Cameron Merriman may be your new iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series points leader, but when it comes to closing the deal in the feature, he still can’t buy any luck.

A week after wrecking without contact coming to the white flag at Fairbury American Legion Speedway, Hayden Cardwell got into Merriman on the final restart of Monday night’s penultimate round of the season at Weedsport Speedway. Cardwell would settle into the lead and take his second win of the season, while Tyler Schell also got past for second and Braden Eyler hung on for third after dueling with Merriman to the finish.

Back-to-back cautions in the last 10 laps—the first including Landon Cardoza, the second including Tyler Ducharme, and both collecting Felix Roy—bunched the field back up, erasing what had been a nearly three second lead for Merriman. Cardwell shot from fourth to second on the first of those restarts, before slipping into Merriman on the latter with three laps to go in what ended up being the decisive pass for the win.

Merriman’s consolation prize could be the biggest one of all, though. Thanks to a ninth place finish for incoming points leader and three-time defending series champion Alex Bergeron, he holds a 13-point championship lead going into next week’s finale at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That means it’s Merriman, not Bergeron, who controls his own destiny next week, and enters the event with the best chance at taking home the $10,000 champion’s prize. 

The 2021-22 iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series season wraps up next Monday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, where the final split of this year’s $25,000 total purse will be determined. The event will stream live on iRacing social media and DirtVision on Monday at 9PM ET/6PM PT. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series points through nine rounds are as follows:

  1. Cameron Merriman, 574
  2. Alex Bergeron, 561
  3. James Edens, 550
  4. Braden Eyler, 519
  5. Hayden Cardwell, 490
  6. Logan Rumsey, 481
  7. Kendal Tucker, 434
  8. Tyler Schell, 434
  9. Evan Seay, 406
  10. Blake Matjoulis, 379

iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series results from Weedsport Speedway were as follows:

Fin. St. No. Driver Laps Interval Led Best Pts.
1 3 07 Hayden Cardwell 35 3 12.727 78
2 4 85 Tyler Schell 35 -0.406 0 12.900 75
3 5 5 Braden Eyler 35 -0.747 0 12.881 71
4 2 17 Cameron Merriman 35 -0.772 15 12.749 69
5 14 48 Dylan Yeager 35 -0.930 0 13.066 63
6 13 52 James Edens 35 -1.271 0 13.054 60
7 1 33 Evan Seay 35 -1.640 13 12.738 60
8 11 41 Logan Rumsey 35 -1.816 0 12.992 55
9 12 12 Alex A Bergeron 35 -2.469 0 13.042 52
10 15 18 Austen Semmelmann 35 -3.119 0 13.123 48
11 17 76 Brayden Shute 35 -3.518 0 13.034 45
12 9 00 Kendal Tucker 35 -3.540 0 12.972 45
13 16 22 Mason Hannagan 35 -3.828 0 13.122 42
14 18 50 Clayton Davies 35 -3.993 0 13.047 39
15 19 13 Aiden Bierlein 35 -4.176 0 13.259 37
16 20 91 Félix F. Roy 35 -4.207 0 13.251 35
17 10 25 Tyler Ducharme 35 -5.026 0 12.875 35
18 8 114 Landon Cardoza 32 -3 L 3 12.873 34
19 7 14 JD Brown 10 -25 L 0 13.168 32
20 6 127 Blake Matjoulis 8 -27 L 0 13.070 30