BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Consistency is generally acknowledged as the key factor in claiming championships in any series.
If that’s so, veteran David Gravel may well be headed toward his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series title.
Coming off a very competitive third-place finish in Wednesday’s season opener at Volusia Speedway Park, Gravel drove to an impressive victory over Rico Abreu and Justin Peck in round two of the DIRTcar Nationals Thursday night.
A dash win put the Connecticut speedster on the pole for the 25-lap finale with Geo Scelzi alongside. Gravel jumped in front on the break only to have Scelzi draw even through turns three and four and appear ready to take command as they hit the frontstretch.
But Corey Eliason ended up against the inner rail in turn four to draw a yellow before the lap could be scored, giving Gravel a do-over and that time he left town in a hurry.
“That restart helped us, for sure,” opined Gravel post-race. “The track wasn’t as fast as last night but it was still really fast and we got going good after that restart. If the track slows down just a little more, the racing will be even better.”
Abreu, who started third, got alongside Scelzi down the backstretch on the second lap and slid by on the low side as they hit turn three to take second, a position he would hold unchallenged to the checkers.
At times Gravel would get out to a full turn lead over Abreu in traffic and it was obvious early on that barring problems, the race was his.
Behind the lead pack, Donny Schatz was making an impressive charge from the 16th hole to show sixth before 10 laps were in the books.
And not to be outdone, Logan Schuchart was on the move from the row behind Schatz and would eventually finish right behind him.
The race’s second yellow flew on lap 19 when Kasey Kahne slowed amidst a cloud of smoke, getting the leaders out of traffic and giving Peck a shot at the third running Scelzi on the restart.
Gravel drove off again when the green returned, with Peck blowing around Scelzi and both Schatz and Schuchart working past Brian Brown, who had been a solid fifth until the restart.
At the checkers, it was Gravel, Abreu, Peck, Scelzi and Schatz in the top five, with Schuchart, Brown, Brent Marks, Buddy Kofoid and Tyler Courtney trailing.
“We were almost as good as David but you weren’t going to run him down on this track,” declared Abreu. “Our car was way better than last night, so second is OK.”
As for Peck, third was a great outcome after an adventurous night.
“I started fifth and on the original start we did OK,” Peck said. “But on the second try we fell back to eighth before we got going. We got back to fourth before that last caution, then got by Scelzi for third on the restart so it was a good run.”
Brown turned fast time on the program while new WoO regular Bill Balog claimed the last-chance qualifier over Sheldon Haudenschild, Eliason and Kahne.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[3]; 3. 13-Justin Peck[5]; 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz[16]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart[18]; 7. 21-Brian Brown[4]; 8. 19-Brent Marks[6]; 9. 83-Michael Kofoid[9]; 10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[7]; 11. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[22]; 12. 41-Carson Macedo[10]; 13. 39M-Anthony Macri[11]; 14. 14-Corey Day[8]; 15. 49-Brad Sweet[14]; 16. 48-Danny Dietrich[19]; 17. 26-Zeb Wise[20]; 18. 5T-Ryan Timms[17]; 19. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[12]; 20. 17B-Bill Balog[21]; 21. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[15]; 22. 7S-Landon Crawley[25]; 23. 8-Cory Eliason[23]; 24. 9-Kasey Kahne[24]; 25. 1-Brenham Crouch[13]; 26. 6-Bill Rose[26]