CONCORD, N.C. — In a week defined by uncharacteristically nice November weather, it’s only fitting that “Sunshine” found victory lane.
Courtney was quietly consistent through the first three nights of the World of Outlaws World Finals. Sea Foam Qualifying Night led to him clocking in seventh and 11th in the pair of flights. Then he grabbed finishes of 10th and sixth on Thursday and Friday which set him up on the front row of a Saturday heat race.
Then came the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car season finale, and Courtney locked himself in the Toyota Dash. Good fortune in the redraw put him P1, and he capitalized.
Courtney won the dash to set himself up on the pole for the 25-lapper, and he never looked back once the green flag waved at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Courtney led every lap of the feature, surviving a brief challenge from Series champion David Gravel to get the win and bank $25,000.
“To end the year on a win like this gives us a little bit of momentum going into 2025,” Courtney said. “Just can’t say enough about all of my guys. Jake, Ron, Bobby, they bust their tails. We struggled a little bit the second half of the season but started to find our footing here in the last month or so. I heard them talking about my debut here with Danny Smith. I think I was racing Jacob Allen for the D-main that year. So 11 years later to come here and get a victory is great.”
It’s Courtney’s third win of 2024 with The Greatest Show on Dirt and his 12th overall this year in a 410 sprint car, tied for the third most in the country.
When the green flag dropped Courtney quickly pulled ahead of outside polesitter Brian Brown. Courtney had the Clauson Marshall Racing No. 7bc on cruise control as he stretched the advantage early.
David Gravel surged from seventh to the runner-up spot by Lap 13 and appeared primed to give Courtney a challenge when a caution came out a lap later erasing his more than five-second lead.
But Courtney refused to let it slip away even as Gravel pressured him on the restart. Courtney kept his NOS Energy Drink ride glued to the bottom as Gravel braved the top. Gravel got the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 wound up and closed in for about a lap, but ultimately Courtney prevailed as he rolled away and took the checkered flag with more than a two-second gap between himself and Gravel.
“I think we proved to not only ourselves but a lot of other people too that we belong on the national tour and that we can compete too,” Courtney said of he and his team’s season. “I haven’t won as many Outlaw races in a year as I did this year, so to go out and do that is really accomplishing for myself and our team and just awesome.”
Gravel’s runner-up gave him a strong punctuation to his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship. He and Big Game Motorsports pieced together 15 wins, 33 podiums, 44 top fives, and 60 top 10s on their way to a title.
Gravel became the 11th different driver to earn a championship with The Greatest Show on Dirt while Quiring became the 10th different owner.
“The beginning of the race really went my way,” Gravel explained. “A couple of guys missed the bottom, and I was able to get underneath them. “Brownie” (Brian Brown) got messed up on the cushion there, and I was able to get by him. Then a caution came out and kind of had a clean slate. Then we had that run, and he started getting into traffic, I felt like that was a little bit of my chance there. Then we had the caution or the red with five to go. He was really, really good in clean track.”
Rounding out the final podium of the season was Carson Macedo and the Jason Johnson Racing team.
“I think late in the race there it transitioned back to the top,” Macedo said. “These guys (Courtney and Gravel) were actually running the middle which surprised me. But Brownie went to the bottom there on that restart and I think just spun a little bit, and I was able to get a run and get around him. It was a hard-fought race. It changed a lot just like I feel it has the last couple of nights with the way the track prep is. Man, hats off to this team. They’re doing a great job. They’re delivering, Philip Dietz, Adam Zimmerman, and Robby McQuinn.”
Ryan Timms and Brian Brown completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[7]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[5]; 4. 10-Ryan Timms[9]; 5. 21-Brian Brown[2]; 6. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[11]; 9. 15-Donny Schatz[18]; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen[12]; 11. 26-Justin Peck[8]; 12. 2KS-Cory Eliason[16]; 13. 39M-Anthony Macri[19]; 14. 9-Kasey Kahne[10]; 15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[14]; 16. 14-Spencer Bayston[15]; 17. 27-Emerson Axsom[17]; 18. 17B-Bill Balog[21]; 19. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[23]; 20. 70-Kraig Kinser[27]; 21. 69K-Logan Wagner[24]; 22. 24D-Danny Sams III[22]; 23. 88-Austin McCarl[20]; 24. 83-Michael Kofoid[6]; 25. 7S-Landon Crawley[26]; 26. 13-Daison Pursley[13]; 27. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[25]