The first time David Gravel finished runner-up in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series championship, it was a cool moment for the Connecticut native.
It was 2021, and he had just concluded his first full season driving the No. 2 sprint car for Big Game Motorsports. With 11 wins to his credit, Gravel finished 80 points behind Brad Sweet, who took home his third title that year.
The next time Gravel finished second to Sweet — in 2022 — the accomplishment lost its splendor.
“It’s not cool anymore after you’ve done it once, right?” Gravel said. “Obviously, winning as a champion more than once is amazing, but running second once, now you want to go one higher.”
Now imagine the frustration that would build with a third straight runner-up result, and that’s where Gravel is after last season.He finished second in the standings in 2023, while Sweet earned a fifth championship.
“Definitely will not be happy with a second, that’s for sure,” Gravel said, referring to 2024.
Gravel appears to have the tide pulling in his direction this year, with Sweet departing from the World of Outlaws to run full time with High Limit Racing — the series he co-owns with Kyle Larson.
As such, Sweet has left the door open for a new champion to be crowned this season.
Logically, the two drivers next in line would be Gravel and Jason Johnson Racing’s Carson Macedo, who have finished second and third in the standings the last three years.
Sick of being the bridesmaid, the driver of the No. 2 sprint car has put himself under pressure to get the job done this time around.
“I don’t own the race team, so there’s no guarantees that I’m gonna be in the same car for the next 10 years. I have to perform. And that’s just part of being a World of Outlaws sprint car driver,” Gravel explained. “You have to perform, or people are gonna go other directions.”
In addition to chasing his first World of Outlaws championship, Gravel is on a war path to reach 100 career wins with the series. The 31-year-old owns 88 feature wins on tour, which is 10th all-time.
As Gravel celebrated 12 victories last season, the feat seems within reach.
However, in order to achieve his grander goal of hoisting the championship trophy, Gravel admits he has a little bit of work to do. Though he’s pleased with the speed the team showed last year, there are a few notable areas where they need to improve.
“The work area was our weakest link of our team last year,” Gravel said. “The driver made a mistake last year at US 36 (Raceway) and crashed on his own, so the driver has got to clean that up.”
The positives of his last season — 12 wins, 47 top-five finishes and 61 top 10s — were more than sufficient to keep him in the title chase. But the negatives — three DNFs — were enough to prevent him from beating Sweet.
“A championship is a full body of work of the whole season and typically when you have more than two DNFs, no matter how good you are, it’s way too hard to recover,” Gravel said.
He’s hyper-focused on consistency, which is collectively viewed by World of Outlaws drivers as the sole path to a championship.
In Gravel’s mind, he only has a short period of time to make it happen.
“We’re not gonna be in the best shape our whole lives and not gonna be wanted as a sprint car driver for our whole lives either,” Gravel said. “So you gotta make your hopefully 15, 20-year career the best it could be. Because you just never know when it’s gonna end.”
Gravel will commence his 12th full season with the World of Outlaws during the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park Feb. 7-10.