ATTICA, Ohio — Bryce Lucius — just 19 years old — shocked the sprint car world Tuesday at the 38th annual Ohio Logistics Brad Doty Classic Presented by dac Vitamins and Minerals, earning his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win at Attica Raceway Park.
The 2023 national 410 rookie of the year – in just his third night out in the family owned No. 32 after parting ways with another team in May – took advantage when leader Kyle Larson, a three-time Doty Classic winner – jumped the cushion in turns three and four and flipped. Lucius led the final eight laps and had to deal with lapped traffic in the last corner, to score his fourth career Attica win over Logan Schuchart, Buddy Kofoid, Tanner Thorson and David Gravel in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
“I can’t even explain how this feels. Hats off to my dad, Landon, Wayne, Roman, my mom and everyone who helps out on this thing,”Lucius said. “Kyle basically just out drove me. He was going to win that until he hit that rut. This is our third night back together…I’m speechless. Landon, Wayne, Roman and my dad had this thing so good…I was just the idiot to hold the wheel.”
Lucius, who earned $20,000 for his victory, will be at Eldora the rest of the week in the Curt Michael and Mike Heffner No. 27h sprint car.
For Schuchart, it was another podium finish at Attica after starting on the pole.
“We had a couple of chances but we were kind of just too tight the entire race. We made some changes and just went the wrong way and I’ll take the blame for that,” he said. “Super tight in the beginning and as the fuel burned off it got a little better and I could hang with Kyle and Bryce in the middle of the race. I couldn’t rotate the corner and keep the left rear down and getting on the gas and picking the front end up. I had to be conservative and stay out of the gas exiting the corners and it hurt me. Bryce did an awesome job. To win your first Outlaw race in front of your hometown crowd…that’s pretty awesome.”
Defending Brad Doty Classic winner Carson Macedo jumped into the lead of the 40-lap feature over Schuchart, Lucius, Kofoid, David Gravel and Larson. Lucius drove into second on lap 13. The next three laps saw a tremendous battle between Macedo and Lucius, who took the lead, bringing Larson to second.
Larson got sideways exiting turn two on lap 18 and Macedo had nowhere to go and took a tumble. On the restart Lucius led Larson, Schuchart, Kofoid and Gravel. Just past halfway, Larson and Lucius traded sliders for the lead with Larson taking the top spot on lap 23. With just eight laps to go Larson caught the cushion hard in turns three and four and got upside down.
Lucius took off on the ensuing restart but caught the back of the field on the final lap allowing Schuchart to close but it was too little too late as Lucius scored what some consider the biggest upset in World of Outlaws history.
Lucius becomes the 157th different winner in series history. It was only his 19th career Feature start with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He’s the 27th different victor of the Brad Doty Classic through 36 completed editions.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bryce Lucius[3]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 3. 83-Michael Kofoid[4]; 4. 88-Tanner Thorson[8]; 5. 2-David Gravel[6]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog[7]; 7. 21-James McFadden[20]; 8. 21H-Brady Bacon[11]; 9. 101-Kalib Henry[22]; 10. 27-Emerson Axsom[10]; 11. 33W-Cap Henry[18]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson[21]; 13. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[15]; 14. 16C-Skylar Gee[24]; 15. 25R-Jordan Ryan[13]; 16. 7S-Chris Windom[25]; 17. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 18. 57-Kyle Larson[5]; 19. 15C-Chris Andrews[9]; 20. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[14]; 21. (DNF) 21Z-Zeth Sabo[23]; 22. (DNF) 51-Ashton Torgerson[12]; 23. (DNF) 15-Donny Schatz[16]; 24. (DNF) 11N-Darin Naida[17]; 25. (DNS) 28N-Trey Jacobs
