By Justin Melillo
The 2023-24 iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series season is officially halfway in the books after Monday night’s feature at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 concluded with a second straight win for Pennsylvanian Kenny Miller. Miller, who won his second career feature last week at Lincoln Speedway, followed it up with the quick time in qualifying, a win in his heat, and another wire-to-wire victory.
Hayden Cardwell gave Miller a late challenge, diving in for a slidejob on the final lap after the second and final caution set up a two-lap dash. Miller countered perfectly, passed back, and drove away. The win puts Miller up to 13th in the standings, 92 points out of the lead and climbing after he only made the feature at Weedsport in the first three races.
There was a moment in that first heat where it almost came undone for the sophomore driver. Two-time Late Models champion Evan Seay and Braden Eyler were pressuring hard for the lead. As Seay got alongside, Miller moved up to take his line, making contact with Seay, who collected Eyler and forced both to the Last Chance races.
Heat 2 saw Cardwell dominate, with Logan Rumsey and Tanner Pettit also easily advancing, but the battle for fourth was intense between Joey Lingron, Adam Elby, and Casey Simons. Lingron prevailed and the others were also sent to one of the LCQs.
Incoming points leaders Ryan Avila and Aiden Forster were placed together at the front of the third heat. They battled with Timothy Smith for the win while Aiden Bierlein outdueled Tyler Ducharme for the final transfer spot. Forster wound up on top over Avila, chopping a slight bit off of the points gap as they moved on to the feature.
Noah Carpenter prevailed in the final heat, with champions Alex Bergeron and Tyler Schell also advancing through in podium positions. The final spot came down to Kendal Tucker and James Edens, the winner from the 2022-23 season, but Tucker turned his luck around, quite literally, as he spun across the line to take fourth. Edens would advance in the second LCQ with Elby, while Seay rebounded to win the first LCQ and take Matthew Powell along into the show.
There were two cautions in the feature, the first involving Tucker, Edens, and Clayton Davies, but all would continue without too much damage. The final caution flew with three laps to go as Bergeron spun on the inside, taking a last place finish as his early championship lead continues to melt away at the crossroads of the season.
iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series results from I-55 Raceway were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
| 1 | 1 | 23 | Kenny Miller | 35 | 0.000 | 33 | 11.034 | 78 |
| 2 | 2 | 07 | Hayden Cardwell | 35 | -0.416 | 0 | 11.118 | 75 |
| 3 | 4 | 42 | Noah Carpenter | 35 | -0.767 | 0 | 11.021 | 72 |
| 4 | 9 | 127 | Blake Matjoulis | 35 | -1.010 | 0 | 11.042 | 67 |
| 5 | 5 | 14 | JD Brown | 35 | -1.222 | 0 | 11.089 | 65 |
| 6 | 6 | 41 | Logan Rumsey | 35 | -1.402 | 0 | 11.164 | 62 |
| 7 | 3 | 20 | Aiden Forster | 35 | -1.653 | 0 | 11.082 | 60 |
| 8 | 7 | 49 | Ryan Avila | 35 | -1.861 | 0 | 11.207 | 56 |
| 9 | 14 | 16 | Joey Lingron | 35 | -2.267 | 0 | 11.110 | 51 |
| 10 | 17 | 33 | Evan Seay | 35 | -2.432 | 0 | 11.066 | 46 |
| 11 | 10 | 24 | Tanner Pettit | 35 | -2.791 | 0 | 11.219 | 47 |
| 12 | 12 | 85 | Tyler Schell | 35 | -2.912 | 0 | 11.154 | 45 |
| 13 | 15 | 13 | Aiden Bierlein | 35 | -3.316 | 0 | 11.139 | 42 |
| 14 | 18 | 74 | Adam Elby | 35 | -3.446 | 0 | 11.150 | 39 |
| 15 | 13 | 50 | Clayton Davies | 35 | -3.771 | 0 | 11.117 | 38 |
| 16 | 11 | 86 | Timothy S Smith | 35 | -4.028 | 0 | 11.138 | 37 |
| 17 | 20 | 52 | James Edens | 35 | -4.300 | 0 | 11.134 | 33 |
| 18 | 19 | 46 | Matthew Powell | 35 | -4.591 | 0 | 11.130 | 31 |
| 19 | 16 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 35 | -4.700 | 0 | 11.117 | 30 |
| 20 | 8 | 12 | Alex A Bergeron | 35 | -4.994 | 0 | 11.082 | 30 |
iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series points after Race #5 are as follows:
- Ryan Avila, 305
- Aiden Forster, 291
- Tyler Schell, 274
- Logan Rumsey, 269
- James Edens, 261
- Noah Carpenter, 257
- Evan Seay, 237
- Alex A Bergeron, 233
- Tanner Pettit, 232
- Timothy S Smith, 223
WATCH: iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Cars Race #5 at I-55
Next up on the 2023-24 iRacing World of Outlaws Thrustmaster Sprint Car Series calendar is a trip to the Sprint Car Capital of the World, Knoxville Raceway, where defending winner Bergeron looks to get back to the top after three weeks of missed opportunities. Avila still leads by 14 points over Forster after the pair finished eighth and seventh, respectively. Defending champion Schell is also in the mix, 31 points behind in third.
The virtual Sprint Car racing action from Knoxville will stream live on DIRTVision and across iRacing social media channels on Monday night, December 18th, at 9PM ET.
For more information on the series, visit www.iracing.com/woosc. 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.
