CALHAN, Colo. — A little luck never hurts in sprint car racing.
And luck was on Michael “Buddy” Kofoid’s side Monday night.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series returned to El Paso County Raceway for the Rocky Mountain Rumble after a decade away and gave the sold-out crowd what they came for.
Kofoid got the best of polesitter David Gravel after a duel in the opening few laps to take command, but Gravel never let Kofoid escape his sight as the two drivers atop the points worked through tricky traffic.
Gravel’s moment came late in the going when he was able to muscle back by Kofoid. The Roth Motorsports No. 83 returned the favor, but the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 countered with a crossover and sent Gravel toward what looked to be a sure victory.
However, disaster struck for the two-time and defending champ on the final lap as he couldn’t quite clear a slide job while trying to lap Bryce Lucius. The two collided and sent Gravel over as the red flag flew, and Kofoid was narrowly able to avoid the carnage.
“Just a rookie mistake,” Gravel admitted. “I just should’ve followed him into the corner. Watching the replay, I had a big enough lead, so I didn’t even need to do that. I was kind of protecting.”
That gifted Kofoid the lead and the win as the Penngrove, Calif., native went unchallenged on the green white checkered restart to come out on top of his El Paso County debut.
“I just tried to get on the brakes as hard as I could and tried to get it turned and hoped to maybe miss them,” Kofoid explained. “It all worked out but I don’t know, I feel bad for the guys. I felt like I’d given that one away. I made probably two or three bad laps in traffic. Then David got there, and I was just trying to race with David and ran another not so great lap and gave a spot up to Carson (Macedo). I still feel like we had speed for sure and could run the top really hard. I got Carson back. That kind of proved to be the winning move.”
Kofoid’s series-leading victory total grew to 14 after Monday’s triumph. His career tally of 36 ties the 24-year-old with Shane Stewart for 23rd all-time with the World of Outlaws. Roth Motorsports is up to 140 scores as a team with The Greatest Show on Dirt, and Kofoid is responsible for 34 of them.
Steven Snyder Jr. snuck up to the runner-up spot in the Three Stooges Racing No. 51 following the late chaos, earning his first World of Outlaws podium.
Chris Windom climbed up to the third spot aboard the Sides Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink No. 7s, his second time in the top three this season.
Donny Schatz and Spencer Bayston completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 2. 51-Steven Snyder Jr[10]; 3. 7S-Chris Windom[7]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz[12]; 5. 17-Spencer Bayston[6]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart[20]; 7. 27-Emerson Axsom[11]; 8. 5D-Adam Trimble[14]; 9. 2C-Cole Macedo[8]; 10. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 11. 17B-Bill Balog[9]; 12. 2B-JJ Hickle[13]; 13. 16C-Skylar Gee[16]; 14. 23-Garet Williamson[4]; 15. 41-Carson Macedo[5]; 16. 2J-Zach Blurton[18]; 17. 2-David Gravel[1]; 18. 6-Bryce Lucius[19]; 19. 27B-Garrett Benson[15]; 20. 16G-Austyn Gossel[21]; 21. 28M-Conner Morrell[17]; 22. 74-Zack Merritt[24]; 23. 2W-Alex Pettas[22]; 24. 6G-Bryan Gossel[23]
