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TEXAS-SIZED SWEEP: Gravel Survives Kofoid’s Charge for Second Straight Cotton Bowl Win
The point leader puts together a perfect night to sweep the weekend in Texas
PAIGE, TX (March 22, 2025) - David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports came about as close to perfection as possible this weekend in the “Lone Star State.”
It began with Friday’s victorious night at Cotton Bowl Speedway. The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champion started the night with Simpson Quick Time and topped the opening Heat Race. Gravel then finished fourth in the Toyota Dash, and it would be the first and only time he wasn’t atop the leaderboard the entire weekend.
After claiming Friday’s Feature, Saturday started with another Quick Time and a new track record as the cherry on top. Gravel won his Heat and the Dash and put the thunderous punctuation on a dominant weekend by leading all 30 laps of the finale. The brooms were brought out. Gravel swept the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step.
“You just go out and have fun, and you believe in your race car every time you hit the track,” Gravel said of his recent success. “I’ve been pushing the limits of the car in Qualifying and then a couple of times going into Turn 1. Luckily there was grip up there, or I could’ve blew through the cushion. Cody (Jacobs) is giving me a lot of confidence and trying to bring the car to its full potential and everybody is doing a great job. We’re just having fun, and there’s no pressure. We just go out there and race and don’t think about it too much and listen to our instincts.”
The win was Gravel’s fifth in the last eight races with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He’s now up to 108 career World of Outlaws victories. It marked 114 Series wins for Tod Quiring’s Big Game Motorsports, moving them within one of equaling Roth Motorsports for fifth all-time. The weekend sweep coupled with Gravel’s 2018 Cotton Bowl checkered flag made him the first to own a trio of triumphs at the Paige, TX track.
And while Gravel might’ve been the one celebrating, Michael “Buddy” Kofoid didn’t make it easy on him. The Penngrove, CA native snagged the runner-up spot on Lap 20 and went to work on chasing down the No. 2. Kofoid narrowed the gap in the closing laps but just couldn’t find a way around Gravel despite taking a couple swipes at the top spot.
“Those last five laps I was just hanging on,” Gravel admitted. “I kept getting looser and looser, and I didn’t want to grab too much more wing because I needed to get through (Turns) 1 and 2 well. I saw he was getting close to me there on the jumbotron, but man what a run we’re on right now. I felt like we had a pretty good race car there. It just seems like sometimes when there’s a lot of cautions or reds the tires don’t fire off the best, and I feel like I lost a little bit of grip there, but I can’t complain with sweeping the night. Cody, Zach (Patterson), and Pete (Stephens) are just performing every night giving me great race cars and giving me the platform to show my talent.”
Kofoid settled for second for the second night in a row in the Roth Motorsports No. 83. The reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year was a little disappointed in not being able to get to Victory Lane, but the momentum continues to build as Kofoid collected his third consecutive top two finish.
“Yeah, that’s where I let my team down,” Kofoid said of a late attempt at taking the lead. “I knew the laps were winding down and just got too eager because I struggled really bad in (Turns) 3 and 4. I think it was more myself. Dylan, Nate, and John carried me here this weekend. This is a place that’s been weird for me to get ahold of, especially in (Turns) 3 and 4, and then I found a ton of speed through there. I just took my chance too early.”
The final spot on the podium went to “Lone Star State” local Sam Hafertepe Jr. The Sunnyvale, TX native slipped back as far as seventh early on but rallied for his second trip to the top three during the World of Outlaws Texas trip in the Hills Racing Team No. 15H.
“We just didn’t have the grip off of (Turn) 4 like those guys had,” Hafertepe Jr. explained. “So, we just started kind of blowing across there and getting up right next to the wall and getting the forward drive off. He (Logan Schuchart) went down low there on the restart and actually let me get a lot of momentum on the outside and got to third there.”
Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top five.
A 17th to eighth march earned Garet Williamson the KSE Racing Hard Charger in the Fischer Motorsports No. 23.
Gravel set a new Cotton Bowl Speedway track record in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying to claim his third consecutive Simpson Quick Time and his seventh of 2025.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One and Two belonged to David Gravel and Donny Schatz. WIX Filters Heat Three went to Sheldon Haudenschild.
Gravel topped the Toyota Dash after getting the SPA Technique #1 Redraw.
Conner Morrell won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Jace Park
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their way toward the Midwest with a weekend at Oklahoma’s Lawton Speedway on Friday, March 28 and 81 Speedway in Wichita, KS on Saturday, March 29.
FOR LAWTON TICKETS, CLICK HERE
FOR 81 SPEEDWAY TICKETS, CLICK HERE
For the complete 2025 schedule, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[5]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 6. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 7. 2C-Cole Macedo[11]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[17]; 9. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 10. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[16]; 11. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 12. 17B-Bill Balog[21]; 13. 7S-Chris Windom[20]; 14. 99-Skylar Gee[18]; 15. 6-Zach Hampton[13]; 16. 24T-Christopher Thram[8]; 17. 73-Logan Julien[15]; 18. 28M-Conner Morrell[19]; 19. 88R-Ryder Laplante[24]; 20. 45X-Jace Park[12]; 21. 17GP-Landon Crawley[22]; 22. 15-Donny Schatz[6]; 23. 2KS-Cory Eliason[14]; 24. J2-John Carney II[23]
For complete results, CLICK HERE.
EVENT INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/schedule/event-info/?event=4547716
TRACK INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/tracks/?track=Cotton%2BBowl%2BSpeedway
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alex Nieten, World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series PR
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COWBOY UP: Gravel Wheels From Fourth to Front for Cotton Bowl Victory
The defending champion takes the lead from Kofoid on Lap 10 and holds off the Californian’s late charge for fourth win of 2025
PAIGE, TX (March 21, 2025) - Another day, another David Gravel win.
The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champion is at the top of his game. His title campaign in 2024 was plenty impressive, but he’s out for domination in 2025.
The latest testament to he and Big Game Motorsports’ excellence was an impressive drive on Friday night at Cotton Bowl Speedway. Gravel started fourth for the 30-lapper and methodically worked his way to the front by the 10th lap, but it wasn’t over yet. The Watertown, CT native had to hold off a fierce charge from Michael “Buddy” Kofoid. The Roth Motorsports driver got the top side of Turns 1 and 2 wound up and showed Gravel a nose entering Turn 3 multiple times.
But Gravel showed the poise of a champion as he sensed the need to move to the cushion in the first set of corners. That slowed Kofoid’s momentum, and that was all she wrote in the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step opener. Gravel drove away through lapped traffic on the path to yet another victory with The Greatest Show on Dirt.
“I think just reacting from what he (Kofoid) was doing,” Gravel said on what led him to victory. “He was running the top, and I was kind of running low and then I had the bottom of (Turns) 1 and 2 all to myself. The 17 and 83 didn’t really try it much, and it was really good down there. When I got the lead, it started taking rubber through the middle not all the way to the bottom. I could hear him and knew he was getting a run on me in (Turns) 1 and 2, so I had to move up and moved up at the right time.”
The win was Gravel’s fourth in the last seven races in the Cody Jacobs-wrenched No. 2. He’s still yet to miss the top 5 through 11 nights in the 2025 campaign. His second Cotton Bowl checkered flag put him alongside Sheldon Haudenschild and Brad Sweet as multi-time winners at the Paige, TX track. The point lead for the 32-year-old grew to 70 markers in his quest for back-to-back titles.
“These guys continue to give me great race cars,” Gravel said. “We’re qualifying amazing and racing just as good. We were just patient there. We kind of figured they were all going to be pretty aggressive and kind of let the race come to us and it worked out.”
The runner-up position belonged to Buddy Kofoid as he came up one spot shy of two wins in a row aboard the Roth Motorsports No. 83. The Penngrove, CA native continues to build momentum with his third top five finish in the last four races after no top five appearances in the first seven.
“David and the Big Game guys have been really good obviously,” Kofoid said. “I think we were better than him for a while, and then when he found it we kind of got back even. Then you just kind of got to surrender and chase him into there, and then the top kind of gave out again down there and had to move down. Just a race where you’ve got to work both pedals and find the lines. I feel like everything changes here so fast.”
The final spot on the podium went to Carson Macedo. He and the Jason Johnson Racing crew have been in the top three in three of the last four, and Friday’s effort helped lift them back into the second spot in points.
“It was a bit of a marathon race,” Macedo said. “There was a lot of moving parts. I felt like throughout the race there was a lot of comers and goers. You kind of had to chase the track a little bit. I feel like early it started out the bottom was really good both ends, and then down in (Turns) 1 and 2 I found the top and was actually kind of creeping back a little bit. I found the top and drove back by a few guys and got to third.”
Sheldon Haudenschild and Donny Schatz completed the top five.
A 24th to 13th run gave Skylar Gee the KSE Racing Hard Charger.
David Gravel grabbed his sixth Simpson Quick Time in 11 tries this year during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One and Two belonged to David Gravel and Carson Macedo. WIX Filters Heat Three went to Buddy Kofoid.
Sheldon Haudenschild topped the Toyota Dash after also getting the SPA Technique #1 Redraw.
Christopher Thram won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Bill Balog.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are back at Cotton Bowl Speedway for the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step finale on Saturday, March 22. Reserved seating is sold out, but general admission tickets can be purchased by CLICKING HERE.
For the complete 2025 schedule, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[4]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 6. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[11]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 9. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 10. 7S-Chris Windom[16]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[8]; 12. 24T-Christopher Thram[19]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee[24]; 14. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 15. 23-Garet Williamson[5]; 16. 2KS-Cory Eliason[12]; 17. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[17]; 18. 6-Zach Hampton[13]; 19. 17B-Bill Balog[7]; 20. 22M-Rees Moran[15]; 21. J2-John Carney II[21]; 22. 45X-Jace Park[18]; 23. 17GP-Landon Crawley[22]; 24. 73-Logan Julien[23]
For complete results, CLICK HERE.
EVENT INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/schedule/event-info/?event=4547715
TRACK INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/tracks/?track=Cotton+Bowl+Speedway
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