Edens Returns to iRacing World of Outlaws Winner’s Circle in Inaugural Bristol Visit

Images via Justin Prince

Swindell Speedlab Esports’ James Edens survived not only multiple restarts in the last few laps, but also heavy pressure from last year’s series runner-up Hayden Cardwell, as the iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series made its inaugural visit to Bristol Motor Speedway. After two first-time winners in the first two rounds of the season, Edens finally scored one for the veterans of the series after winning his heat race and starting on the pole.

Edens held onto the lead early on, but faced heavy pressure from Timothy Smith that eventually enabled Smith to take the lead in the middle stages. After the first caution, which involved Edens’ teammate Adam Elby, Edens would return to the lead, while Smith would eventually falter and fail to finish all 35 laps of the race.

With two laps to go on the penultimate restart, the top two drivers in points and last week’s winner found themselves in trouble and caused the last caution of the night. Three-time defending series champion and points leader Alex Bergeron and Kokomo winner Evan Seay made contact, which ended with Seay spinning and collecting second in points Cameron Merriman. Bergeron and Merriman were lucky enough to keep their spots in the running order as they didn’t spin, and recovered to finish third and seventh respectively, but Seay would lose his position and fall to 16^th at race’s end.

The Bergeron-Seay-Merriman wreck opened up one last restart for Cardwell to try to make the winning move. The Knoxville native had a great run on the previous restart, but Edens held court on the one-lap dash to score the win. Each of the Bristol podium finishers notched their second top three of the season, with Edens and Cardwell stringing together their second in a row after finishing third and second, respectively, at Kokomo.

iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series results from Bristol Motor Speedway were as follows:

iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series points through three rounds are as follows:

1. Alex Bergeron, 214
2. James Edens, 195
3. Cameron Merriman, 194
4. Blake Matjoulis, 190
5. Logan Rumsey, 188
6. Evan Seay, 168
7. Kendal Tucker, 155
8. Hayden Cardwell, 150
9. Dylan Yeager, 147
10. Austen Semmelmann, 138

The iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series season continues next week at Eldora Speedway, where Bergeron scored his second win of last season on the way to his third straight series title. The event will stream live on iRacing social media and DirtVision on Monday at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com, or click here to take advantage of iRacing’s 2021 Black Friday deals.

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