YORK HAVEN, Pa. — James McFadden returned to one of his favorite places on Wednesday night — World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Victory Lane.
Last year the Australia native had a breakout year with Roth Motorsports to the tune of six World of Outlaws victories. A limited schedule with the Outlaws this season saw him earn his first victory of the campaign in his 10th start at BAPS Motor Speedway.
McFadden used a great move on the initial start to slot himself in second and won a fierce duel with Giovanni Scelzi to snag the lead on lap 15. He then held off the tour’s winningest drivers this year — David Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild — to top the Bricker’s Bash.
“To rebound tonight and win against the Outlaws is special,” McFadden said. “Anytime you can win a race in America is great, but against the Outlaws is something that I grew up wanting to do as a kid. And we beat them and to take a little bit of money away from David. He’s been hogging it all lately.”
It was McFadden’s 12th series victory.
Scelzi led the field to green with Gravel alongside him, but it was McFadden powering from fourth to second in the opening set of corners.
The opening half of the 30-lapper saw the leaders mostly stay in line. An early yellow with six laps complete kept Scelzi in clean air as he was just about to encounter traffic. McFadden peeked to Scelzi’s inside on the restart but couldn’t pull alongside.
As traffic became a factor near the halfway point, the battle for the top spot intensified. Scelzi slipped up out of the groove ever so slightly in turns three and four allowing McFadden to drive under him and lead lap 15. Scelzi refused to go down without a fight as he wheeled the KCP Racing No. 18 under McFadden in turns one and two to take it back. But McFadden used a big run out of turn two to slice around “Hot Sauce” again in turn three. This time, McFadden kept his momentum up enough to hold Scelzi off in the next set of corners.
McFadden began to build up a lead after taking command. Behind him Gravel moved by Scelzi for the runner-up spot on lap 19. The World of Outlaws point leader looked to be closing on McFadden, but a red flag with seven laps to go for contact between Scelzi and Brad Sweet halted his progress.
The restart allowed McFadden to power away in clean air, and that was all she wrote as he drove off to victory.
“It was a super tough race,” McFadden said. “You just didn’t know where to run in (turns) one and two. There was really big holes in the middle there. My car was really good rotating underneath them. I just thought if we bide our time there and hope Gio made a mistake or lapped traffic slowed him down we’d be able to get by. Super happy that we did. My car was unbelievable tonight. Thanks to Brent (Ventura), Wood (Gary Patellaro), and Rob (Beattie).”
Gravel earned his 22nd podium finish of the season.
“Our car really started coming to life there before that red flag,” Gravel said. “I wish we didn’t see a red flag there. We just added some fuel in the car, and were just really, really tight early and the car was coming to us. And then we added that fuel again and were not good after that red flag. Happy to finish second. J-Mac was pretty damn good. I felt like if it went to checkered there, we had a real shot to win that race.”
Haudenschild finished third in the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing machine.
“It was a great race honestly,” Haudenschild said. “My car felt really good all night. I thought we might’ve had something for them. I just didn’t do a good enough job those first six laps there. James got a really good start, and I got a really bad start. He got going there. Hats off to (Kyle) Ripper, Luke (Vaughn), Steve (Kinzer Dussel). They’ve been working hard.”
Brock Zearfoss and Cory Eliason completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 83SR-James McFadden[4]; 2. 2-David Gravel[2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 4. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[6]; 5. 8-Cory Eliason[9]; 6. 2D-Chase Dietz[8]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[12]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz[7]; 9. 39M-Anthony Macri[10]; 10. 23-Devon Borden[18]; 11. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[11]; 12. 83-Michael Kofoid[13]; 13. 41-Carson Macedo[22]; 14. 17B-Bill Balog[14]; 15. 8R-Freddie Rahmer[16]; 16. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 17. 48-Danny Dietrich[15]; 18. 19B-Aaron Bollinger[24]; 19. 5-Tyler Ross[23]; 20. 49-Brad Sweet[5]; 21. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[19]; 22. 39-Kody Hartlaub[21]; 23. 1A-Jacob Allen[17]; 24. 19R-Mark Smith[20]