iRacing World of Outlaws: Cardwell wins at Fairbury

On a night with major championship implications, Hayden Cardwell rose to the occasion—and Kendal Tucker’s quest for the winner’s circle will have to wait another week.

Cardwell scored his series-leading third victory of the 2020 iRacing World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model World Championship at Fairbury American Legion Speedway on Monday night, denying Tucker his long-awaited first series victory after getting a huge run from the bottom in the second half of the race.

The win enabled Cardwell to return to the top of the championship standings with just three races remaining.

Three drivers entered the night within 14 points of one another in the standings, with rookie Dylan Wilson and veteran Evan Seay sandwiching Cardwell in the points. Wilson’s consistent season continued with a respectable sixth-place finish, but Seay’s championship hopes took a major blow when contact with Tyler Ducharme sent him into the wall and upside down.

It was one of four cautions on the night, as the relatively clean racing of past quarter-mile rounds at Limaland Motorsports Park and even last week at Kokomo Speedway gave way to a much more rough-and-tumble night at Fairbury.

The result is a tighter battle for the points lead, but one fewer car within its sights. Cardwell regained the top spot from Wilson with the win, but has just a five-point cushion. Seay is now 50 points out of the lead and 45 behind Wilson, with Tucker and Devon Morgan now within range of catching him thanks to consistent results all year long.

Coming off a win in the first heat race, Zack McSwain scored his first podium finish of the season in third, while defending series champion Blake Matjoulis and fellow heat winner Blake Cannon completed the top five.

Steven Wilson and Alex Bergeron took the last chance qualifiers, but neither were able to crack the top 10 in the feature, with Bergeron’s 11th place run falling just short of the feat. Only three drivers—Seay, Casey Kirwan, and Brandyn Proudfoot—failed to complete all 50 laps of the main event.

Full results from the iRacing World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model World Championship feature at Fairbury American Legion Speedway were as follows:

Fin.	St.	No.	Driver	Laps	Interval	Led	Best	Pts.
1	3	07	Hayden Cardwell	50		19	12.882	78
2	2	00	Kendal Tucker	50	-2.897	28	12.809	75
3	1	25	Zack McSwain	50	-3.498	0	12.871	72
4	12	127	Blake Matjoulis	50	-4.600	0	13.049	67
5	4	44	Blake Cannon	50	-4.663	0	12.896	66
6	7	80	Dylan Wilson	50	-5.057	0	12.959	62
7	8	52	James Edens	50	-5.079	0	12.906	59
8	5	14	JD Brown	50	-5.781	0	13.025	56
9	6	49	Joel Berkley	50	-6.768	0	12.931	53
10	15	112	Devon Morgan	50	-7.045	0	13.074	48
11	18	12	Alex A Bergeron	50	-7.380	0	13.134	45
12	19	74	Adam Elby	50	-7.560	0	13.088	43
13	17	32	Steven Wilson	50	-8.210	0	12.931	41
14	16	9	Tyler Ducharme	50	-8.593	0	13.096	40
15	10	311	Austin Matthews	50	-9.270	0	13.047	39
16	20	11	Blake L Brown	50	-9.955	0	13.153	34
17	9	71	Cole V Cabre	50	-10.024	0	13.084	35
18	13	23	Casey Kirwan	26	-24 L	0	13.054	32
19	11	33	Evan Seay	22	-28 L	0	12.969	31
20	14	22	Brandyn Proudfoot	5	-45 L	0	13.193	28

iRacing World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model World Championship points through seven races are as follows:

1. Hayden Cardwell, 476
2. Dylan Wilson, 471
3. Evan Seay, 426
4. Kendal Tucker, 420
5. Devon Morgan, 407
6. Alex Bergeron, 364
7. Zack McSwain, 359
8. James Edens, 320
9. Blake Cannon, 312
10. JD Brown, 311

The final stretch of the iRacing World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model World Championship sees the series visit three consecutive half-mile tracks, starting next Monday at the legendary Knoxville Raceway.