PEVELY, Mo. — A lot must go right to win the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55.
It’s the most laps the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series runs all season. It requires a great car and driver. It requires mixing patience with aggression. It requires stamina. All the pieces have to come together to conquer the demanding 55-lapper at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
Michael “Buddy” Kofoid lined up fifth and came out on top of a main event that provided all kinds of twists and turns.
First, Friday’s winner Carson Macedo appeared on his way to a weekend sweep until heartbreak hit. He’d led from the drop of the green, but a flat right-rear tire under caution sent him to the pits. That handed Sheldon Haudenschild the top spot in his hunt for a record-tying third dumbbell trophy, but Kofoid had other ideas.
The Penngrove, Calif., native immediately brought the battle to Haudenschild when the green lights returned. Haudenschild held him off at first, but the Roth Motorsports No. 83 wasn’t done.
A Lap-51 slide job cleared and proved to be the winning move for Kofoid. He secured the lead and drove away as Haudenschild wound up in a battle for the runner-up spot with Tanner Thorson.
The checkered flew, and Kofoid made his way to victory lane to collect a brand-new dumbbell trophy and a $25,000 check.
“I wanted to start on the outside every restart just because I felt like as the race went on my car started to take off better and better,” Kofoid explained. “I would stay out longer, and I feel like I’d get such a big tow of momentum and almost got Sheldon on that restart. I didn’t think I was all the way clear, so I left him a little bit of room and just got back in line and knew that if we could get to traffic, he may be in trouble because our car has notoriously been tremendous in dirty air.
“Dylan (Buswell) just made great adjustments under the open red, and that probably won us the race. I’m just super happy to have him in my corner. I would not want to race against him. And of course, Nate (Knotts) and Gage (Tyra) do a tremendous job. I’m just having a lot of fun.”
Kofoid became the 11th different winner of I-55’s premier event and the fifth from the state of California, joining Jason Meyers, Rico Abreu, Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet.
Kofoid’s eighth World of Outlaws victory of 2025 establishes a new personal-best mark, and the 18th of his career equals him with Brad Doty for 34th all-time.
“I was extremely excited in the car and still am,” Kofoid said. “I feel like this is a place that fits in my wheelhouse and just haven’t been able to quite capitalize. I ran second and third last year, ran third last nights, had other times I feel like before that I’ve been fast and just had something go wrong or just make a mistake on my end and give it away. So, it’s just really cool to finally capitalize on a win here, and to do it for the Ironman is pretty awesome.”
The second spot went to Tanner Thorson after a spirited drive. He wheeled the Rod Gross Motorsports No. 88 all the way from 17th to second.
“Badass,” Thorson said. “That was awesome. We’ve been kind of crappy the last two nights, and Stevie (Smith) and I and the guys just put our heads down and went back to some stuff we were doing at the beginning of the year, and it worked.”
Sheldon Haudenschild wound up with a bittersweet third-place finish with the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing/NOS Energy Drink team.
“I didn’t know if the bottom was really the right choice there,” Haudenschild said of the late restart. “But I ended up getting going. I just didn’t really run it hard enough there. I bounced a couple times through the holes, and I was just trying to be really smooth and get through those holes smooth. (Kyle) Ripper and the boys did a great job tonight. We’ve been struggling, and when I have got myself in position to win these races, I just haven’t capitalized. We’ll keep pushing here.”
David Gravel and Zach Hampton completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (55 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[5]; 2. 88-Tanner Thorson[17]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 4. 2-David Gravel[4]; 5. 6-Zach Hampton[8]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart[12]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[15]; 9. 45-Cory Eliason[6]; 10. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[9]; 11. 14-Spencer Bayston[3]; 12. 41-Carson Macedo[1]; 13. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[14]; 14. 18-Emerson Axsom[23]; 15. 2C-Cole Macedo[18]; 16. 7S-Chris Windom[13]; 17. 45X-Landon Crawley[16]; 18. 7A-Will Armitage[11]; 19. 37-Bryce Norris[24]; 20. 51B-Joe B Miller[20]; 21. 99-Skylar Gee[7]; 22. 24T-Christopher Thram[19]; 23. 17B-Bill Balog[21]; 24. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[22]
