BILLINGS, Mont. – It is almost too fitting that Woopaa and Ridin Solo will be headed to the 2022 PBR World Finals on May 13-22 in Fort Worth, Texas, deadlocked atop the 2022 YETI World Champion Bull standings.

All season long, the top two bovine superstars in the PBR have gone back and forth in the championship race, and Cord McCoy’s decision to buck Ridin Solo twice in Billings, Montana, paid off almost exactly how he wanted.

Ridin Solo bucked off Cody Jesus in 5.5 seconds in the championship round of the PBR Cooper Tires Invitational, presented by Ariat, Sunday for a 46.25-point bull score to end the regular season tied with Woopaa with a World Champion Bull average (Top 6 outs) of 46.29 points.

McCoy knew he needed to get Ridin Solo closer to Woopaa in the World Championship race this weekend, so he had Ridin Solo hauled 1,400 miles north from his home in Tupelo, Oklahoma, to Billings and asked H.D. Page and Delbert Nuse to flank Solo for him this weekend seeing as he had his annual bull sale taking place at home.

“Those men are family, just not by blood,” McCoy said. “I had a long conversation with both before and after the first out. Those guys know bulls, know the ground, how the bulls are feeling, how the draw affects them. Before the first out, I told Delbert, ‘Loose rope, let him go.’ I told H.D. to stomp on the gas.”

While he did not get the 46.5 points he needed to take the No. 1 spot outright, McCoy is still pleased with Ridin Solo’s performance.

Ridin Solo previously bucked off Eli Vastbinder in the 15/15 Bucking Battle Saturday night for a 45.25-point bull score before roaring to life on Championship Sunday.

“Today, Solo needed a win, or the miles and outs were going to backfire on us,” McCoy said.

McCoy and his partners will split the $25,000 regular-season bonus with Laramie Wilson and Woopaa’s ownership group.

The YETI World Champion Bull race and its $100,000 overall bonus will come down to three outs at the PBR World Finals inside Dickies Arena. Woopaa will be looking to become the sixth bull in PBR history to win back-to-back world titles, while Ridin Solo will be attempting to win his first.

The 2022 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top-six regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals.

The top bucking bulls competing at the Finals will receive three outs, and World Champion contenders will be able to drop their lowest score in Fort Worth. The 2022 YETI Bull of the Finals will be the top bull based on all three of their scores.

“Well, the Bucking Bull of the Year race can’t get any tighter,” Wilson said. “I still think it is going to come down to who draws the rider that will showcase their bulls better.”

The draft certainly benefitted Ridin Solo on Sunday at First Interstate Arena. Jesus had pegged Ridin Solo as his No. 1 pick for the championship round, and he put forth the kind of effort every stock contractor wants to see from a rider climbing aboard their bucking beasts.

“He was my first pick of the draft, and I was looking at him out back today, and I was like, ‘Man, we’re going to ride one. We’re going to pick Ridin Solo and hopefully be up there,’” Jesus said. “Then I was like the seventh pick in the draft, and I was like, ‘There’s no way.’ And he was still sitting there for me.”

Woopaa is 8-3 with an average bull score of 45.84 points in 11 outs this season, while Ridin Solo is 11-2 with a 45.71 average.

“Oh man, those two bulls are athletic as can be,” Jesus said. “You get a bull to jump that high with us 150-pound guys on their back and still get that kind of air, it shows you what kind of bucking bull they are, and they deserve to be in the running for World Champion bucking bull.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media