Gravel Wins at Jacksonville; Fourth of the Year

David Gravel competing with the World of Outlaws at Jacksonville Speedway in Jacksonville, Illinois (Photo: Josh James)

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — After a short hiatus, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series traveled to Jacksonville Speedway to take part in the Hy-Vee Perks 40.

56 cars checked into the pits to attempt to compete in the race, but only 24 could make the grade. After Hot Laps, each driver took their two laps around the shortest oval on the World of Outlaws circuit at just a little bit over ⅕-mile to see who was the fastest of the night. Brady Bacon took home that title by making a 10.062 second lap in front of a sold-out crowd.

Because there were so many cars trying to get into the show, there was a non-qualifiers race, four Heat Races, a D and C-Main, a Dash and Last Chance Showdown before the field was determined. Despite his blazing fast lap earlier in the evening, Bacon’s right rear tire went over the berm going into Turn 1 during the third Heat race, resulting in him zooming across the track and taking out the camera. The camera survived, but the cords that powered the camera were toast. Bacon’s bad luck with the berm continued during the Showdown as he launched over it again. Luckily, he did not flip and only spun out.

After the track crew cleaned up, it was determined that the race was going to be chopped down five laps. Instead of a 40 lap race, it was cut down to 35. This did not stop the race action at all; in fact, quite the opposite.

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid and Kyle Larson led the group to the starting line and by the time Larson hit Turn 3, he was in the lead. Just as Kofoid was starting to fight back for the lead, Giovanni Scelzi and David Gravel started moving up to contend for second.

Larson put some space between himself and “Buddy”, creating a problem for Kofoid but an advantage for Scelzi. “Hot Sauce” battled with him for second, racing all over the track trying to pass him. None of his attempts worked though and he ended up falling back a little bit to battle with Carson Macedo.

On Lap 8, Larson caught up to lapped traffic and Macedo was gaining on Kofoid. Three laps later, Larson went too high, allowing Scelzi to close space on him as he had finally passed Kofoid for second a lap before.

Meanwhile, Gravel advanced past Macedo and went to work on “Buddy”. Gravel did not have much time to strategize how he would move up to third as Macedo shot right back up to fourth.

All of a sudden, Gravel, Kofoid and Scelzi all took different lanes, resulting in a close three-wide battle for second. Macedo entered the chat as well, but the winner of the four-car battle was Gravel on Lap 19 and he had his sights on “Yung Money” in the lead.

Giovanni Scelzi, David Gravel and Michael “Buddy” Kofoid competing with the World of Outlaws at Jacksonville Speedway (Photo: Josh James)

Keeping up with his domination of mid-week races, Corey Day shot up to fourth and set his sights on Macedo in third. In an effort to get away from Day, Macedo picked up the pace to battle again with Gravel for second on Lap 21.

Three laps later, Gravel went low and Larson went high. They then switched lanes, allowing Gravel to zoom right by Larson and take over the lead.

With Gravel in the lead, he was the one who had to navigate the lapped traffic before anyone else, and this proved to be a problem as he got to the lapped car of Garet Williamson. As Gravel tried to get by the No. 23 car, Larson took back the lead on the low side.

While the battle for the lead was going on, Kofoid was moving up through the field. This did not scare Gravel or Larson at all, as Gravel went straight back to gunning for the lead.

He went to the inside and attempted to slide job Larson, but failed as lapped traffic became a problem once again.

On Lap 32, Gravel slid in front of Larson, taking the top spot. Larson, in a last attempt to reclaim first place, battled his hardest with Gravel. Larson tagged the wall going on the high side. This proved to be a serious mistake as Larson came in second after Gravel and Macedo, Kofoid and Day rounded out the top five.

“What a great racecar,” said Gravel about his fourth win of the year. “I was able to run lanes that other people didn’t and once I got by him [Larson] I knew I had it. Hats off to the track crew and officials for taking five laps off. It’s been a fun year and we hope we can keep this up.”