BARBERVILLE, Fla. – Mike McKinney and Christopher Bell shared the spotlight during Tuesday night’s World of Outlaws eDirt Racing Shootout on CBS Sports Network.
At the virtual Volusia Speedway Park, McKinney muscled his way past a dominant Corey Gordon following a restart with five laps left, taking command on lap 32 of 35 and pulling away from there.
McKinney beat Gordon and Trent Ivey to the finish line to collect his third $1,000 payday of the World of Outlaws iRacing Invitational Series and establish himself as a weekly favorite.
“We had a heck of a race,” McKinney said in his post-race interview. “I thought I was just gonna settle in for second. Corey [Gordon] just got tight there on that restart and we were able to sneak on under and drive off with the win. I’m super pumped.”
Gordon had a similar view of his run into turn one on the final restart. Ironically, he was able to recover from a bad restart while leading Monday night’s race at virtual Volusia and hang on for the win, but he was not so lucky this time around.
“I’m just the king of choking on these late-race restarts,” Gordon said. “I got a pretty good start there and then got real tight going into turn one. Congrats to Mike McKinney on the win.”
Kaeden Cornell and Nick Stroupe filled out the top five.
In the sprint car portion of the televised doubleheader, Bell worked his way forward from fifth to second in just eight laps, then patiently waited on polesitter Brian Brown’s rear bumper until he could find a way by.
That chance came following a lap-13 restart, when Bell pitched his black No. 21 to the inside of Brown’s FVP/Casey’s General Stores No. 21b in turn three and slid up to take the lead.
From there, Bell was unstoppable, driving off to his third World of Outlaws iRacing Invitational win two nights after scoring a similar victory at virtual Volusia as well.
“That was a lot of fun,” Bell said. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to race online during this mini off season we’ve had. It’s been really cool. I’m grateful that DIRTVision and CBS Sports and everyone puts on these races. World Racing Group, World of Outlaws allows us to race. It’s cool to race in front of an audience all of the time and obviously with no racing going on.”
William Byron was the sprint car runner-up, followed by Brent Marks, McKinney and Robbie Kendall.
Multi-time World of Outlaws Late Model Series champion Brandon Sheppard, the pilot of the Rocket Chassis house car, was the special guest inside the CBS Sports Network studio Tuesday night. He finished ninth in the late model feature and 15th in the sprint car main.
The results:
Late Model Feature (35 laps): 1. 96-Mike McKinney [4] [$1,000]; 2. 0-Corey Gordon [7]; 3. 88-Trent Ivey [19]; 4. 50-Kaeden Cornell [6]; 5. 6-Nick Stroupe [2]; 6. 1-Logan Seavey [15]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger [5]; 8. 39-Kevin Swindell [18]; 9. 1-Brandon Sheppard [16]; 10. 0-Scott Bloomquist [11]; 11. 5-Chase Briscoe [8]; 12. 99-Matty Watkins [3]; 13. 66-Matt Cosner [17]; 14. 9-Devin Moran [10]; 15. 71-Cruz Pedregon [22]; 16. 1-Logan Schuchart [13]; 17. 2-Nick Hoffman [12]; 18. 3-Austin Dillon [1]; 19. 11-Tyler Reddick [20]; 20. 29-Ethan Toedter [9]; 21. 32-Bobby Pierce [14]; 22. 7-Justin Allgaier [21].
Lap Leaders: Matty Watkins 1-9; Corey Gordon 10-31; Mike McKinney 32-35.
Penske Racing Shocks Hard Charger: Trent Ivey (+16).
Sprint Car Feature (35 laps): 1. 21-Christopher Bell [5]; 2. 25-William Byron Jr. [3]; 3. 5-Brent Marks [2]; 4. 117-Mike McKinney [11]; 5. 55-Robbie Kendall [6]; 6. 1-Logan Schuchart [10]; 7. 170-Bill Balog [8]; 8. 17-Austin McCarl [17]; 9. 2-Wayne Johnson [18]; 10. 21-Brian Brown [1]; 11. 39-Kevin Swindell [7]; 12. 28-Ron Capps [23]; 13. 35-Mike Mahaney [15]; 14. 7-Tyler Courtney [16]; 15. 1-Brandon Sheppard [14]; 16. 2-Carson Macedo [22]; 17. 1-Jacob Allen [21]; 18. 17-Max McLaughlin [4]; 19. 6-Juan Pablo Montoya [12]; 20. 5-Chase Briscoe [9]; 21. 18-Ian Madsen [20]; 22. 41-David Gravel [13]; 23. 2-Kerry Madsen [19].
Lap Leaders: Brian Brown 1-13; Christopher Bell 14-35.
KSE Hard Charger: Ron Capps (+11).