Gravel Leads All 30 at Sharon; Seventh Win of the Year

David Gravel competing with the World of Outlaws at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, OH (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

HARTFORD, Ohio — The World of Outlaws sprint cars stayed in Ohio for their Saturday night race by going to Sharon Speedway to race in the Sprint Car Showdown.

During qualifying earlier in the night, Sheldon Haudenschild ripped the fastest lap around the half-mile track with a 14.113 second run. The second highest running car was Giovanni Scelzi with a 14.141 second lap.

David Gravel and Sye Lynch led the field to green to start the 30-lap main event, but because the flaggers thought they saw Lynch jump Gravel they threw the caution flag and moved him back a row, placing Scelzi in second.

As everyone raced towards Turns 1 and 2, Gravel took the lead. But Scelzi was not going to give up that easily as he was right there behind him in pursuit of that first-place position. But Scelzi’s attention on Gravel was not his best move as Carson Macedo passed him on the low side on Lap 2 with no problems.

Eight laps later, Scelzi was going into Turn 3 with Donny Schatz right beside him. It appeared that lap car Landon Crawley was going to get in the way of Schatz making a move on “Hot Sauce” but the veteran knew what he was doing and slid in front of Scelzi to take over third.

Sheldon Haudenschild competing with the World of Outlaws at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, OH (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

After a restart due to Lee Jacobs slowing on the back stretch, Scelzi ran the high side and passed Schatz for third also on the back straight. Schatz did not like that too much and decided he wanted third back. He trailed behind him for a few laps before he raced side-by-side with him down the back stretch once again. Schatz used the air between the two of them to get ahead of Scelzi and take over third, once again.

Nate Dussel slowed on the front stretch and brought out another caution and this allowed Schatz to get right up beside Macedo to compete for second. As they entered Turn 3, Schatz went low while Macedo went high and Schatz was able to come out in front ahead of Macedo and slide right into position. He was in second with seven laps remaining.

Schatz remained in second for the duration of the race as did Gravel in first. Macedo, Logan Schuchart and Scelzi rounded out the top five.

“Really, I don’t think Sye [Lynch] jumped the start,” said Gravel. “It was more of [the fact] that I hit the bumps and he beat me pretty bad but luckily that was a huge break for us and how the race was going to go. I didn’t know where to run and it was just a very technical track. Just happy to get the job done.”