Gravel wires World Finals opener
Photo by Trent Gower
CONCORD, N.C. — David Gravel has one thing in mind right now – securing his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship.
He first made his focus clear on Wednesday when Sea Foam Qualifying Night got the World of Outlaws World Finals underway. The Watertown, CT native laid down two heaters to sweep both Simpson Quick Time Awards.
And on Thursday when racing began, Gravel had zero intentions of slowing down.
First, he cruised to a Heat Race victory. Next, he set himself up on the front row of the main event by finishing second in the Dash. Then, he delivered a dominant performance in the 25-lap NOS Energy Drink Feature at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Gravel rocketed to the lead around Brian Brown’s outside on the first lap and survived Michael “Buddy” Kofoid’s late surge to claim the first main event of the week at the North Carolina oval.
It was an emotional Victory Lane for a variety of reasons. First, Gravel was happy to have his father, who recently suffered a heart attack, in attendance. Secondly, in what’s become a year of checking off major milestones, another was reached. Earlier this year Gravel helped Tod Quiring get his 100th World of Outlaws win as an owner before Gravel got his own 100th as a driver two months later. And on Thursday Gravel’s drive brought Big Game Motorsports crew chief Cody Jacobs his 50th with the Series.
“It’s been a great year,” Gravel said. “We talked about it at dinner that the next one was going to be his 50th, and I forgot because there’s so much other stuff going on. It feels good, happy to get Tod his 100th, my 100th, and Cody his 50th and hopefully a championship tomorrow night. It’s just been an unbelievable season. And with everything going on with my dad the last month, just happy he’s here.”
The win was Gravel’s 15th of 2024 with The Greatest Show on Dirt and the 103rd of his career. Seven of those 103 have come at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, making it the second winningest track on his World of Outlaws résumé. It also gave him 16 overall Sprint Car wins in 2024, breaking a tie with Anthony Macri for the most in the nation.
The path to victory was paved on the opening lap for Gravel as pole-sitter Brian Brown led them to the green flag.
Brown nosed ahead as they accelerated down the front straightaway and muscled in front as they entered Turn 1. But Gravel committed to the top and built up momentum and ripped by Brown before he could slide ahead.
The early laps allowed Gravel to build a strong lead over Brown, and right when he was beginning to negotiate traffic, the yellow lights flashed as Emerson Axsom spun to a stop in Turn 4 with 16 laps to go.
Gravel launched ahead when the green flag came back out, but one of the sport’s hottest drivers, Buddy Kofoid, threw his name into contention with a big restart that propelled him from sixth to third.
The Penngrove, CA native then set his sights on Brown, and he disposed of him on Lap 17 to take over the runner-up spot with Gravel still nearly two seconds ahead.
But the laps times showed Gravel’s lead was fading as the laps clicked away and the lead duo worked through traffic. With two circuits remaining, Kofoid had chopped the margin all the way down to six tenths of a second. When the white flag flew, it was under half a second. Kofoid was there.
Right when it appeared Gravel could be in danger of last lap heartbreak, he smoothly cleared a lapped car to give himself the small amount of breathing room he needed. Gravel pulled away and took the checkered flag with his advantage north of a second again.
“Sometimes it’s not good to be leading there,” Gravel explained. “The 7S ran me really hard and saw my nose and chopped going into (Turn) 3. Didn’t really like that move. Man, just going to the bottom if you missed it, you lost a lot of momentum. I’m sure Buddy was ripping the top aggressively. My momentum and pace just slowed down, but sometimes you’ll have that. Just happy to hold on.”
Gravel is now in a spot where he can likely secure his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship on Friday assuming he starts Saturday’s Feature. If Carson Macedo wins, Gravel must finish 19th or better. If Macedo doesn’t win, Gravel must finish within 19 positions of the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41.
Kofoid settled for second after his late charge. It was another great run as he continues a rookie World of Outlaws season for the record books with Roth Motorsports. He’s up to 26 podiums in 2024.
“I think just getting to start on the outside here is really beneficial if you’re not on the front row,” Kofoid said. “I was able to just get a good run and get outside of and get past fifth and then get to the bottom. As the couple cars in front of me were coming up the straightaway I was able to fill that gap before they got to the bottom, and I was able to get back to the top. I kind of found it right before that yellow came out and picked off a couple cars and knew that the bottom was getting narrower and narrower and moved up just in time.”
Rounding out the top three was Justin Peck as he debuted in the Rudeen Racing No. 26. The Monrovia, IN native very recently inked a deal to jump in the seat of Kevin Rudeen’s iconic blue Sprint Car, and it the pairing showed chemistry right off the bat.
“Car has been fast almost every time I’ve hit the racetrack,” Peck said. “Obviously, there’s a couple things getting used to a new car, just understanding tendencies the car has and how it wants to move around and react and kind of relearn a little muscle memory and adapt to what we’re doing.”
Brian Brown and Logan Schuchart completed the top five.
A 25th to 14th drive earned Donny Schatz the KSE Racing Hard Charger.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Buddy Kofoid. Milton Hershey School Heat Two went to Brian Brown.
Brian Brown topped the Toyota Racing Dash.
Landon Crawley won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Emerson Axsom.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars battle at the penultimate World Finals night on Thursday, Nov. 7 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[2]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[8]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[3]; 4. 21-Brian Brown[1]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]; 6. 41-Carson Macedo[14]; 7. 10-Ryan Timms[4]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 9. 39M-Anthony Macri[10]; 10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[13]; 11. 69K-Logan Wagner[11]; 12. 88-Austin McCarl[9]; 13. 23-Garet Williamson[19]; 14. 15-Donny Schatz[25]; 15. 1A-Jacob Allen[12]; 16. 14-Spencer Bayston[18]; 17. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[23]; 18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[16]; 19. 2KS-Cory Eliason[17]; 20. 23W-Justin Whittall[15]; 21. 13-Daison Pursley[22]; 22. 7S-Landon Crawley[21]; 23. 27-Emerson Axsom[6]; 24. 17B-Bill Balog[24]; 25. 55-CJ Leary[20]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 7S-Landon Crawley[1]; 2. 13-Daison Pursley[3]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog[7]; 5. 24D-Danny Sams III[9]; 6. 9-Kasey Kahne[16]; 7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 8. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]; 9. 7N-Darin Naida[8]; 10. 70-Kraig Kinser[11]; 11. 99-Skylar Gee[10]; 12. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[14]; 13. 17GP-Hank Davis[15]; 14. 5K-Adam Kekich[12]; 15. 15-Donny Schatz[5]; 16. 6X-Tim Shaffer[13]
C Feature (10 Laps): 1. 17GP-Hank Davis[3]; 2. 9-Kasey Kahne[2]; 3. 7NY-Matt Farnham[1]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson[4]; 5. 6-Dylan Cisney[5]; 6. 77-Geoff Dodge[6]; 7. 1-Sammy Swindell[11]; 8. 97UK-Ryan Harrison[9]; 9. 1B-Keith Baxter[7]; 10. 0-Glenn Styres[10]; 11. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[2]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[3]; 4. 10-Ryan Timms[6]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]; 6. 27-Emerson Axsom[4]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]; 8. 83-Michael Kofoid[7]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 3. 88-Austin McCarl[5]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]; 5. 2KS-Cory Eliason[9]; 6. 13-Daison Pursley[6]; 7. 17B-Bill Balog[10]; 8. 70-Kraig Kinser[8]; 9. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]; 10. 17GP-Hank Davis[11]; 11. 1B-Keith Baxter[12]; 12. 1-Sammy Swindell[7]
Milton Hershey School Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown[1]; 2. 10-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 69K-Logan Wagner[4]; 4. 23W-Justin Whittall[3]; 5. 23-Garet Williamson[6]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[7]; 7. 24D-Danny Sams III[5]; 8. 6X-Tim Shaffer[9]; 9. 7NY-Matt Farnham[10]; 10. 6-Dylan Cisney[8]; 11. 97UK-Ryan Harrison[11]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 2. 27-Emerson Axsom[2]; 3. 39M-Anthony Macri[4]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 5. 14-Spencer Bayston[5]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[6]; 7. 7N-Darin Naida[9]; 8. 5K-Adam Kekich[11]; 9. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 10. W20-Greg Wilson[10]; 11. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 2. 26-Justin Peck[4]; 3. 1A-Jacob Allen[3]; 4. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[5]; 5. 55-CJ Leary[2]; 6. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee[8]; 8. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[9]; 9. 9-Kasey Kahne[11]; 10. 77-Geoff Dodge[7]; 11. 0-Glenn Styres[10]
CURRENT WORLD OF OUTLAWS STANDINGS
Points Updated: November 7, 2024
Pos. No. Driver Hometown Points Gap Starts Wins Top 5s Top 10s
1 2 David Gravel Watertown, CT 8732 64 15 42 58
2 41 Carson Macedo Lemoore, CA 8646 -86 63 11 45 53
3 15 Donny Schatz Fargo, ND 8528 -204 63 5 30 52
4 83 Michael Kofoid Penngrove, CA 8448 -284 63 7 31 52
5 18 Giovanni Scelzi Fresno, CA 8340 -392 63 3 23 52
6 17 Sheldon Haudenschild Wooster, OH 8320 -412 64 8 29 45
7 1S Logan Schuchart Hanover, PA 8288 -444 63 1 20 49
8 17B Bill Balog North Pole, AK 7704 -1028 59 0 10 32
9 3Z Brock Zearfoss Jonestown, PA 7302 -1430 56 0 1 16
10 7S Landon Crawley Benton, AR 6990 -1742 49 0 0 4
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