Buddy Kofoid Kicks Off World of Outlaws California Swing in Victory Lane
Photo by Devin Mayo
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.—Michael “Buddy” Kofoid sure steps up his game when it’s time to race in front of the home state fans.
Last year the Penngrove, CA native embarked on his rookie World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series campaign and won half of the six races during the California swing.
The 2025 west coast trip appears to be shaping up similarly with just one night in the books.
The Greatest Show on Dirt rolled into Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway on Friday for the Series debut at the 1/3 mile and to ignite a two-week stay in California. The result? A dominant victory for Kofoid and the Roth Motorsports team.
The 23-year-old went unchallenged from green to checkered in the 30-lap Feature to complete a perfect night. Kofoid set Simpson Quick Time, won his Heat, claimed the Dash, and put the punctuation on perfection with a flawless finale.
“Happy to be home and start out the west coast swing right like last year,” Kofoid said. “Hopefully this can be the trend for these next couple weeks now. That was tough with the amount of restarts, but I feel like my car was good enough to where I could restart kind of early around the top and, I think, get away in case I missed the bottom just because it got super narrow. Dylan (Buswell), Nate (Knotts), and Gage (Tyra) gave me a phenomenal race car. I could move around anywhere.”
Kofoid upped his win total for the season to 11, giving him sole possession of the second most this year. The 21st of his career equals him with fellow Californian Tim Kaeding and Rick Ferkel for 29th most all time. He’s now topped World of Outlaws Features at five different tracks in his home state – Placerville Speedway, Stockton Dirt Track, Bakersfield Speedway, Merced Speedway, and Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway. He also won a prelim Series Feature at Chico, CA’s Silver Dollar Speedway’s Gold Cup Race of Champions, but it doesn’t count as an official win since the field was split.
A wild battle for the runner-up spot was won by Sheldon Haudenschild. The Wooster, OH native survived a pair of near crashes and wheeled his way to second in the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 17 for his 11th podium of the year. A late restart allowed him to climb from third to his finishing position.
“We had a hard race that whole time,” Haudenschild explained. “I went from fourth to sixth and battled the 15 (Kerry Madsen) and the 17B (Bill Balog). Me and the 41 (Carson Macedo) got into it down there just racing hard. That was pretty fun just making consistent laps, and honestly the 41 just tried the bottom down there and lost his run down the frontstretch. I think the 83 had the best car all night probably.”
Carson Macedo and the Jason Johnson Racing team took the final spot on the podium. The Lemoore, CA driver surged as high as second before losing the spot in the closing laps to Haudenschild. The No. 41 team continues to be one of the hottest on tour with their fourth top three in the last five races.
“I felt like the bug there a little bit and not the windshield,” Macedo said of his race. “I got an extremely good start. I felt like my car was really sporty. I thought when we got to traffic, I’d be able to more around and make some moves, but when we did get to traffic I kind of stalled out and didn’t feel that great. It felt like every time we got to thick traffic the yellow would come out. I tried to get super aggressive on that next start thinking there was some grip we were throwing across. I should’ve known it was just dirty when I went in there and tried to run the top and just slid up to no man’s land and fell back to fifth at one point.”
Logan Schuchart and Bill Balog completed the top five.
Dominic Gorden wheeled from 23rd to 11th to earn KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors.
Buddy Kofoid claimed his 13th career Simpson Quick Time in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
Heat Races belonged to Buddy Kofoid (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Logan Schuchart (Real American Beer Heat Two), and Carson Macedo (WIX Filters Heat Three).
The SPA Technique #1 Redraw went to Logan Schuchart.
Buddy Kofoid topped the Toyota Dash.
Spencer Bayston won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to David Gravel.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars complete the first weekend of the California swing at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 13. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS
NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[5]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 6. 15S-Kerry Madsen[6]; 7. 7S-Chris Windom[9]; 8. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 9. 18-Emerson Axsom[12]; 10. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[8]; 11. 10-Dominic Gorden[23]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson[11]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee[20]; 14. 121-Caeden Steele[22]; 15. 0-Tim Kaeding[15]; 16. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[18]; 17. 2-David Gravel[7]; 18. 21-Spencer Bayston[19]; 19. 88N-DJ Netto[13]; 20. 28M-Conner Morrell[24]; 21. 2K-Gauge Garcia[21]; 22. W-Donny Schatz[10]; 23. 6-Zach Hampton[17]; 24. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[16]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 21-Spencer Bayston[2]; 2. 99-Skylar Gee[4]; 3. 2K-Gauge Garcia[1]; 4. 121-Caeden Steele[6]; 5. 10-Dominic Gorden[5]; 6. 28M-Conner Morrell[8]; 7. 14-Mariah Ede[3]; 8. 8-Jake Helsel[7]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[4]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 6. 15S-Kerry Madsen[5]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 3. 2-David Gravel[3]; 4. W-Donny Schatz[4]; 5. 88N-DJ Netto[7]; 6. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[6]; 7. 2K-Gauge Garcia[5]; 8. 99-Skylar Gee[8]; 9. 8-Jake Helsel[9]
Real American Beer Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 2. 15S-Kerry Madsen[1]; 3. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[3]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson[6]; 5. 2C-Cole Macedo[4]; 6. 6-Zach Hampton[5]; 7. 14-Mariah Ede[7]; 8. 10-Dominic Gorden[8]; 9. 28M-Conner Morrell[9]
WIX Filters Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[1]; 3. 7S-Chris Windom[4]; 4. 18-Emerson Axsom[3]; 5. 0-Tim Kaeding[6]; 6. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[8]; 7. 21-Spencer Bayston[5]; 8. 121-Caeden Steele[7]
Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:12.041[4]; 2. 15S-Kerry Madsen, 00:12.158[8]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:12.269[9]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:12.280[13]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:12.323[14]; 6. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:12.326[2]; 7. 2-David Gravel, 00:12.375[25]; 8. 41S-Dominic Scelzi, 00:12.379[21]; 9. 18-Emerson Axsom, 00:12.403[5]; 10. W-Donny Schatz, 00:12.413[20]; 11. 2C-Cole Macedo, 00:12.443[3]; 12. 7S-Chris Windom, 00:12.464[1]; 13. 2K-Gauge Garcia, 00:12.469[6]; 14. 6-Zach Hampton, 00:12.473[12]; 15. 21-Spencer Bayston, 00:12.496[15]; 16. 3-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:12.499[17]; 17. 23-Garet Williamson, 00:12.517[23]; 18. 0-Tim Kaeding, 00:12.543[11]; 19. 88N-DJ Netto, 00:12.547[19]; 20. 14-Mariah Ede, 00:12.556[7]; 21. 121-Caeden Steele, 00:12.740[10]; 22. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:12.751[24]; 23. 10-Dominic Gorden, 00:12.782[18]; 24. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 00:12.823[26]; 25. 8-Jake Helsel, 00:13.192[16]; 26. 28M-Conner Morrell, 01:00.000[22]
CURRENT WORLD OF OUTLAWS SERIES STANDINGS
Points Updated: September 12, 2025
Pos. No. Driver Hometown Points Gap Starts Wins Top 5s Top 10s
1 2 David Gravel Watertown, CT 7514 55 13 47 53
2 83 Michael Kofoid Penngrove, CA 7372 -142 55 11 34 47
3 41 Carson Macedo Lemoore, CA 7298 -216 55 10 31 43
4 1S Logan Schuchart Hanover, PA 7174 -340 53 2 28 42
5 17 Sheldon Haudenschild Wooster, OH 7018 -496 55 2 23 36
6 W Donny Schatz Fargo, ND 6856 -658 55 0 8 29
7 17B Bill Balog North Pole, AK 6700 -814 53 2 13 29
8 23 Garet Williamson Columbia, MO 6578 -936 53 0 4 21
9 7S Chris Windom Canton, IL 6542 -972 50 0 4 20
10 2C Cole Macedo Lemoore, CA 6396 -1118 47 0 4 15
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