Gravel Takes Night One of Spring Classic; Third Win of the Year

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid, David Gravel and Carson Macedo in Victory Lane after competing in the Spring Classic at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

PEVELY, Mo. — The World of Outlaws Sprint Car series traveled to Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 for Night One of the Spring Classic on Friday night. The night’s main event was a much-anticipated 40-lap A-Main.

David Gravel and Giovanni Scelzi led the field to the starting line and Gravel jumped to the lead as soon as he hit the throttle. 

On Lap 6, Carson Macedo went to the inside of Bill Balog and took over the fourth-place spot. At the same time, Michael “Buddy” Kofoid had passed Scelzi on the inside for second and put some serious space between him and “Hot Sauce” as they exited Turn 2.

After a restart on Lap 9, Kofoid made himself known to leader Gravel. As they drove through Turns 1 and 2, it appeared that Kofoid had the win over Gravel on the low side, but Kofoid’s momentum exiting the turns proved otherwise as Gravel passed by him on the high side, maintaining his lead. Gravel put a few car-lengths between him and Kofoid by the time they exited Turn 4.

While that battle was wrapping up, Macedo started another battle with Scelzi. Going down the front stretch, they were close to each other, but as they went through the first and second turns, they were battling it out side-by-side. Scelzi slid in front of Macedo from the high side as they came out of the second turn, though, keeping the third-place position.

Scelzi only had that third-place spot for a few laps as Macedo performed a slide job on Scelzi going into Turn 4 that put him in third, but that was also short-lived as Aaron Reutzel stopped on the back stretch, bringing out a caution.

David Gravel competing in the Spring Classic at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

On the restart, Gravel took the lead as soon as the green flag dropped, but he got a bit loose in Turn 2, allowing Kofoid to snag the lead…momentarily. Gravel bounced right back from his screw-up and went down low to perform a slide job on Kofoid, taking the coveted position back.

Kofoid had to fight to keep the second-place spot as Macedo started battling with Kofoid. Going into Turn 4, Macedo was at Kofoid’s door, but going down the front straightawway, Kofoid remained in second.

On Lap 17, Bill Balog passed Scelzi for fourth by going down low and performing a slide job on Scelzi. As they raced into Turns 3 and 4, Balog went low and passed Macedo for third.

Another restart happened two laps later. This allowed Gravel to once again take the lead, but as Kofoid was racing to attempt to get the position, he hit a hole in Turn 2, bouncing a little bit. This opened the door for Balog to challenge Kofoid for second. Balog went up, down, left, right, high and low to try to find a way around Kofoid, to no avail.

Scelzi saw that Balog was having a tough time and decided to set his sights back on fourth. For a few laps, the two battled it out by consistently slide-jobbing each other throughout the turns. 

Lap 29 saw Scelzi lose his fifth-place position to Sheldon Haudenschild when Haudenschild slid low underneath Scelzi, seizing the position in the top five. 

On yet another restart, Gravel cruised to his lead with no issues, but second place-holder Kofoid struggled. Macedo passed him on the inside to take second place away. A few laps later though, Kofoid got fed up with racing side-by-side with Macedo and decided to go low and pull a slide job on him. As they hit Turn 4, there was some space between the two drivers.

On the last lap, Scelzi passed Haudenschild for fifth, but the rest of the top four remained the same for the remainder of the race with Gravel taking the win for the third time in 2024.

“Man, what a car we had tonight,” said Gravel. “I was nervous early because qualifying didn’t go very good, but I knew we had something really, really good. Feels good to win one here as I haven’t won here since 2016 or 2017; it’s been too long.”