A fourth new winner in the current iRacing World of Outlaws Buttkicker Late Model Series season was added in the name of Kendal Tucker on Monday night at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, the sixth race of the 2023 calendar.
From an eighth place qualifying effort to a win in Heat 4, Tucker persevered through the first two-thirds of the Feature race to position himself in a prime spot on a restart following a caution. Points leader and defending Series Champion Evan Seay was hot on his tail, but Tucker held on for his first win since 2020.
Seay opens up his points lead to 69 now over Tucker, who moves to second around Logan Rumsey. Blake Matjoulis continues through I-55 in fourth, just ahead of Dylan Wilson in fifth. Four races remain in the 2023 season, and Seay has a firm grasp on a second straight heading into Williams Grove next week.
Heat Races
Each venue this season has had drastically different Heat races, with some races seeing little to no passing, other races seeing complete turmoil from second on back, and other races being their own mixed bag.
Monday’s Heat races all saw the Top 4 qualifying drivers fail to win their respective heats, all to be won by the drivers who qualified from fifth to eighth.
Heat 1 saw Kaden Honeycutt defeat Damian Kiefer, while Chase Barbara got the best of Evan Seay in the second. Heat 3 was an outlier only because Robbie Buchanan Jr fell out, but it was still won by the second place starter Dezmond Busby. In the final Heat, Kendal Tucker took it from Chase Hardy.
Feature advancements via I-55 Heats
| POS | HEAT 1 | HEAT 2 | HEAT 3 | HEAT 4 |
| 1 | Kaden Honeycutt | Chase Barbara | Dezmond Busby | Kendal Tucker |
| 2 | Damian Kiefer | Evan Seay | Dylonn Fox | Chase Hardy |
| 3 | Dylan Yeager | Logan Rumsey | James Edens | Dylan Wilson |
| 4 | Drew Hopkins | Landon Francis | Mike Augustine | Colton Zimmer |
LCQs
For the second straight week, former champion Blake Matjoulis found himself racing in the LCQ for a last chance at making the Feature. Finishing fifth in Heat 1 put him on the pole position, but he had the likes of JD Brown, Barrett Bishop and Tanner Tomasi breathing down his neck. Matjoulis held on and brought Brown with to the main.
The final Last Chance race saw Jesse Wall take the lead and dominate, but the battle for second behind was an absolute cluster at times. Nathan Waddell emerged from the chaos to take the final spot in the Feature race.
| POS | LCQ 1 | LCQ 2 |
| 1 | Blake Matjoulis | Jesse Wall |
| 2 | JD Brown | Nathan R Waddell |
Feature
By virtue of winning the first Heat, Kaden Honeycutt led the field to the green flag, leading the opening 22 laps before Chase Barbara came to the party and took control.
Barbara looked to have a good grasp on the field, but a caution at the 32nd lap closed the field back together. Kendal Tucker was waiting to strike and did just that on the ensuing restart.
As the laps ticked away, both Barbara and Honeycutt would fall down the order as Evan Seay came up to challenge for the win. With two laps to go, Seay took a look inside and seemingly completed the pass for the lead.
However, a caution that flew just before the pass was completed placed Tucker back ahead with just one more restart and one more lap to finish it. Tucker got the jump as Seay was unable to get back alongside.
WoO LM Race #6 -I-55 Feature Top 10 Results
| FIN | STA | CAR # | DRIVER | INTERVAL | LED | PTS |
| 1 | 4 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 50 LAPS | 17 | 78 |
| 2 | 6 | 33 | Evan Seay | +0.213 secs | 0 | 74 |
| 3 | 5 | 21 | Damian Kiefer | +0.601 secs | 0 | 71 |
| 4 | 2 | 23 | Chase Barbara | +0.747 secs | 9 | 69 |
| 5 | 8 | 99 | Chase Hardy | +0.945 secs | 0 | 65 |
| 6 | 3 | 82 | Dezmond Busby | +1.169 secs | 0 | 63 |
| 7 | 12 | 80 | Dylan Wilson | +1.356 secs | 0 | 58 |
| 8 | 10 | 41 | Logan Rumsey | +1.681 secs | 0 | 55 |
| 9 | 1 | 10 | Kaden Honeycutt | +2.204 secs | 22 | 54 |
| 10 | 9 | 48 | Dylan Yeager | +2.455 secs | 0 | 49 |
Points Standings following Race #6 – I-55
| FIN | CAR # | DRIVER | PTS | BEHIND | WINS |
| 1 | 33 | Evan Seay | 450 | LEADER | 2 |
| 2 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 381 | -69 | 1 |
| 3 | 41 | Logan Rumsey | 373 | -77 | 1 |
| 4 | 127 | Blake Matjoulis | 343 | -107 | 2 |
| 5 | 80 | Dylan Wilson | 340 | -110 | 0 |
| 6 | 23 | Chase Barbara | 317 | -133 | 0 |
| 7 | 52 | James Edens | 311 | -139 | 0 |
| 8 | 14 | JD Brown | 258 | -192 | 0 |
| 9 | 82 | Desmond Busby | 253 | -197 | 0 |
| 10 | 3 | Barrett Bishop | 241 | -209 | 0 |
Next up: Williams Grove
The seventh race of the 2023 season will take the Late Model World of Outlaws tour to Williams Grove Speedway, a race that was won by Evan Seay last season.
Seay has been a model of front running consistency, and going back to another track he was victorious at could put the final nail in the coffin on the 2023 Points battle.
Things will kick off at 9:00 pm ET with the call from Tim Terry and Terry Radford, broadcasted live on DIRTvision or on the iRacing social channels.
