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Matjoulis Survives iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Feature at Cedar Lake, Returns to Winner’s Circle
August 2nd, 2022 by Chris Leone
Three years ago, Blake Matjoulis etched his name into the iRacing history books by taking his first championship in what is now known as the iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series. On Monday night at Cedar Lake Speedway, he served notice to the field that he plans on adding a second title this year.
Matjoulis survived not only challenges from Cameron Cason and Dylan Yeager, but also half a dozen cautions that kept the field tight, on the way to his first win of the season. Teammate Evan Seay would climb to second at race’s end, enabling the duo to take the top two spots in the standings with Seay ahead by a single point.
Matjoulis kicked off the night by posting the fastest qualifying time and winning the first heat, while Cason, Dezmond Busby, and Justin Norwood earned the other three heat wins. Travis St. Clair and Drew Hopkins took the two last chance qualifier victories, but the bigger story was who didn’t advance: iRacing World of Outlaws veterans James Edens and Alex Bergeron were on the outside looking in for the second week in a row, while eNASCAR dual threat Steven Wilson and even 2020 series champion Hayden Cardwell saw their nights end early.
The feature kicked off with Cason pursuing Matjoulis, but his challenge for the win would end when he was part of the third caution of the night. That opened the door for Yeager as the biggest challenger for the lead, and he and Matjoulis would swap the top spot corner by corner briefly in the middle stages of the race. But as the race stayed green for the final 15 laps, Yeager would fade, with Seay getting past him into second on Lap 45 and Buzby taking the final podium spot a lap later.
Seay would cut the gap to the leader by nearly half a second in the closing laps, but it still wasn’t enough to go for a pass. Yeager would settle into fourth, more than two seconds clear of Kendal Tucker, who finished fifth for the second week in a row. Both Tucker (started 15th) and sixth place finisher Chase Barbara (started 20th) would gain more than 10 spots over the 50-lap feature.
iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series results from Cedar Lake Speedway were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
1 | 1 | 127 | Blake Matjoulis | 50 | 50 | 13.090 | 78 | |
2 | 8 | 33 | Evan Seay | 50 | -0.219 | 0 | 13.172 | 74 |
3 | 3 | 82 | Dezmond Busby | 50 | -0.409 | 0 | 13.175 | 72 |
4 | 5 | 48 | Dylan Yeager | 50 | -0.705 | 0 | 13.172 | 68 |
5 | 15 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 50 | -3.102 | 0 | 13.185 | 63 |
6 | 20 | 23 | Chase Barbara | 50 | -3.646 | 0 | 13.222 | 59 |
7 | 4 | 4 | Justin Norwood | 50 | -4.052 | 0 | 13.211 | 60 |
8 | 14 | 41 | Logan Rumsey2 | 50 | -4.967 | 0 | 13.205 | 54 |
9 | 10 | 80 | Dylan Wilson | 50 | -5.153 | 0 | 13.216 | 52 |
10 | 6 | 3 | Barrett Bishop | 50 | -5.212 | 0 | 13.188 | 50 |
11 | 9 | 25 | Zack McSwain | 50 | -5.501 | 0 | 13.266 | 47 |
12 | 13 | 66 | Tyler J Worley | 50 | -5.969 | 0 | 13.234 | 44 |
13 | 19 | 21 | Damian Kiefer | 50 | -6.022 | 0 | 13.212 | 40 |
14 | 12 | 46 | Matthew Selby | 50 | -7.050 | 0 | 13.141 | 41 |
15 | 16 | 0 | Christopher McGuire | 50 | -7.456 | 0 | 13.280 | 38 |
16 | 18 | 157 | Drew Hopkins | 50 | -8.661 | 0 | 13.342 | 34 |
17 | 11 | 113 | Jayden Kraus | 50 | -9.316 | 0 | 13.308 | 35 |
18 | 7 | 19 | Mike Augustine | 50 | -11.156 | 0 | 13.170 | 34 |
19 | 17 | 13 | Travis StClair | 46 | -4 L | 0 | 13.215 | 29 |
20 | 2 | 18 | Cameron Cason | 22 | -28 L | 0 | 13.124 | 31 |
iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series points through two rounds are as follows:
- Evan Seay, 149
- Blake Matjoulis, 148
- Kendal Tucker, 129
- Dylan Yeager, 124
- Damian Kiefer, 109
- Chase Barbara, 106
- Barrett Bishop, 105
- Logan Rumsey, 105
- Zack McSwain, 97
- Dylan Wilson, 89
The iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series season continues on Monday, August 8 at 9PM ET with a visit to Eldora Speedway. As always, the action can be streamed live across iRacing social media platforms and DirtVision. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.