -4.034 | 18.409 | 53 |
10 | 6 | 71 | Cole V Cabre | 35 | 0 | -4.055 | 18.361 | 50 |
11 | 10 | 11 | Cole Neuhalfen | 35 | 0 | -4.691 | 18.327 | 47 |
12 | 19 | 25 | Tyler Ducharme | 35 | 0 | -4.895 | 18.441 | 42 |
13 | 18 | 5 | Braden Eyler | 35 | 0 | -5.787 | 18.286 | 39 |
14 | 12 | 17 | Cameron Merriman | 35 | 0 | -6.714 | 18.505 | 41 |
15 | 20 | 10 | Schyler Brown | 35 | 0 | -7.153 | 18.465 | 37 |
16 | 13 | 92 | Mike Keegan | 35 | 0 | -10.169 | 18.476 | 36 |
17 | 14 | 15 | Zack Novak | 35 | 0 | -10.561 | 18.354 | 34 |
18 | 16 | 23 | Justin Thomas | 16 | 0 | -19 L | 18.642 | 32 |
19 | 7 | 211 | Alex Smolders | 13 | 0 | -22 L | 18.68 | 32 |
20 | 17 | 2 | Dylan R. Houser | 11 | 0 | -24 L | 18.25 | 25 |
iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship points through nine rounds are as follows:
- Alex Bergeron, 599
- David Heileman, 565
- James Edens, 561
- Kendal Tucker, 510
- Braden Eyler, 484
- Dillon Semmelmann, 404
- Cole Cabre, 383
- Cameron Merriman, 356
- Austen Semmelmann, 354
- Tyler Ducharme, 313
The iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship season finale from The Dirt Track at Charlotte will air next Monday at 9PM ET/6PM PT on the iRacing eSports Network. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.