iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship Race Preview: Lernerville
April 27th, 2020 by Chris Leone
The second half of the iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship kicks off with the only repeat track on the 2020 calendar. Don Martin’s Lernerville Speedway made its series debut in Round 2 of this year’s championship, with Swindell SpeedLab’s James Edens taking the checkered flag on one of the most unique ovals on the calendar.
The good news for Edens: he’s not just the first WoO World Championship winner at Lernerville, he’s also the series’ most recent winner and the first two-time winner in 2020 with a victory last Monday at Limaland Motorsports Park. The win enabled Edens to pull to within nine points of defending series champion Alex Bergeron, and the top five drivers in the standings are within a final’s worth of points coming into the night.
Making the battle even more interesting, of the top five drivers in points, only Edens and fifth place Kendal Tucker are teammates on the nine-driver Swindell SpeedLab squad. Third place David Heileman leads a seven-car fleet at Slick Simsport and fourth place Braden Eyler leads a four-car outfit at Kinser Racing Sim Team as this year’s breakout star, but Bergeron continues to buck the superteam trend by leading the points as the sole Team ABR driver in the championship.
Lernerville kicks off a challenging second half of the schedule that also features Kokomo Speedway, Eldora Speedway, Williams Grove Speedway, and the grand finale at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. With all four remaining circuits making their only appearances of the season in the final month of the schedule, the tight championship battle at the front of the field just might stay that way unless Bergeron can rediscover the dominance the enabled him to take victories at both Eldora and Williams Grove last season.
iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship standings through five rounds are as follows:
- Alex Bergeron, 311
- James Edens, 302
- David Heileman, 296
- Braden Eyler, 281
- Kendal Tucker, 280
- Cameron Merriman, 267
- Adam Elby, 256
- Dillon Semmelmann, 197
- Blake Cannon, 196
- Cole Cabre, 196
The iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship race from Lernerville Speedway will air tonight at 9PM ET/6PM PT on the iRacing eSports Network. Next week, the series returns to Kokomo Speedway, where brothers Chase and Cole Cabre swept the top two spots.