| Tucker Wins Second Straight Tour Championship from Pits After Bergeron, Matjoulis CollisionEvan Seay leads all but two laps en route to third Feature win, Bergeron runner-up in points May 26, 2021 – After going eight consecutive weeks of notching nothing but wins and runner-up finishes on the DIRTcar eSports Tour, Kendal Tucker is now a two-time DIRTcar eSports Tour champion. An incredible season for the driver from Mt. Airy, NC – notching three wins, eight top-fives, eight top-tens and all but the first event started. “It feels good to go back-to-back in this deal,” Tucker said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever done that in a series on iRacing.” But his podium streak was abruptly ended when some contact from an incident involving Alex Bergeron and Blake Matjoulis on Lap 5 spilled over into his path. Matjoulis and Bergeron came together at the exit of Turn 4, nearly sending Bergeron completely around in front of the field. His spinning momentum caught the nose of Richard Murtaugh Jr. and then sent him through the Turn 1 grass, back up onto the track and right into the side of Tucker, who collected several other innocent bystanders in a wild flipping sequence in Turns 1-2. Tucker nursed his heavily damaged racecar back to the pits under the yellow but was met with terminal damage upon arrival at his pit stall, forcefully ending his night. However, coming into the event a secure 75 points ahead of Bergeron in the Tour standings, the championship gold was not lost. Neither was the love between the drivers in the DIRTVision post-race interviews regarding the incident. “Not much of a surprise coming from the 12 car,” Tucker said. “He has no regard for people around him on the track, it seems like. Goes into the infield when he had some bad luck and comes up in front of everybody else trying to compete for position on the track.” Bergeron repaired his car, restarted from the rear of the field and went on an incredible passing spree over the next 45 circuits, crossing the stripe third by the drop of the checkered. “We were definitely the fastest driver out here tonight,” Bergeron said. “It’s just sad that we get wrecked intentionally every week… We did everything we could and went from nearly dead last to up to the front.” In the end, two spots ahead of Bergeron was the one true dominant force of the race – Evan Seay. The Chesnee, SC-driver led almost all 50 laps of the Bicknell Racing Products Big Block Modified Feature at The Dirt Track at Charlotte and scored his third $250 check of Season 3. “It’s difficult to win these races with them being fixed [setup],” Seay said. “You’ve gotta figure out what line to run and be better at that line than everybody else.” While Tucker held the virtual championship trophy high in Victory Lane at the end of the night, he was only credited with a 23rd-place finish, much to his disappointment. “I definitely thought we could have competed for another win,” Tucker said. “It’s probably one of my favorite tracks on here, so for the night to end pretty early, it definitely stings a little bit.” Bicknell Racing Products Feature (50 Laps) – 1. 33-Evan Seay [2]; 2. 127-Blake Matjoulis [4]; 3. 12-Alex A Bergeron [1]; 4. 48-Dylan Yeager [3]; 5. 22-Mason Hannagan [7]; 6. 331-Dustin Hall3 [10]; 7. 33-Richard Murtaugh Jr. [8]; 8. 85-Tyler Schell [6]; 9. 1-Jesse Enterkin [9]; 10. 0-Kevin Dedmon [12]; 11. 115-Boddie Parker3 [13]; 12. 717-Bobby Rafferty [14]; 13. 17-Brett Rowles [11]; 14. 13-Matt Remick [17]; 15. 2-Chance Carr [15]; 16. 2-Bradley Steinruck [19]; 17. 114-Joe Garcia [18]; 18. 72-Joseph Grabianowski [21]; 19. 78-Justin Bishop3 [20]; 20. 29-William Richardson4 [16]; 21. 91-Jeffrey Eddy [23]; 22. 46-Jonathan Nause [24]; 23. 0-Kendal Tucker [5]; 24. 58-Ryder Sroufe [22] CHOMP GOES THE CHAMP: Jackson Makes First Street Stock League Championship Official After Hackney Wins Finale at CharlotteTeam No Love finishes 1-2 in Feature, take home 2-3 in points standings He was dubbed the “people’s champ” after winning three Chevy Performance Street Stock League races in DIRTcar eSports Season 2. Now, Tyler Jackson has made it official as the first-ever champion of the League in Season 3, locking it up after his third-place performance in the finale Wednesday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Three Feature wins this season propelled the Rockford, IL-native to a 43-point lead over Carl Kilgore coming into the finale, and he was able to hold it after battling it out with Kilgore and fellow Team No Love member Keith Hackney in the closing stages. Jackson started on the pole for the 25-lap affair and led Laps 2-13 before a big effort on a restart from Hackney gave him the opening he needed to sneak on by. Jackson took a low-to-high approach into Turns 1-2 while Hackney stayed up top and crossed down underneath him at the exit of Turn 2 to take the lead into Turn 3. “I timed it right there on that last restart, and I knew he was gonna throw it in there on a slider. I had already backed out of it once I got up in the corner, because I was going to drive underneath him,” Hackney said. Kilgore had to wait for his turn to pass, and finally got that opportunity with two laps remaining as he cashed-in on a big slide job attempt as they dove into Turns 1-2. Kilgore planted it on Jackson’s nose and took the spot, but Jackson returned the favor in Turns 3-4. Kilgore stayed persistent and crossed it back underneath Jackson as they crossed under the flag stand. This time, Jackson hung back with one thing on his mind. “Tonight, I definitely could’ve slid Keith a couple of times, but I figured I’d just roll second. I saw Carl coming and he kinda used me up going into [Turn] 1 and then slid me, but I just figured I’d let both of them go and take home the big trophy,” Jackson said. His championship points strategy had worked – Jackson made some conservative decisions coming into the final races and points raced his way to a first big trophy. One which he will likely carry into the fall DIRTcar eSports season and try to defend. Back out front, Hackney had driven away with the W, wrapping up his second Feature win of the year against his two biggest pieces of competition. “Especially my teammate [Kilgore] and Tyler [Jackson] also – we were pretty much the class of the season, and it’s always fun racing with everybody,” Hackney said. Chevy Performance Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 69-Keith Hackney [2]; 2. 21-Carl Kilgore [6]; 3. 25-Tyler Jackson3 [1]; 4. 48-Kyle Vaughn [5]; 5. 717-Bobby Rafferty [9]; 6. 71-Daniel Stiffler [11]; 7. 77-Holden English [14]; 8. 21-Jim Reavis [13]; 9. 26-Sage Luther [20]; 10. 546-Randy Axner [10]; 11. 225-Nathan Lemons [12];12. 84-Mike Watt5 [21]; 13. 38-Ryan Carlisi [16]; 14. 17-Brett Rowles [17]; 15. 18-Justin Henson3 [7]; 16. 2-Clifford Bellomy [19]; 17. 46-Jonathan Nause [24]; 18. 77-Joel Phillips [22]; 19. 76-Robert Palmer8 [23]; 20. 5-Isaac Salas [4]; 21. 73-Scott A Reid [18]; 22. 111-Jaron Valley [15];23. 8-Sean Stevens [8];24. 54-Larry Barber Jr2 [3] |
| DIRTcar Racing is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel), Chevy Performance Parts, iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Arizona Sport Shirts/Gotta Race, and NAPA Auto Parts (SDS). Contingency sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), ASI Race Wear (SDS), Bassett Racing Wheel, Bell Helmets, Beyea Custom Headers, Bicknell Racing Products (SDS), Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux (SDS), Cometic Gasket (SDS), COMP Cams, Drydene, Fast Shafts, Fox Factory, Jerovetz Motorsports Shock Service, K1 Race Gear, KSE Racing Products, MSD, Mulit FireX, Quarter Master, Schoenfeld Headers, Summit Racing Equipment, Velocita USA, Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum), and Xceldyne. Along with manufacturer sponsors, including: FireAde, Intercomp, and Racing Electronics. |
