King David Gravel the 41st Claims First King’s Royal Crown

King David the 41st in Victory Lane with Donny Schatz and Justin Peck at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

ROSSBURG, Ohio — On Saturday night, the Buckeye State hosted the race that all sprint car drivers dream of competing in, let alone winning. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars invaded Eldora Speedway for the 40-lap, $175,000-to-win King’s Royal.

David Gravel and Tyler Courtney led the 24-car field to the much-anticipated green flag. With adrenaline running high, everyone gunned it at full speed heading into Turn 1. Parker Price-Miller hit the corner a little bit too hard and went end-over-end a couple of times, bringing out the red flag on the first lap.

On the restart, Courtney shot out to the lead with Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild right behind him. As Courtney and Gravel pulled away from Haudenschild, Logan Schuchart saw an opportunity to advance and decided to take it. Going into Turn 3, he went low on the underside of Haudenschild and went side-by-side with him throughout the corner. He was able to slide up in front of Haudenschild coming down the frontstretch to claim third.

Lap 7 saw a new leader. Coming down the back straightaway, Gravel went to the inside of Courtney and shot into Turn 3 like a cannonball. He got ahead of Courtney by his nose and slid up in front of him to claim first. Courtney tried to get him back by going low and slide-jobbing him, but he could not find the momentum needed to do so.

One lap later, Courtney lost second to Schuchart the same way he lost the lead. Schuchart went low going into the corner and slid in front of “Sunshine,” taking the runner-up spot away.

However, Schuchart was not content with second and claimed the lead from Gravel nine laps later. Coming out of Turn 2, Schuchart went low and swept himself up in front of Gravel to enter the next set of turns. Gravel was not happy with this situation at all and took the extreme high line around “The Big E” to try and reclaim the lead, to no avail as Schuchart held him off. 

A couple of laps later, Anthony Macri lost his left rear tire to the shredder, drawing a caution. Due to the number of laps run thus far, the cars could not finish the entire race on just one tank of fuel alone, so an open red flag was thrown.

The infamous crown which every driver wanted to claim on Saturday night at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

As the cars roared to life once again and headed towards Turns 1 and 2 for the restart, Gravel took the high side and soared past Schuchart coming out of the corner to get the lead back. A couple of spots back, Donny Schatz was eager for another King’s Royal win.

Starting 20th on the grid, Schatz worked his way up to fifth in 18 laps. Coming out of Turn 4, Schatz split Haudenschild and Jacob Allen to get himself through the field and up to third. Once he got there, he set his sights on Schuchart. Schatz went low going into the next corner and shot by him on the bottom upon exiting to claim second away, moving up 18 positions with half of the race left to go.

Five laps later, Gravel was stuck in lapped traffic and Schatz was right behind him, closing the gap between them little by little. Schatz was on his underside and almost had him in Turn 2, but slower cars held him up and ended the chase.

With nine laps to go, Schatz caught up to Gravel once again. Coming out of Turn 4, Schatz went side-by-side with Gravel and kept to the inside going into Turn 1. Schatz used all the power he had in the No. 15 ride to propel himself forward ahead of Gravel and did so successfully coming down the back chute, claiming the first position from Gravel.

Three laps later, Gravel, not about to give up on a shot at winning his first King’s Royal so easily, ran the highest line the track could offer and got by Schatz coming out of Turn 4. Gravel started to run away with the lead until Lap 37, when Schatz got right next to him once again coming down the back straightaway.

Schatz tried extremely hard to get back by Gravel for the lead but could not find the right lane to squeeze by him. Justin Peck, Allen and Schuchart came in behind the two front-runners.

“Goddamn. Why is Donny Schatz so damn good?” said Gravel about his race against Schatz. “You can’t put that guy away no matter where he starts. I just had to drive my a** off and do my best Haud line impression and just run the s*** out of it. Man, what a race.”