ROSSBURG, Ohio — Nobody loves cashing in a Kubota High Limit Racing payday more than a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series driver.
World of Outlaws point leader David Gravel did exactly that, winning Thursday’s Joker’s Jackpot at Eldora Speedway.
The $100,000-to-win, 40-lap feature was chaotic from start-to-finish with drama and misfortune coming at frontrunners from green-to-checkered.
“Taking some of that High Limit money, that’s pretty nice,” said Gravel.
Tyler Courtney had a flat tire running second, James McFadden suffered another flat inside the top five, then Jacob Allen’s ignition box failed after a 21st to fifth charge. Next, Giovanni Scelzi flipped while leading with seven laps to go, and the final domino was Kyle Larson’s No. 57 slowing while in second during the closing laps.
Scelzi led the opening 33 laps and Gravel controlled the final seven circuits – holding off Larson, then Donny Schatz on a green-white-checkered to earn his biggest payday at Eldora Speedway with his seventh win at “The Big E.”
“Forty laps at Eldora, a lot happens and a lot can happen,” Gravel acknowledged. “There are always tire issues here for whatever reason and we happened to be on the right side of it. I had never won a big race here. I’ve won a decent number of races here, but always on a prelim night, so to get a big one feels really, really good.”
It’s Gravel’s second-career win with Kubota High Limit Racing, previously cashing $50,000 at Lernerville Speedway last fall and now $100,000 tonight at Eldora, which is the highest-paying race in all of sprint car racing this year, to date.
For the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 team, Thursday’s triumph is their 11th victory of the season and they become the 11th different winners with Kubota High Limit Racing this year.
For the second-straight night, Schatz finished runner-up in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing No. 15. This time, his second-place finish netted a $25,000 payday.
Brad Sweet rounded out the podium with a third-place run worth $15,000 aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts No. 49.
Closing out the top-five was Justin Peck and Buch Motorsports with a $12,500 check in fourth-place, and hard-charging Rico Abreu into fifth-from-20th to earn $10,000.
Next up at Eldora is Thursday’s Night Before The Kings Royal and Saturday’s $175,000-to-win Kings Royal.
“We want that Kings Royal really bad, but this is a good start to the weekend,” Gravel said.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[4]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[5]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[6]; 4. 13-Justin Peck[9]; 5. 24-Rico Abreu[20]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[18]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[8]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[10]; 9. 41-Carson Macedo[12]; 10. 83-James McFadden[7]; 11. 1A-Jacob Allen[21]; 12. 5-Spencer Bayston[14]; 13. 8-Cory Eliason[23]; 14. 39M-Anthony Macri[13]; 15. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]; 16. 9P-Parker Price Miller[17]; 17. 101-Kalib Henry[15]; 18. 23-Garet Williamson[22]; 19. 42-Sye Lynch[19]; 20. 57-Kyle Larson[2]; 21. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 22. 87-Aaron Reutzel[11]; 23. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[16]; 24. 55V-Kerry Madsen[24]