BRANDON, S.D. — There’s no driver hotter on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink sprint car tour than Carson Macedo.
He and Jason Johnson Racing rolled into BillionAuto.com Huset’s High Bank Nationals presented by Menards weekend with three victories in the last four races. A seventh-place run on Friday at Huset’s Speedway cooled them off slightly, but their fire reignited on Saturday night.
Macedo started eighth for the 35-lap feature and pieced together a fierce charge to the front. The Lemoore, Calif., native punctuated the drive with a slider on Chase Randall with only two laps remaining.
Randall tried to return the favor as they wheeled toward the white flag, but Macedo kept his foot in the gas and narrowly drove around the slider to hold on and make his way to victory lane.
“Hats off to this race team – Philip Dietz, Adam Zimmerman, and Robby McQuinn – they’ve been working really hard,” Macedo said. “It feels good to have a lot of speed here. That was fun, hard racing late in the race. No points on the line, just good, hard, authentic racing. Hats off to this race team.
“It feels good to have speed here. When you start eighth and drive by everybody to get the win, it makes you have a lot of confidence going into a night like tomorrow where it pays a hundred grand.”
A fourth win in the last six races puts Macedo at 42 for his career and into a four-way tie for 18th all-time, and two of the others are a pair of current full-time World of Outlaws competitors. The trio tied with him is Andy Hillenburg, Logan Schuchart, and Sheldon Haudenschild. His seventh victory of 2024 already equals his 2023 total. It also set Macedo up as the high point man entering Sunday’s $100,000-to-win High Bank Nationals finale.
Randall led the field to green thanks to Hunter Schuerenberg giving him the one in the Toyota Racing Revenge Redraw. But it was Schuerenberg, who was handed the two in the Redraw, powering around Randall’s outside to lead the first lap.
Schuerenberg paced the opening four circuits aboard the TKS Motorsports No. 2ks, and then a caution and the resulting restart shook things up at the front.
Randall used a great start to throw a slider and clear Schuerenberg to take over the top spot. Schuerenberg stayed within striking distance as Randall quickly neared the tail of the field, but a yellow with 25 laps remaining just as traffic was getting thick served up some welcome clean air to Randall and the Krull Racing team.
As the second half of the 35-lapper unfolded, Randall pulled away and started to slice his way through traffic. The 19-year-old looked like a veteran as he continued to put more cars between himself and Schuerenberg. Even when Macedo took second on Lap 23, he couldn’t seem to cut much into the gap.
But then a yellow flag for a spinning Schuerenberg set up an eight-lap dash to the finish and put the hottest driver in the sport right on Randall’s tail as he pursued his first Series victory.
Randall wasn’t rattled when the green lights brought the action back to life as he powered ahead on the low side of turn four as Macedo looked to get a launch on the top. Randall built a sizeable lead over Macedo on the first lap back under green.
But little by little Macedo cut into the margin. Randall struggled to pick his way through lappers as the race fell to five laps to go, and Macedo closed in on his tail tank on lap 33. The door opened with two rotations remaining as Macedo launched a slide job in turns one and two that cleared Randall. Down the back straightaway Randall looked to cross him over. He threw a slider of his own, but Macedo made a daring move to drive back by him on the cushion, narrowly slipping by.
It proved to be the winning move as he drove away comfortably on the final lap to claim another checkered flag.
“That caution helped a lot,” Macedo admitted. “I don’t think we would’ve ever got to him if we wouldn’t have had that restart there. I actually tried to fire off on the cushion there on the restart, and it was really bad, gave up a lot of time. He got a sizeable lead, and I thought, ‘Man, it’s going to be tough to get him.’
“And then we got to lap traffic really quick there. And then the lapped cars were kind of all over the place. I felt like I was in the cat-bird seat. When he (Randall) went the wrong way, I was there to see what the difference was. Sometimes it’s better to be running second in that situation. He was having a real hard time getting off (turn) four even coming to the traffic. He really had a hard time there. One of the lappers kind of got beside him and took some of the air off his wing. He struggled off of (turn) four, and I was able to get just enough of a run and really didn’t know if I was going to clear him or not but kind of grabbed a little bit of that grip on the bottom, and it shot me across.”
While slightly disappointed to lose out on his first World of Outlaws win late, Randall kept his head high after the race with the runner-up finish. It was only his second night in the Krull No. 14.
“I don’t know if I could’ve done a little too much,” Randall said. “I feel like anywhere I would’ve went he would’ve been the other way. It’s just how the cars fell tonight. I can’t say enough about this team. Just a short notice to come to this weekend. They’re great guys, awesome people and have my back 100-percent. We’re really excited with a good run. They deserve it.”
Rounding out the podium was Donny Schatz, completing a strong rebound after a crash on Friday night.
“All in all the guys did a great job,” Schatz said. “A big positive over last night. The Carquest guys, everybody helped dig us out of a big hole to put us in a good spot for tomorrow. So, now we go back and discuss what we need to do for tomorrow and go from there.”
Michael Kofoid, who started 17th, and Bill Balog, who started 16th, completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[8]; 2. 14H-Chase Randall[1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz[4]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid[17]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog[16]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[19]; 8. 2-David Gravel[18]; 9. 23-Garet Williamson[14]; 10. 55-Kerry Madsen[13]; 11. 5-Ryan Timms[15]; 12. 27-Emerson Axsom[6]; 13. 3-Tim Kaeding[24]; 14. 87-Aaron Reutzel[12]; 15. 22-Riley Goodno[20]; 16. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[7]; 17. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[9]; 18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[11]; 19. 17GP-Justin Henderson[23]; 20. 16-Brooke Tatnell[22]; 21. 24T-Christopher Thram[5]; 22. 23W-Scott Winters[21]; 23. 2KS-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]; 24. 10-Scott Bogucki[3]