iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series Race Preview: Charlotte

The 2023 iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series campaign crowns a champion tonight at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, with the largest share of a $25,000 champion’s purse on the line among the best of the best. As always, Monday’s action can be seen live starting at 9PM ET on DirtVision and at twitch.tv/iracing.

Last Race: Logan Rumsey jumped to second place in the standings as the series made its inaugural visit to Lincoln Speedway, pulling away from 2022 champion and points leader Evan Seay in the late stages before Seay got into an incident with fellow title contenders Kendal Tucker and Blake Matjoulis. Rumsey would hold off Tanner Tomasi in the final charge to the finish, and combined with Seay’s DNF, he whittled away more than half of Seay’s advantage coming into the night.

Last Year: In last year’s curtain-closer, it was a battle of the Dylans for the championship, as Dylan Yeager snuck past Dylan Wilson in the late stages of the 50-lap main to win the finale at Charlotte. Still, it wasn’t enough for anyone to outscore Seay, as last season’s winningest driver had already locked up the title going into the finale.

Championship Contenders: Here’s a look at the drivers who are atop the standings coming into the final round of the season, and how they got here:

• Evan Seay (1^st, 633 points; wins at Volusia/Port Royal): The defending series champion is poised to take another title on Monday night thanks to his incoming 42-point advantage. That means he controls his own destiny at Charlotte, and as long as he can avoid a poor finish like he had last week at Lincoln, there’s not much anyone else can do. There are many scenarios where Seay doesn’t even need a top 10 in the feature to lock up his second straight crown, although he’ll most likely still need to get to the main to do it.
• Logan Rumsey (2^nd, 591 points; wins at Knoxville/Lincoln): Thanks to his victory and Seay’s DNF at Lincoln, Rumsey stands the best chance to unseat the defending champion at Charlotte. He’s on a hot streak with top-fives in five of his last six races, including his first two career series wins. He also showed a willingness to get physical with Seay in the first one, saving his car before taking advantage of a late yellow and restart to muscle past on the inside and score the victory.
• Kendal Tucker (3^rd, 587 points; wins at I-55/Eldora): A mainstay of the series, Tucker’s consistency has kept him in the fight all year long. Even if he falls short of the title at Charlotte, he’s got a shot to produce something that no other driver can: a perfect record of top-10s on the season. In fact, his streak of top-10s extends back to this race last season, where he carved his way through the field from 13^th on the grid to finish sixth.
• Blake Matjoulis (4^th, 525 points; wins at Fairbury/Cedar Lake/Williams Grove): OK, so he’s technically mathematically out of the hunt without a massive penalty to Seay and some awful nights for Rumsey and Tucker. Still, as the winningest driver on the season and the driver who’s led the most total laps at 324, the 2019 series champion is every bit the threat he’s always been on any given Monday. His problem has been consistency: while Seay, Rumsey, and Tucker have only missed the top 10 twice among them, Matjoulis has three times,

Track Facts: Built in 2000, The Dirt Track at Charlotte is home to the World of Outlaws World Finals each November. The .4-mile clay oval sits between Charlotte Motor Speedway’s paved oval and drag strip on one of the most impressive racing campuses in America. Last year, the World Finals saw Brad Sweet take his fourth straight World of Outlaws Sprint Car title, Dennis Erb Jr. took his first Late Model championship, and Matt Sheppard took his ninth career Super DIRTcar Series crown. This year, all three series will see track time on all four days of the event, which returns on November 1-4.

For more information on the iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series, visit www.iracing.com/woolm. For more information on the World of Outlaws, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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