CONCORD, N.C. — The mantra “been there, done that” has never felt more true — and somewhat painfully so — to David Gravel.
This week, the Connecticut native is making his 13th appearance at the World Finals, the four-day season finale for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series held annually at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
And for the third straight year, the driver of the No. 2 Big Game Motorsports entry is chasing Brad Sweet for the series championship. Points-wise, Sweet and Gravel are the only two who could claim the title, and the No. 49 Kasey Kahne Racing driver holds the advantage.
However, Gravel closed the gap on Thursday night, as he stole the win from Rico Abreu in the 25-lap feature, while Sweet finished fourth.
Entering Friday night, Gravel, who entered the weekend 50 points behind, trails Sweet by 42 points. While Gravel recognizes it would still take some form of a miracle to overtake Sweet in the standings, he hasn’t stomped out the fire quite yet.
“Last year, we had a really good shot at making something happen,” Gravel said. “This year we’re going to need a little luck or something crazy to happen, which is possible, but we’ll just see what happens and try to win a couple nights here this year.”
The No. 2 was absent from victory lane last year, finishing sixth, 10th and 11th at the World Finals. However, there’s no doubt Gravel is familiar with what it takes to win at The Dirt Track, as he’s now triumphed six times at the fourth-tenths-mile during his career.
To further validate the 31-year-old’s title plea, he’s coming off one of his strongest campaigns on the Outlaw tour.
He’s set a career record for the most top fives (48) in a single season. And he’s also notched 12 wins in 71 races, including the $250,000-to-win Huset’s High Bank Nationals and the World of Outlaws final visit to Devil’s Bowl Speedway one week ago.
Yet, there are still mistakes that mar Gravel’s season résumé.
“It’s a long year, and stuff happens when you race this much. So some things are out of your control and some aren’t,” Gravel said. “You just try not to put yourself in bad positions to crash, or even if you do get in a wreck and have to come from the back, you’ve got to stay calm and just stay focused on trying to get back in the top 10.”
Keeping a level head on the race track has been one of Gravel’s priorities this season, and it’s paid off with his average finish of 5.44. The one thing that has yet to come together for the Connecticut native in his decade-long career on the Outlaw tour is a championship.
“I feel like I haven’t lost one yet. I’ve never really had the lead late in the year, but we were more than capable to lead the points this year and maintain that. We had a couple stretches that were rough for us, and (Sweet) didn’t really have that many rough stretches,” Gravel said.
“We’ve been close the last several years, so we’re really motivated to get one (a championship). We’re going to keep going until we get one, that’s for sure.”