By Justin Melillo

It doesn’t get any closer than it did on Monday night at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55.

The 2024-25 World of Outlaws Pro Series: Powered by iRacing hit the halfway point of the season in style with a “New” winner coming from a photo finish in Pevely, Missouri, utilizing the Dirt Late Models this week. Conner New stole the show, and the victory, winning by the narrowest of margins—0.0001 seconds—over former iRacing World of Outlaws champion Blake Matjoulis.

New, making his second start of the season and career at the top level of virtual World of Outlaws racing, had the impossible job of holding off one of the best to ever do it on a late race restart. Off of the final corner, Matjoulis sent it, the two becoming glued together. At the line, it was impossible to call. Even the standings graphic read 0.000 seconds—a virtual tie.

It doesn’t get any closer than that.

Conner New WINS at Federated Auto Parts Speedway at I-55 by 0.000 seconds over Blake Matjoulis!!!@WoOLateModels pic.twitter.com/cZC0me1rYv

— iRacing (@iRacing) December 10, 2024

It came down to the ten thousandths, and a few millimeters among the front bumpers. New, angled slightly at the line, had the right front kickout to thank as he was declared the winner for the first time in his World of Outlaws Pro Series career.

“I really didn’t want to see that yellow there,” New said post-race. “We got a good launch there, and I was comfortable on the top before that, but Blake was just so, so, so good on the bottom there. We moved down the last two laps to block him, but you know, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win these races. I knew we had a good car… this thing was on rails, but I had to do what I had to do to win, and thankfully, I got it.”

QUALIFYING

Every week, the new wrinkle to the points format this season, which includes both Championship points and automatic transfers to the Feature from qualifying, plays a big part in how the Features stack up with track position as important as ever. As it will be all season long, the top-eight qualifying times every race will forgo all other pre-feature activities, including Heats and Last Chance races, and line up in reverse order at the front of the field of the Feature.

Last year’s I-55 victor, Kendal Tucker, set the quick time and took the full 25 points for the lap. He would invert to start in eighth, however, with the eighth place qualifier, Dezmond Busby, collecting 17 points and the invert to the pole position. New qualified in seventh, which meant an invert to start in second place.

FEDERATED AUTO PARTS RACEWAY AT I-55 Qualifying Top 8:

  1. Kendal Tucker
  2. Steven F Gaines
  3. JD Brown
  4. Ryan Avila
  5. Mike Augustine
  6. Blake Matjoulis
  7. Conner New
  8. Dezmond Busby

HEATS

Everyone from ninth on back in qualifying were sorted into three Heat races of up to nine cars each. This season, only the top-three transfer to the Feature from the Heats, and everyone else is sent to fend for themselves in the Last Chance races. 

The first Heat of the night was a doozy, with many of the front runners getting tangled on the opening lap. This allowed Robbie Buchanan Jr to run away with the victory. Heat 2 was more calm, with Logan Rumsey taking the victory. In the final Heat, Brent Evans came away with the win.

Heat 1 Transfers:

  1. Robbie Buchanan Jr
  2. Ethan Johnson
  3. Trey Mills

Heat 2 Transfers:

  1. Logan Rumsey
  2. Evan Seay
  3. James Edens

Heat 3 Transfers:

  1. Brent C Evans
  2. Christopher Joy
  3. Dylan Yeager

LAST CHANCE RACES

The final four spots are set through the Last Chance races. With lap times in the 11-second bracket, the 12-lap dashes were over in an instant. Mason Inman and Riley Hutchinson moved to the Feature from the first LCQ while Tucker Elkins and Chance Carr rounded out the Feature field from the final LCQ.

Last Chance 1 Transfers:

  1. Mason Inman
  2. Riley Hutchinson

Last Chance 2 Transfers:

  1. Tucker Elkins
  2. Chance Carr

FEATURE RACE

Dezmond Busby led the field to the green, but after five laps, Conner New was able to take control. Blake Matjoulis followed through into second place as the fight was on for fourth.

Kendal Tucker, the fast lap setter in Qualifying, was up and into the top-five, but both Mike Augustine and Steven Gaines were fighting hard for the spots. The commentator’s curse from Tim Terry in the booth was real. With six laps to go, Tim began to say how he didn’t want to jinx it, and almost like it was planned, Augustine went around off the nose of Gaines, collecting Robbie Buchanan Jr and setting up for the final dash to the checkers.

On the restart, New led the field to the line as the field fanned out for five final laps. Matjoulis was hooked on the bottom, while New ripped it on the top. The two played nice until the final corner of the final lap, when they came together as they barreled towards the line. It was too close to call, but by the narrowest of margins, Conner New was named the newest winner.

Feature Race results from WORLD OF OUTLAWS PRO SERIES, Race 5 at FEDERATED AUTO PARTS RACEWAY AT I-55 were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts.
1 2 10 Conner New 50 0.000 44 12.218 118
2 3 127 Blake Matjoulis 50 0.000 0 12.246 114
3 1 82 Dezmond Busby 50 -0.679 5 12.193 109
4 8 00 Kendal Tucker 50 -0.985 0 12.264 114
5 7 07 Steven F Gaines 50 -1.233 0 12.130 109
6 13 33 Evan Seay 50 -1.272 0 12.187 97
7 10 2 Logan Rumsey 50 -1.760 0 12.233 95
8 14 32 Christopher Joy 50 -2.221 0 12.292 91
9 11 101 Brent C Evans 50 -2.761 0 12.277 89
10 17 48 Dylan Yeager 50 -2.852 0 12.249 84
11 9 29 Robbie Buchanan Jr 50 -3.337 0 12.240 83
12 16 52 James Edens 50 -3.747 0 12.212 78
13 21 24 Chance Carr 50 -4.154 0 12.181 73
14 6 14 JD Brown 50 -4.276 0 12.221 81
15 12 11 Ethan Johnson 50 -4.728 0 12.350 70
16 15 16 Trey Mills 50 -5.097 0 12.271 66
17 20 83 Thaddeus Marshall 50 -5.285 0 12.242 61
18 19 87 Tucker Elkins 50 -5.780 0 12.263 59
19 5 21 Ryan Avila 50 -6.159 0 12.203 65
20 18 23 Mason Inman 50 -6.428 0 12.315 53
21 4 19 Mike Augustine 50 -7.008 0 12.204 58

WORLD OF OUTLAWS PRO SERIES Points following Race 5 at FEDERATED AUTO PARTS RACEWAY AT I-55 are as follows:

  1. Kendal Tucker, 527
  2. Logan Rumsey, 510
  3. Blake Matjoulis, 503
  4. JD Brown, 473
  5. Ethan Johnson, 423
  6. Dylan Yeager, 418
  7. Ryan Avila, 358
  8. Mike Augustine, 334
  9. Tanner Pettit, 303
  10. Steven F Gaines, 295

Kendal Tucker jumps back into the points lead, by 17 points now over Logan Rumsey with half the season in the record books. Blake Matjoulis sits third after just barely missing out on his first win of the season. Last week’s winner, Tanner Pettit, failed to make the top-35 this week and missed the show completely, dropping the multi-time Sprint Car winner down to ninth overall.

The next race will be back in those 410 Sprint Cars again, this time at the Sprint Car Capital of the World, Knoxville Raceway, on December 16th.

WATCH: World of Outlaws Pro Series: Race #5 at I-55

Race #6’s broadcast at Knoxville will once again be live at 8:00 pm ET next Monday night, live on DIRTVision and all of iRacing’s social channels.

The driver roster will be set each week through qualifying races that are open to all members with a Class A Dirt Oval license. These races will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8PM ET, and the top 35 point scorers will be invited to the iRacing World of Outlaws Pro Series league each week for the Monday night main event. After the Monday show, the league is cleared out, and the process begins again. Points will be tracked as normal across those 10 main events to crown the series champion. For details on how to qualify, visit www.iracing.com/woo-pro-series/qualifying.

For more information on the series, visit www.iracing.com/woo-pro-series. 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.