CONCORD, N.C. – For six years, David Gravel has been a consistent championship contender with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
After four consecutive third-place finishes from 2016 to ‘19, Gravel is poised to finish second in the series title chase in his debut season with Tod Quiring’s Big Game Motorsports.
Gravel holds a comfortable 46-point advantage over Carson Macedo in the race for the runner-up spot with two races left in the year, both during this weekend’s World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
“The performance this year no doubt gives us a ton of confidence,” Gravel said. “This team hasn’t been at the Outlaw level for a while, but I feel like we came out of the gates swinging. If we can keep qualifying the way we do, we just need to work on our feature runs and we’ll be better.”
Gravel’s 10 wins this year means he has produced double-digit victory totals for three different teams and becomes the ninth driver in series history to accomplish the feat.
The Watertown, Conn., native accompanies Doug Wolfgang and Joey Saldana as the only drivers to record the feat without a championship to their name.
Gravel won 18 times with CJB Motorsports in 2017 and won 12 times with Jason Jason Johnson Racing in ‘18.
Crew chief Cody Jacobs, Trey Bowman and Scott Vogelsong are all responsible for giving Gravel the comfortability he needs. It’s a group that Gravel has complete faith in moving forward.
“Going to these tracks more and more with Cody will be a gamechanger,” Gravel saiid. “I’ve been out here for eight to nine years and have seen most of them, but for him, he hasn’t been to certain places in several years or maybe ever.
“Trey has been on tour for a while, so that’s good,” Gravel added. “Having a notebook and consistently building that for each track will only make us better. It should shorten that learning curve in the future.”
Gravel’s 10-win campaign has been highlighted by a monumental sweep at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, a pair of wins at Quiring’s Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota and a thrilling triumph at The Rev in Louisiana.
Victories at Attica (Ohio) Speedway, Granite City Speedway in Minnesota, Weedsport (N.Y.) Speedway, Silver Dollar Speedway in California and Lernerville (Pa.) Speedway adds to Gravel’s impressive season.
The 29-year-old also leads the series with 18 fast-qualifier awards, as well as heat wins (32), dash appearances (48), pole starts (10) and average start (5.99).
“I’m most proud of the fact that we hit double-digit [wins],” Gravel said. “To win 10-plus races with the World of Outlaws is a really tough task even during an 80-race season.
“The competition is off the charts,” Gravel added. “It’s not an easy feat. I’ve been on a team that has won 18 races and came back the next year to only get five, so you don’t ever take it for granted. We started a little slow I think, but that was just growing pains getting accustomed to a new team.”
Gravel ends the season at one of his better tracks, the four-tenths-mile clay oval in which he’s won four times at.
“It’s a place that you have to qualify well,” Gravel said in regards to The Dirt Track at Charlotte. “I think Thursday is such a huge day with qualifying for both nights. You have to get yourself on the front row of heat races and that makes life much easier.”