“Buddy” Kofoid Banks $100,000 at Huset’s

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid competing at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota. (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

BRANDON, S.D. — With a new month comes a fresh start and new beginnings, and for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series, it was no different. Sunday night saw a $100,000 purse up for grabs for the 40-lap Huset’s High Bank Nationals.

Carson Macedo and Michael “Buddy” Kofoid led the field to the starting zone in Turn 4 and Macedo jumped out to the lead early with Kofoid following right along.

It took 23 laps, but Kofoid finally got up right next to Macedo on his inside. As they raced down the backstretch, Kofoid pulled up alongside of Macedo and hung out there until the Turn 3 entrance, just waiting to make his move. As soon as they hit the corner, that is exactly what “Buddy” did. He hugged the bottommost part of the track and used the moisture down there to propel himself forward to pull off a slide job on the No. 41.

Just one lap later though, Macedo pulled the same thing that Kofoid did, except that his slide job was not as perfect. Instead of cleanly slipping ahead of “Buddy,” Macedo drifted up directly in front of Kofoid and nearly got into him, causing Kofoid to back off the gas just a little bit. Obviously, this pulled Kofoid back from Macedo.

Five laps later, lapped traffic showed up in front of the leaders and worked out in Kofoid’s favor. Because Macedo had to slow down a little bit in order to devise a plan to get around them, Kofoid was able to get a good run on Macedo coming out of Turn 4; so good in fact, that he was able to pull up alongside him again going down the front straightaway. As they raced into Turns 1 and 2, Kofoid dove to the bottom and came out on top and in front of Macedo, only to be greeted by a mass of lapped cars. 

With Kofoid battling heavy lapped traffic and slowing down just the slightest to do so, Macedo worked his way up to “Buddy” with no problems and was closing the time gap, as well. As he neared the No. 83, the white flag waved and the race for the lead was on.

Going down the back chute, Kofoid went low to get around the lapped car of Kaleb Johnson, and to do so, he had to slow down to avoid slamming into Johnson. This allowed Macedo to use the draft from both cars to propel himself forward and hug the bottom right on the berm to pull off a successful slide job. 

Macedo gave the slide everything he got and managed to steal the lead away with almost half a turn remaining in the race. However, Kofoid was far from giving up and showed that with a crossover that won him $100,000 — the biggest paycheck of his career.

“I was trying to watch the board and I knew that traffic would play a factor,” said Kofoid about the race. “I got to him [Macedo] a lap earlier than I wanted to and I didn’t wanna follow him into [Turn] 1.”

During the Victory Lane ceremonies, fireworks were going off to celebrate the big payday.

“I can’t even think right now with all this going on,” Kofoid laughed. “But I’m just glad we won this race. Great redemption from last year.”