YORK HAVEN, Pa. — Chalk another one up for the Pennsylvania Posse.
Sprint car racing’s fiercest rivalry was rekindled on Wednesday as the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series rolled into BAPS Motor Speedway.
Momentum was already on the side of the Posse courtesy of Anthony Macri venturing off the porch and conquering Eldora Speedway for $200,000 at last week’s Kings Royal.
Macri lined up second for the 30-lap Bricker’s Bash and stalked defending World of Outlaws champion David Gravel through the opening circuits. A lap-seven restart gave Macri the opening he needed as he slid the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 in the first set of corners to secure the top spot.
But Gravel wasn’t done. A restart later in the race allowed the Watertown, Conn., native to execute the same move as Macri, but the “Concrete King” was able to cross Gravel over to reclaim the lead.
The two exchanged the position once more before Macri closed the door.
Gravel attempted to make things interesting late as he closed back in on the Macri Motorsports No. 39m in traffic, but Macri made just enough moves through lappers to give himself the cushion needed to hold off Gravel.
“I saw him (Gravel) to the inside of me in (Turns) 1 and 2 the one lap,” Macri said. “I was starting to get pretty tight on the curb, and I just kind of moved my wing back a little bit and tried to cheat the curb and run right below it and kind of catch it on the exit of the corner so I could still get some drive down the straightaway. I just feel like the lapped cars kind of moved around when I needed them to. I zigged when they zagged. Man, I’ve got to thank these guys.”
The win gave Macri his second in a row with the World of Outlaws and third overall of 2025, which equals him with Rico Abreu as the fifth winningest driver of the year. He became the fifth different winner through five Series visits to BAPS.
The scoreboard now shows the locals beating the travelers two races to one this season. Macri was also responsible for the other in May at Williams Grove Speedway, where the tour travels this weekend.
Gravel held on for the second spot after leading early and battling Macri. The Lap-7 restart proved pivotal as Gravel was slightly indecisive on where to position himself when the green flag came back out.
“I just didn’t know where to run on the restart there and protected but should’ve protected a little bit more, but I ran the top,” Gravel said. “Macri got by me. I kind of did the same thing to him the next restart. I was able to slide him. I took too long to slide across and about stopped at the cushion, so he got back underneath me, and they did a great job in traffic.”
Bill Balog brought the No. 17b home third after running up front all 30 laps. The strong outing served as a much needed rebound after Ohio dealt him a tough stretch last week.
“This is awesome,” Balog said. “I’ve had a lot of body aches. It was a pretty tough couple days honestly. We had a good car there. We were having some troubles. Things just seemed to be falling apart every time we got it on the race track, but we were pretty good tonight, just kind of hanging on there at the end.”
Buddy Kofoid and Brent Marks completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 39M-Anthony Macri[2]; 2. 2-David Gravel[1]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid[10]; 5. 19-Brent Marks[4]; 6. 51-Freddie Rahmer[5]; 7. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[9]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[12]; 9. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[14]; 10. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[24]; 11. 15-Donny Schatz[18]; 12. 75-Cameron Smith[16]; 13. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[22]; 14. 41-Carson Macedo[17]; 15. 12-Lance Dewease[8]; 16. 1S-Logan Schuchart[25]; 17. 45W-Cory Eliason[13]; 18. 5-Tyler Ross[19]; 19. 2C-Cole Macedo[21]; 20. 18-Emerson Axsom[26]; 21. 7S-Chris Windom[23]; 22. 99-Skylar Gee[20]; 23. 28M-Conner Morrell[15]; 24. 6-Zach Hampton[27]; 25. 23D-Chase Dietz[7]; 26. 48-Danny Dietrich[11]; 27. 69K-Ryan Smith[6]
