GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Carson Macedo raced to his fifth World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series triumph of the season Friday night at River Cities Speedway.
Capitalizing amid heavy lapped traffic on an even heavier race track, Macedo snookered Logan Schuchart on lap 11 and never looked back.
Driving the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 sprint car, Macedo lapped up to ninth-place within five minutes and 17 laps to join Sheldon Haudenschild as five-time winners in the series this season.
Macedo was stout all night long at the North Dakota quarter-mile, winning his heat race and the dash en route to topping the 35-lap main event.
“I think we’ve just had a bit of bad luck on top of being a little bit off lately,” Macedo said. “I’m just happy to put these guys back in victory lane and pick up everyone’s confidence. We can go to Huset’s with our heads held high and hopefully contend for another win.
Phil [Dietz], Clyde [Knipp], and Nate [Repetz] have been working so hard. The character in the track really made it interesting tonight. It honestly felt like the more the race went on, the worse I got. My car just got heavier and tighter as the track was chunking out, and that was all while dealing with lap traffic. Luckily, I chose that right lane and snuck by Logan, that was a big move.”
That move around Schuchart on lap 11 is what ultimately won Macedo his 22nd career World of Outlaws win. The first 22 laps of the race ran caution-free before the first restart allowed the Shark Racing, DuraMAX Oil, Drydene Performance Products No. 1s to line up alongside Macedo’s No. 41.
Knowing this was arguably his best shot yet with a double-file restart, Schuchart went full send into turn one with hopes of whipping around Macedo to re-claim the lead after pacing the first 10 laps. However, the track had different plans, reaching out and grabbing Schuchart as he started to hop, skip, and jump before flipping it over and landing upside down in turn two. Luckily, in a move that could pay dividends in the championship battle, the Shark crew made repairs in the work area and sent Schuchart back out to finish sixth.
Prepared for surfaces of all kinds, Macedo credited his training as an essential tool in claiming Friday’s win on a rough and tough race track.
“I spend as many days in the gym as I can to be ready for situations like tonight,” Macedo said. “We see everything with the World of Outlaws and sometimes you’re gonna get a cowboy up track for 35 laps. I was a bit fatigued by the end, so it’s all about having enough muscle left in you when you most need it.”
Ending an eight-race absence from the podium, championship leader Brad Sweet finally returned to the top-three for the first time since Tri-State Speedway in late April.
“It’s always nice to be on the frontstretch,” Sweet said. “That was tricky, though. There was so much going on with the rappers, plus it felt like the track was only gaining grip as we went on. It was honestly pretty fun in lapped traffic, though. I’ll take a second after this recent stretch we’ve been on. The results haven’t showed how hard these NAPA Auto Parts guys are working.”
Donny Schatz made the hour-long drive north to Grand Forks and continued his remarkable run of success at the track with a third-place effort. The 10-time World of Outlaws champion earned his fifth podium of the year, extending his record to 26 top-five finishes in 28 Series starts at River Cities Speedway.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been on two wheels that many times in my life,” Schatz joked. “There’s no denying this place had a lot of character tonight, I think Larry [Hillerud] would’ve been smiling down on that one. That’s the nature of the beast, though, not much surprises me on the road anymore. This team keeps digging and we keep putting the results together. The more we show up on this podium, we’ll eventually get back into victory lane.”
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): –Â 1. 41-Carson Macedo [1][$10,000]; 2. 49-Brad Sweet [7][$6,000]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [4][$3,500]; 4. 83-James McFadden [8][$2,800]; 5. 2-David Gravel [11][$2,500]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart [2][$2,300]; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [9][$2,200]; 8. 9-Kasey Kahne [3][$2,100]; 9. 13-Mark Dobmeier [13][$2,050]; 10. 20G-Noah Gass [17][$2,000]; 11. 5-Spencer Bayston [12][$1,600]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [6][$1,400]; 13. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [5][$1,200]; 14. 2A-Austin Pierce [19][$1,100]; 15. 11M-Brendan Mullen [14][$1,050]; 16. 1A-Jacob Allen [10][$1,000]; 17. 8H-Jade Hastings [15][$1,000]; 18. 6N-Greg Nikitenko [21][$1,000]; 19. 99-Jordan Graham [20][$1,000]; 20. 17K-Zach Omdahl [18][$1,000]; 21. O-Nick Omdahl [24][$1,000]; 22. 26-Blake Egeland [22][$1,000]; 23. 55-Nick Ranten [23][$1,000]; 24. 9N-Wade Nygaard [16][$1,000].
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