BARBERVILLE, Fla. — In a span of less than seven hours, David Gravel won not one but two World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series features on Friday at Volusia Speedway Park.
Continuing his torrid tenure at the half-mile — three consecutive series wins — Gravel backed up his season-opening victory at 6:08 p.m. by delivering another checkered flag for the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 at 12:46 a.m., which came after a lengthy rain delay followed by an exceptional recovery by the VSP track crew.
Starting from the inside of row two, Gravel took his time in the second outing. He ran third for the first half of the 30-lapper and finally moved past Cory Eliason for second on lap 14, but a caution on lap 21 is what set the stage for another victory.
Capitalizing on Buddy Kofoid’s decision to brave the bumps into the bottom of turn one, Gravel throttled the Maxim Chassis powered by Morrison Racing Engines around the outside and promptly cleared the Crouch Motorsports No. 11 in one clean shot through turn two and down the backstretch. From there, he survived one more restart to seal the deal on a $16,000 payout with his fourth DIRTcar Nationals victory.
“It was weird,” Gravel recalled. “I felt like something suddenly changed because the bottom was the place to be on that long green flag run, but the top – which felt like crap before – was amazing on the restart. I don’t know if it was tire temperature or maybe even moisture from the fog, but it worked out great. I think that rough stuff was just enough to upset the car and it bit Buddy when he went to the bottom.”
Gravel’s 78th career World of Outlaws win was chalked full of notable numbers as he became the second driver to win three-straight events at Volusia, the sixth driver to win two races in one day, and the seventh driver to open the season with back-to-back wins.
He also expanded his lead in the DIRTcar Nationals standings to 12 points over Carson Macedo and 18 points over Logan Schuchart entering Saturday’s finale. If he can finish the week on top, it’ll mark back-to-back Big Gator Championships for the 30-year-old native of Watertown, Conn.
“This place is so competitive, you just never know what can happen on any given night,” Gravel noted. “You slip up the tiniest bit and you give up so much against this field here. I mean these are probably the best 35-ish drivers in the country all here. Sometimes it’s so hard to just get that first win out of the way, so knocking two out right from the start feels like a huge confidence boost.”
While Gravel won for the second time in one day, Kofoid also ran runner-up to Tod Quiring’s No. 2 for the second time in one day. The 21-year-old native of Penngrove, Calif., started outside the front row and passed Cory Eliason for the lead on lap 11, building an advantage as large as 2.490 seconds on lap 18, but the caution flew and negated his hard work.
Gravel ultimately capitalized on the restart and forced Kofoid to another second-place finish in the Crouch Motorsports No. 11.
“This one obviously stings a bit more having actually led the race, but overall this is a really great result,” Kofoid mentioned. “I have to keep reminding myself that I’m brand new to this place, our team is still relatively young, and yet we’re competing for World of Outlaws wins. I hope we can get tomorrow in to have another shot at winning of those Gators.”
Closing out the podium was Logan Schuchart in the Shark Racing No. 1s.
“I started out bad, but got better and better as the race went on,” Schuchart said. “I thought we were the fastest car over the last five laps, honestly. You always say you wish you had three more laps, but man I can’t help but think of what would’ve happened. I felt like I had a different line than both of them and was catching then, so I thought it would’ve been interesting.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps) –Â 1. 2-David Gravel[3]; 2. 11-Michael Kofoid[2]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]; 4. 71-Cory Eliason[1]; 5. 13-Justin Peck[6]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet[14]; 7. 83-James McFadden[11]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo[5]; 9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[12]; 10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[24]; 11. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 12. 19-Brent Marks[4]; 13. 7S-Robbie Price[9]; 14. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[26]; 15. 48-Danny Dietrich[13]; 16. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[17]; 17. 9-Kasey Kahne[18]; 18. 5T-Ryan Timms[16]; 19. 5-Spencer Bayston[25]; 20. 15-Donny Schatz[15]; 21. 9P-Parker Price Miller[21]; 22. 21-Brian Brown[20]; 23. 11K-Kraig Kinser[27]; 24. 26-Zeb Wise[23]; 25. 20G-Noah Gass[19]; 26. 39M-Anthony Macri[22]; 27. 1A-Jacob Allen[8]; 28. 6-Bill Rose[28]
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