Yet another iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship race came down to a battle between Alex Bergeron and Hayden Cardwell last night—until it didn’t.

In what may go down as one of the most controversial moves of the season, the two drivers made contact in a battle for the lead with less than 10 laps to go as the Series made its long-awaited debut at Weedsport Speedway. That opened the door for Cameron Merriman, one of last season’s top newcomers, to take his first career Series victory, ahead of Series veterans James Edens and Tyler Ducharme.

Entering the event with just a two-point lead, Bergeron qualified on pole and set the tone for the night with a Heat win. He then spent the first 22 laps of the race in the lead before Cardwell, who won the fourth Heat and had quickly climbed to second, was finally able to wrestle it away.

However, calamity struck on Lap 27 when Cardwell lost ground and Bergeron had a run coming off of Turn 2. Cardwell dove to the inside to defend, but instead of closing the door, the two drivers made contact. As Merriman and the rest of the field took evasive action to avoid causing a caution, Cardwell and Bergeron continued on outside of the podium, eventually settling into fourth and sixth, respectively, at the checkered flag. As a result, Bergeron’s incoming two-point championship lead flipped into a four-point advantage for Cardwell with four races remaining.

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

Fin. St. No. Driver Laps Interval Led Best Pts.
1 5 17 Cameron Merriman 35 9 13.951 77
2 3 52 James Edens 35 -0.942 0 13.899 75
3 6 25 Tyler Ducharme 35 -3.142 0 13.995 71
4 4 22 Hayden Cardwell 35 -3.149 4 13.680 69
5 9 85 Tyler Schell 35 -3.546 0 13.875 64
6 1 12 Alex A Bergeron 35 -3.599 22 13.754 63
7 11 114 JD Brown 35 -4.221 0 13.971 58
8 13 74 Adam Elby 35 -4.640 0 13.956 54
9 14 211 Alex Smolders 35 -5.030 0 14.046 51
10 18 71 Cole V Cabre 35 -5.592 0 14.396 47
11 12 10 Rusty L Kruger 35 -6.020 0 14.028 47
12 15 1 Mason Hannagan 35 -6.196 0 14.159 44
13 7 00 Kendal Tucker 35 -6.402 0 14.010 44
14 16 2 Daniel Gow 35 -6.763 0 14.045 40
15 2 98 Tim Ryan 35 -8.082 0 13.869 41
16 19 91 Anthony Jobe 35 -8.694 0 14.020 33
17 17 34 Colton W Hardy 19 -16 L 0 14.221 32
18 20 80 Joshua Steinke 14 -21 L 0 14.116 30
19 10 5 Braden Eyler 8 -27 L 0 14.678 31
20 8 35 Nick Cooper 1 -34 L 0 30

iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship points through six rounds are as follows:

  1. Hayden Cardwell, 440
  2. Alex Bergeron, 436
  3. Kendal Tucker, 359
  4. Tim Ryan, 350
  5. Tyler Ducharme, 309
  6. James Edens, 295
  7. Tyler Schell, 285
  8. Nick Cooper, 283
  9. Cameron Merriman, 255
  10. Braden Eyler, 241

The iRacing World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car World Championship takes another week off before resuming on Jan. 4 at Cedar Lake Speedway, the newest dirt oval on the iRacing service and second event in a row to feature a track new to the series. As always, the race can be streamed live on DIRTVision on Monday at 9pm (ET). For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.