BARBERVILLE, Fla. – Logan Seavey padded his pockets with a $1,000 paycheck Wednesday night by winning the inaugural World of Outlaws iRacing Invitational at the virtual Volusia Speedway Park.
Seavey, who was running second when the final caution of the night waved inside of 10 to go, used a masterful restart and slide job into turn one with three laps left to wrest command away from Robbie Kendall.
From there, Seavey drove off into the distance and left Kendall to settle for second, ultimately parking the No. 16 AME Electrical sprinter in victory lane with a dominant performance when it mattered most.
“It was a tough race,” Seavey noted. “I had a little bit more fuel onboard, I think, compared to some other cars and that slowed me down a touch. Briscoe had been behind me, though, and was beating me on every restart before the last one, so I knew I had to move up to try and make something happen.
“Robbie blocked a little bit, but we were just good enough to drive around him,” Seavey added. “It was a heck of a race, I thought, from start to finish. … Robbie was kind of cheating his entry into (turn) one a bit, and I figured he thought I was going to be right there, so he was just trying to block that lane. Luckily I didn’t hit the inside wall – it was really close – but it was everything I could do to slide and clear him.
“If he had gone any lower, I wouldn’t have been able to get there, but luckily we were able to.”
Wednesday night’s 35-lap feature had drama from start to finish, with Seavey starting on the pole after winning the first Drydene heat race of the night and pacing the first two laps before Jamie Ball took command.
Ball led the next eight circuits before trouble and a subsequent caution on lap 11 saw him drop back, handing the top spot over to Kendall, who appeared to have the dominant car from that point on.
Kendall was dominant until Seavey started sneaking back into contention in the closing laps, mounting a charge for the point just as the night’s last of four cautions waved coming to six to go for a tip-over and slide by California’s Michael Faccinto.
That set up Seavey right on the back nerf bar of Kendall for the game-changing final restart, and he took advantage when Kendall slid the middle entering turn one, hugging the berm to challenge for the lead.
Coming off turn two, the pair came together, with Seavey feeding Kendall a right-rear tire that sent Kendall against the outside guardrail and out of contention as the No. 16 raced away to the win.
A dejected Kendall settled for second, .625 seconds adrift, and was disappointed at the final outcome.
“I just messed up and allowed him to get a run,” he said. “I screwed up. That’s all it comes down to.”
Pennsylvania’s Brett Michalski completed the podium, followed by Austin McCarl and NASCAR Cup Series star Christopher Bell, driving a No. 21 mimicking the scheme on his real-life sprint car.
Defending Knoxville Nationals champion David Gravel was sixth, ahead of Randy Hannagan in seventh and Troy Wagaman Jr. – who raced from the E-main all the way into the feature – in eighth.
Chase Briscoe and Tony Gualda filled out the balance of the top 10 finishers.
NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson was flying the colors of his familiar Silva Motorsports No. 57 on Wednesday night, but was involved in an early crash with Gualda and retired after just six laps.
Larson was credited with 19th in the finishing order out of a 20-car field.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.