FINDLAY, Ohio — It doesn’t matter where they are, David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports just win.
The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champions won $83,000 at Thunderbowl Raceway’s Dennis Roth Classic in California last Saturday. Six days later the scene shifted more than 2,000 miles east to Ohio’s Millstream Speedway for Sheldon Haudenschild’s Buckeye Brawl presented by NOS Energy Drink. The result was another trip to victory lane for Gravel and the Big Game crew.
The Watertown, Conn., native lined up on the front row, but it was polesitter Michael “Buddy” Kofoid leading the way early on.
Gravel kept Kofoid within his sights to set up a duel between the current top two in World of Outlaws points and the two winningest drivers on the tour this year.
Gravel stalked Kofoid in traffic and made the winning move on Lap 9 when Kofoid slipped in traffic. The Big Game No. 2 rolled under the Roth Motorsports No. 83 out of Turn 4 to take the top spot. Several cautions lined Kofoid up alongside Gravel for restarts, but Gravel didn’t flinch. He kept Kofoid behind on his way to a $17,000 triumph. Add that to his Dennis Roth Classic paycheck, and that’s an even $100,000 for his last two days of work.
“Sometimes it’s better to be running second,” Gravel said. “Buddy was searching around and running low below guys, and I got really big runs on him on the top. He didn’t know. He was just trying to get by lapped cars, and I was lucky to take advantage of it. He kind of went low and slid across, and I kind of followed him in to hit the bottom really good and got in front of him off of (Turn) 4. That was the winning move. I knew it was going to come down to a corner or two.”
Gravel’s 15th victory of the year equaled his 2024 total, and he’s now three away from reaching his career best mark of 18 in a year. The 118th of his career also moved him within four of tying Danny Lasoski for the sixth most all-time with The Greatest Show on Dirt. Gravel becomes the sixth different World of Outlaws winner at Millstream.
Kofoid claimed the second spot worth $11,000 after leading the opening eight circuits.
“I just feel like that’s probably where I gave the race away is traffic,” Kofoid said. “It’s just disappointing. I feel like my car was good in traffic, but I feel like I made bad decisions in traffic. I got a good run and just anticipated them to maybe slide across or run the top, and they just went to the bottom, and I just lost the momentum. I did that probably one or two turns too many.”
The final spot on the podium went to Logan Schuchart as he kept his recent hot streak rolling aboard the Shark Racing No. 1s.
“I just felt like I was on the edge of disaster the whole time,” Schuchart explained. “Sometimes that’s fun. Sometimes that puts on the best races for fans, and that’s what we’re here for is to put on a show. I’m happy that we could put this thing on the podium.”
Garet Williamson and Kasey Jedrzejek completed the top five.
Carson Macedo set a track record and grabbed his seventh quick time of the season.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[2]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson[3]; 5. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[11]; 6. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 7. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog[15]; 9. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz[17]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[19]; 12. 7S-Chris Windom[16]; 13. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[12]; 14. 18-Emerson Axsom[13]; 15. 10RR-Darin Naida[24]; 16. 28N-Trey Jacobs[21]; 17. 98-Ricky Peterson[22]; 18. 33W-Cap Henry[9]; 19. 6-Zach Hampton[18]; 20. 15S-Kerry Madsen[8]; 21. 99-Skylar Gee[7]; 22. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 23. 15C-Chris Andrews[10]; 24. 17R-Tylar Rankin[23]
