Alex Bergeron claims 2025-26 World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series opening round at Volusia

The World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series returned for the start of the 2025-26 season on Monday night, kicking things off at Volusia Speedway Park.

Former World Champion Alex Bergeron nearly had a perfect night in the opening round, qualifying second, then rallying from seventh on the grid to take the opening victory of the season.

It looked like Dylan Yeager was in control, but the formidable Alex Bergeron would NOT be denied on Monday night, working the bottom lane to win the opening Feature of the 2025-26 World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series season at Volusia!@WorldofOutlaws pic.twitter.com/ifaMxdDOPx

— iRacing (@iRacing) November 18, 2025

Bergeron methodically worked his way around Dylan Yeager with just under 10 laps to go and never looked back. The win is his 25th career victory on the Sprint Car side of the series, and 29th overall when including the Late Model wins before the two series merged. Leaving Volusia, Bergeron leads the way by 11 points, but he will need to qualify his way back into the series like everyone else through the World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Qualifying Series races through the week at Huset’s Speedway for Round 2.

QUALIFYING

During the regular races in the 2025-26 World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series season, 22 drivers will qualify for each Feature race. Eight of those spots are filled almost immediately through Qualifying, where the first 25 points of the night are on the line. Setting quick time will earn 25 points, but will invert that driver to starting eighth in the Feature, whereas eighth will invert to the pole position, but only collect 17 points. Everyone from ninth on back in Qualifying are to be split into four equal Heat races.

Kenny Hoffman claimed the quick time in Qualifying on Monday night, just edging Bergeron by 0.001 seconds. Yeager claimed eighth in the session, and would move to the front of the field for the main event later in the night.

Qualifying Transfers:

1. Kenny Hoffman
2. Alex Bergeron
3. Ross Keiser
4. Aiden Price
5. Shaun English
6. Tyler Schell
7. Jesse Newsome
8. Dylan Yeager

HEATS

In the four Heat races, up to eight drivers compete for eight laps, the top-three finishers advancing to the Feature later in the night. Points are awarded to the finishing positions in each Heat, that way all 40 drivers walk away with something for making the show. Heat winners earn 15 points, while eighth place finishers only claim eight points. The 20 drivers that don’t advance to the Feature through Qualifying or the Heats are sent to one of the two Last Chance Shootout races.

Rylan Gray had a brawl with Tanner Pettit in the opening Heat, and would take the win. Mason Hannagan pulled away from the pack to claim Heat 2. Blake Matjoulis held on to win it in Heat 3. The fourth Heat saw drama for the transfer spot, but it was Aiden Forster claiming the win.

Heat 1 Transfers:

1. Rylan Gray
2. Tanner Pettit
3. Blake Carrick

Heat 2 Transfers:

1. Mason Hannagan
2. John Helms
3. Chase Stewart

Heat 3 Transfers:

1. Blake Matjoulis
2. Landon Cardoza
3. Joey Lingron

Heat 4 Transfers:

1. Aiden Forster
2. Shaun Smith
3. JD Brown

LAST CHANCE SHOOTOUTS

The final shot to race in the Feature is by winning one of the two Last Chance Shootout races. These races include up to 10 cars each, but only the winner can move on. There are no points awarded in these races.

A couple of fairly big names wound up in the LCS races, including the defending series champion, Logan Rumsey. Rumsey led in the first LCS, but was outdueled by Bradley Cox for the transfer spot. Two more former winners, Braden Eyler and Timothy Smith, found themselves eliminated in the second LCS as Noah Carpenter went on to claim the final transfer spot to the Feature.

Last Chance Shootout Transfers:

1. Bradley Cox
2. Noah Carpenter

FEATURE RACE

Yeager led the field to the green for the 35-lap Feature following his invert to the pole. The two fastest cars in qualifying, Hoffman and Bergeron, worked their way through the three rows ahead of them, but their ascent would be short lived before the first caution flew on Lap 7. Ross Keiser went for a wild ride, tumbling down the frontstretch, collecting JD Brown in the process. With caution laps not counting, the field went back to green on Lap 8.

Bergeron continued moving forward, getting up to second while Hoffman worked on passing Shaun English and another former series champion, Tyler Schell, for the third position. The trio of English, Schell, and Hoffman collided, but it did not trigger a caution. English would be forced to retire, while Hoffman plummeted through the field. Schell recovered to finish in eighth. That handed third place over to Landon Cardoza, but the fight for the win at that point was long gone.

Bergeron continued to close, running a line unlike anyone else, wrapping the bottom, not sliding up, gripping his left front tire on the least used portion of the dirt. The pass for the win came with seven laps to go, and while Yeager tried to change up his line to get back to the front, the line that Bergeron found would not be beaten.

FEATURE RESULTS FROM RACE NO. 1 AT VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK

POINTS EARNED FOR DRIVERS THAT DID NOT QUALIFY FOR THE FEATURE

DRIVERS STANDINGS AFTER RACE NO. 1 AT VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK

1. Alex Bergeron, 123 points
2. Dylan Yeager, -11
3. Landon Cardoza, -17
4. Tanner Pettit, -20
5. Joey Lingron, -24
6. Aiden Forster, -25
7. Jesse Newsome, -25
8. Tyler Schell, -27
9. Aiden Price, -28
10. John Helms, -41

With a nearly perfect night at Volusia Speedway Park, Bergeron takes control of the early standings by 11 over Yeager. Bergeron, by qualifying second, earned 23 points, while Yeager only collected 17. Add that six point difference to the five point gap from first to second and that’s how the standings stack up. Helms scored more points than Carpenter in the Heats, and thus takes 10th in the points despite Carpenter finishing ahead in the Feature. Hoffman, who claimed quick time during qualifying, wound up 17th after his mishap with Tyler Schell and Shaun English that didn’t bring out the yellow. Hoffman’s qualifying points prop him up into 14th in the standings.

NEXT RACE

The World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series returns next week with the second round of the 2025-26 season at Huset’s Speedway. The World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Qualifying Series opens up on Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. ET with its first of three races for the week, the other two at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday night and Thursday night. 40 drivers from the top of the standings will be invited to race in next week’s Pro Series event. Last year, Ryan Avila claimed his first career win in the series debut at Huset’s.

The Pro Series action next Monday night starts at 8:00 p.m. ET and it will be live on DIRTVision and across all of iRacing’s social media channels.

For more details on the World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series and the World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Qualifying Series, check out www.iRacing.com/WoO-Pro-Series/
For more information about iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iRacing.com.

You may also like...

Recommended

iRacing Weekly Tune-in | eSports & Community Events | December 18th to December 24th

Recommended

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series returns with new Qualifying Series format for 2026 season

Recommended

World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series Sprint Car Tournament at Knoxville belongs to Aiden Forster

Recommended

This Week in iRacing | December 16 to December 22, 2025