PAIGE, Texas — Another day, another David Gravel win.
The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champion is at the top of his game. His title campaign in 2024 was plenty impressive, but he’s out for domination in 2025.
The latest testament to he and Big Game Motorsports’ excellence was an impressive drive on Friday night at Cotton Bowl Speedway. Gravel started fourth for the 30-lapper and methodically worked his way to the front by the 10th lap, but it wasn’t over yet.
The Watertown, Conn., native had to hold off a fierce charge from Michael “Buddy” Kofoid. The Roth Motorsports driver got the top side of Turns 1 and 2 wound up and showed Gravel a nose entering Turn 3 multiple times.
But Gravel showed the poise of a champion as he sensed the need to move to the cushion in the first set of corners. That slowed Kofoid’s momentum, and that was all she wrote in the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step opener.
“I think just reacting from what he (Kofoid) was doing,” Gravel said. “He was running the top, and I was kind of running low and then I had the bottom of (Turns) 1 and 2 all to myself. The 17 and 83 didn’t really try it much, and it was really good down there. When I got the lead, it started taking rubber through the middle not all the way to the bottom. I could hear him and knew he was getting a run on me in (Turns) 1 and 2, so I had to move up and moved up at the right time.”
The win was Gravel’s fourth in the last seven races in the Cody Jacobs-wrenched No. 2. He’s still yet to miss the top five through 11 nights in the campaign. His second Cotton Bowl checkered flag put him alongside Sheldon Haudenschild and Brad Sweet as multi-time winners at the track. The point lead for the 32-year-old grew to 70 markers in his quest for back-to-back titles.
“These guys continue to give me great race cars,” Gravel said. “We’re qualifying amazing and racing just as good. We were just patient there. We kind of figured they were all going to be pretty aggressive and kind of let the race come to us and it worked out.”
The runner-up position belonged to Buddy Kofoid as he came up one spot shy of two wins in a row aboard the Roth Motorsports No. 83. The Penngrove, Calif., native continues to build momentum with his third top five finish in the last four races after no top five appearances in the first seven.
“David and the Big Game guys have been really good obviously,” Kofoid said. “I think we were better than him for a while, and then when he found it we kind of got back even. Then you just kind of got to surrender and chase him into there, and then the top kind of gave out again down there and had to move down. Just a race where you’ve got to work both pedals and find the lines. I feel like everything changes here so fast.”
The final spot on the podium went to Carson Macedo. He and the Jason Johnson Racing crew have been in the top three in three of the last four, and Friday’s effort helped lift them back into the second spot in points.
“It was a bit of a marathon race,” Macedo said. “There was a lot of moving parts. I felt like throughout the race there was a lot of comers and goers. You kind of had to chase the track a little bit. I feel like early it started out the bottom was really good both ends, and then down in (Turns) 1 and 2 I found the top and was actually kind of creeping back a little bit. I found the top and drove back by a few guys and got to third.”
Sheldon Haudenschild and Donny Schatz completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[4]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 6. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[11]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 9. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 10. 7S-Chris Windom[16]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[8]; 12. 24T-Christopher Thram[19]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee[24]; 14. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 15. 23-Garet Williamson[5]; 16. 2KS-Cory Eliason[12]; 17. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[17]; 18. 6-Zach Hampton[13]; 19. 17B-Bill Balog[7]; 20. 22M-Rees Moran[15]; 21. J2-John Carney II[21]; 22. 45X-Jace Park[18]; 23. 17GP-Landon Crawley[22]; 24. 73-Logan Julien[23]
