BRANDON, S.D. — David Gravel admits he and Big Game Motorsports were frustrated heading into Saturday.
The two-time and defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champions are accustomed to excellence. But with big money on the line at the BillionAuto.com Huset’s High Bank Nationals, Huset’s Speedway had the champs puzzled.
They struggled to contend for wins at the track operated by their team owner, Tod Quiring. A solid Friday set them up well for Saturday’s record setting $300,000-to-win finale, and they found speed at the right time.
A win in the third heat set Gravel up as the third seed for the King of the Hill, and he climbed the ladder all the way to the top to set himself up on the pole for the 40-lapper.
The green flag waved, and Gravel ripped ahead aboard the BillionAuto.com No. 2. The Watertown, Conn., native built a healthy lead through the first half of the race as battles raged on behind him.
Tyler Courtney surged into second from eighth around the halfway mark and looked poised to bring the battle to Gravel, but he made the right lane change at the right time to take Courtney’s line. “Sunshine” threw a slider at him on a restart that didn’t quite clear, and that was that. Gravel drove away to the largest payday in World of Outlaws history.
“I’ve got to thank Tod Quiring, he puts so much money into this sport, this event, and the World of Outlaws,” Gravel said. “I have to thank my guys Cody (Jacobs), Pete (Stephens), Zach (Patterson), and Luke (Vaughn). We got Scott (Vogelsong) here who used to be our crew guy. He came and helped us this week. Man, what a night.
“What a rebound from the week. I felt like nothing was easy for us this week. Everybody was kind of frustrated, and we literally tried a different setup every time we hit the race track and kept working at it. Cody found something, and it worked out really, really good.”
Gravel’s sixth win of the season is the 126th of his career with the World of Outlaws. He’s now collected five six-figure sprint car paydays in his career, making him only the third competitor with at least five checks worth at least $100,000 alongside Donny Schatz (13) and Kyle Larson (five). Saturday’s score also ended a bit of a drought for Gravel and the Big Game bunch as they snapped a 12-race winless streak.
Courtney came up just one spot shy of cashing in on the $100,000 High Bank Bounty for a $400,000 payday. The Clauson Marshall/NOS Energy Drink No. 7BC settled for a still stout $50,000 runner-up to punctuate the week on a high note after a slow start.
“From Wednesday to now, we made a lot of changes to the car and just worked our tails off to be in the position we were tonight,” Courtney said. “I feel like were pretty good until late. I felt like I got a pretty good restart there but just didn’t get across to make him (Gravel) lift. I was pretty confident he was going to try to drive around me, so I tried to get up there as fast as I could. I just didn’t quite get there.”
Schatz put the CJB Motorsports No. 15 on the final step of the podium to pocket $25,000, leaving him two spots short of a 14th career six-figure payday. It was an up and down race for the 10-time series champion that closed out on a high note.
“We got there and got passed Sheldon and kind of waited for the track to change a little bit,” Schatz said. “David set a pretty torrid pace, but I had a hell of a time getting through lapped traffic early and kind of had to wait for the track to change. I figured I’d give it a shot on that restart going around the top. I got up there and got all wormy and thought I had a low tire, maybe a right-rear and thought maybe I cut it. I made it work that corner, but the next time I came around I went to the bottom I knew something was wrong. I kind of got saved by that yellow. I don’t know, I guess I must’ve pounded the air out of it or let it get too low. That’s just the way it goes. We had a shot at trying to win one of the biggest paydays ever and ran third.”
Giovanni Scelzi and Buddy Kofoid rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz[3]; 4. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[4]; 5. 83-Michael Kofoid[11]; 6. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 7. 23-Garet Williamson[12]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo[14]; 9. 17-Spencer Bayston[7]; 10. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]; 11. 10-Ryan Timms[13]; 12. 2C-Cole Macedo[10]; 13. 27-Emerson Axsom[19]; 14. 7S-Chris Windom[9]; 15. 55-Kerry Madsen[16]; 16. 5-Parker Price Miller[21]; 17. 17B-Bill Balog[6]; 18. 88-Austin McCarl[23]; 19. 25-Jy Corbet[15]; 20. 21-Brian Brown[17]; 21. 16C-Skylar Gee[18]; 22. (DNF) 28M-Conner Morrell[22]; 23. (DNF) 6-Kasey Jedrzejek[24]; 24. (DNF) 44-Chris Martin[20]
