ATTICA, Ohio — David Gravel keeps rolling on.
The Watertown, Conn., native entered the year carrying the weight of heaps of expectation. And he continues to meet them as he chases his first World of Outlaw NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship.
Entering the week, Gravel and the Big Game Motorsports crew had already made nine trips to victory lane. Victory No. 10 came in Tuesday’s Ohio Logistics Brad Doty Classic presented by dac® Pet Products at Attica Raceway Park.
Gravel waited patiently for the right moment and pounced to take the top spot on the 17th circuit of the 40-lapper and drove to the lead. He also helped his crew chief Cody Jacobs get some Brad Doty Classic redemption. Oddly enough, it was Gravel himself who denied Jacobs of the event back in 2017.
“Happy to get one for Cody because I stole one from him when I was in the CJB (Motorsports) car, and he was in the 49 car with (Tim) Shaffer,” Gravel said. “Happy to get him a Brad Doty Classic and Stephen (Hamm-Reilly) and Zach (Patterson) were working hard. It was hot as hell today. It feels good to get No. 10 on the year.”
It was Gravel’s 98th World of Outlaws triumph and he joined Donny Schatz, Kyle Larson, Steve Kinser, Danny Smith, and Dale Blaney as the sixth competitor to top multiple Brad Doty Classics.
Carson Macedo and Gravel led the field to green with Macedo grabbing the lead.
The early stage of the race was marred by a flurry of yellow flags for several incidents. One early restart allowed Kyle Larson the opportunity to slide ahead of Gravel for second and chase a third straight Brad Doty Classic win.
Another restart with 33 laps left gave Larson the opening to slide Macedo to take over the top spot and lead on lap eight. But the Jason Johnson Racing pilot slid back ahead of Larson. In the same set of corners, Larson got a little crossed up and also let Gravel roll back by him for the runner-up spot.
Gravel searched around the Attica surface and found speed wherever he went. Macedo began to drive defensively, but it wasn’t enough as Gravel smoothly rolled the bottom of turns three and four to lead lap 17.
Gravel promptly built his advantage after taking possession of the top spot. While it might’ve been smooth sailing up front, the battles were wild behind the Huset’s Speedway No. 2.
Logan Schuchart passed Larson for third and went after Macedo for second. They traded sliders before Schuchart secured the spot. Larson, Corey Day, and Donny Schatz with a damaged nose wing went at it behind them.
An issue under a late caution period left Schuchart broken hearted as he headed pitside with a mechanical issue.
Larson moved to second, but Schatz passed him on the restart with 14 laps to go as Larson slipped off track trying to get a run at Gravel.
Schatz did everything he could to close in on Gravel as the laps unfolded, but the No. 2 was too smooth. Gravel beat Schatz by seven-tenths of a second.
“I was just biding my time,” Gravel said. “Carson was racing pretty defensive. I think he knew he was in trouble and was running a lot of different lines and just trying to figure out what the best line was before I could get the lead because you’re just guessing out there. All of those cautions. I don’t know how many cautions there were, but it was so many. It was hard to get a rhythm.
“We unloaded pretty well. Didn’t really feel good in qualifying, but whatever Cody did to the car for the dash gave me a really, really good car – something I didn’t have to push too hard and could kind of drive my own race.”
Schatz brought the No. 15 home second for his seventh podium in the last 12 Attica races. The damaged nose wing didn’t slow the 10-time champion at all as he rolled from 11th to second.
“It (nose wing) didn’t really affect it like everybody thinks,” Schatz said. “We’re not on the gas that hard here, and I think there were probably parts of the race track where it helped. Ultimately, I think I would’ve liked to have had it there and seen what happened. All in all a good effort. The guys got things rolling, and they’re working. This is the type of race track that happens in the summer. We had an opportunity. That’s all you can ask for.”
Rounding out the podium was Larson in the Silva Motorsports No. 57.
“I wish I could have that last restart back,” Larson said. “Obviously, I knew all I could do was really blitz the top there with Gravel. He was really good. I just got my right-rear (tire) hung off the edge and fell back to fourth and had to battle Carson and Corey to get back to third. I was kind of hoping for another caution to get reset, but my car felt pretty good.”
Carson Macedo and Corey Day completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[11]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[3]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[1]; 5. 14-Corey Day[5]; 6. 83-Michael Kofoid[7]; 7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]; 9. 25-Daison Pursley[10]; 10. 26-Zeb Wise[15]; 11. 23-Cale Thomas[23]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms[19]; 13. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 14. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[18]; 15. 9-Trey Jacobs[22]; 16. 15K-Creed Kemenah[13]; 17. 19H-Joel Myers Jr[21]; 18. 1S-Logan Schuchart[6]; 19. 29-Zeth Sabo[12]; 20. 97-Cole Macedo[24]; 21. 101-Kalib Henry[16]; 22. W20-Greg Wilson[17]; 23. 22-Brandon Spithaler[14]; 24. 99-Skylar Gee[9]