Broken Leg Can’t Slow Carson Macedo In Outlaws Opener

BARBERVILLE, Fla. – Less than two months after sustaining a broken tibia in his left leg that could have easily derailed his World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season, Carson Macedo put the offseason injury out of his mind with a win on opening night.

Macedo dominated the kickoff to the 52nd Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, leading all 25 laps at Volusia Speedway Park for his fifth Outlaws win at the half-mile dirt oval.

After drawing the top pill and going on to win the Dash, Macedo started from the pole in the No. 41 for Jason Johnson Racing and never trailed on the way to his 48th career feature win with The Greatest Show on Dirt.

It was a remarkable comeback story that showed visibly as Macedo climbed from his car, still unable to climb atop the wing and celebrate and limping slightly when he climbed onto the stage in victory lane.

“This feels really, really cool,” said a worn out Macedo. “It’s been a humbling few weeks for me, with the experience of breaking my leg and not knowing, really, if I was going to be ready to come here and be 100 percent or not. But to come here night one and win is … it’s super emotional.

“It’s been a long journey to get back [to this point],” he added. “Getting around on crutches was tough and played with my head a little bit, but the car felt great all night long. The engine was missing just a bit in qualifying, and we still came back and laid down a really good lap. From there, it was all about execution.”

The Lemoore, Calif., native wasted little time when the green flag waved over the first Outlaws race of the year, with Macedo rocketing out to a second-and-a-quarter lead within the opening five laps while defending series champion David Gravel roared from sixth to third behind him.

A heat win and fourth-place start for Christopher Bell, making his return to the Outlaws for the first time since 2022, went for naught on lap six when he slowed on the backstretch to bring out the caution flag.

It scuttled Bell’s night in the Don Kreitz-owned No. 69K that was piloted for many years by Hall-of-Famer Lance Dewease, leading to a restart where Macedo chose the outside on the double-file lineup.

That afforded Macedo clean track through the middle stages of the feature, all while Gravel slid early runner-up Buddy Kofoid for second and Larson stormed past Logan Schuchart up top to take fourth.

Macedo reached traffic by halfway but still kept a healthy margin over Gravel even as the pair worked through the slower lap cars. Further back, Larson caught Kofoid with seven laps left and the two ‘California Kids’ began waging war for the final podium position.

The battle between Larson and Kofoid, however, went south coming to three laps left when Kofoid got crossed up on the turn-four cushion and came down into Logan Schuchart as he slowed. That contact sent Kofoid’s No. 83 flipping on the frontstretch and led to a red-flag stoppage as a result.

Kofoid was uninjured and climbed out under his own power, but the car was too damaged to continue.

The stoppage also gave Macedo a moment of pause behind the wheel as he awaited the resumption.

“When the red came out, [my left leg] had a heartbeat bigger than the one in my chest, I felt like,” Macedo noted with a wry chuckle. “From being bent in the car and, I think, fatigue from pressing the brakes so much … it was a lot to deal with in the moment and had me a tick on edge.”

His nerves were unfounded, however. After that incident, Macedo ruled a single-file restart and pulled away over the final three laps, defeating Gravel by 1.247 seconds.

While it wasn’t a victory, it still marked a strong start to the title defense for Gravel and Big Game Motorsports.

“Overall, I’m really happy with that run,” said Gravel. “The pill draw [for starting position in the pole dash] kind of killed our night, but we didn’t give up. We kept fighting.

“I felt like we were just as good, if not better than Carson at one point, but I go really close to him in the second half and got super tight where I couldn’t get around the corner very well,” he continued. “When it was time to pounce, I just didn’t feel quite right with it to do what we needed to do to win this one.”

Larson completed the podium ahead of Schuchart and five-time World of Outlaws sprint car champion Brad Sweet, who moved forward from 19th on the grid and ended up fifth.

Despite that, Sweet wasn’t the hard charger. Those honors went to 10-time Outlaws titlist Donny Schatz, who stared 21st after winning the Last Chance Showdown and advanced 13 positions to finish eighth.

A stacked opening-night field saw sprint car notables like Pennsylvania’s Danny Dietrich, High Limit Racing full-timers Jacob Allen and Brenham Crouch, and rookie-of-the-year challenger Skylar Gee all miss the feature through preliminary action.

Emerson Axsom set fast time in qualifying, and followed up by winning his heat race alongside Schuchart, Brian Brown, and Bell.

Ryan Harrison topped the C-Main before Schatz’s Last Chance Showdown score.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season continues with three more night of action at Volusia Speedway Park as part of the 52nd Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals. Every lap can be streamed live on DIRTvision.

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series; Volusia Speedway Park; Barberville, Fla.; Feb. 5, 2025

Qualifying Flight-A (best of two laps): 1. 27-Emerson Axsom, 13.449; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 13.555; 3. 26-Justin Peck, 13.591; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid, 13.642; 5. 13-Daison Pursley, 13.660; 6. 23-Garet Williamson, 13.668; 7. 24D-Danny Sams III, 13.669; 8. 71-Parker Price Miller, 13.678; 9. 9-Kasey Kahne, 13.770; 10. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr., 13.770; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 13.819; 12. 12S-Adyn Schmidt, 13.834; 13. 11T-T.J. Stutts, 13.873; 14. 12X-Kameron Key, 13.875; 15. 28-Conner Morrell, 13.879; 16. 64-Andy Pake, 13.925; 17. 17GP-Landon Crawley, 13.937; 18. 88-Austin McCarl, 13.946; 19. 97UK-Ryan Harrison, 13.952; 20. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 13.960; 21. 34-Sterling Cling, 14.001; 22. 99-Skylar Gee, 14.015; 23. 36-Jason Martin, 14.028; 24. 16TH-Kevin Newton, 14.033; 25. 17B-Bill Balog, 14.414; 26. 7S-Chris Windom, NT.

Qualifying Flight-B (best of two laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown, 13.476; 2. 69K-Christopher Bell, 13.481; 3. 57-Kyle Larson, 13.532; 4. 41-Carson Macedo, 13.592; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri, 13.652; 6. 16T-Brady Bacon, 13.654; 7. 2-David Gravel, 13.681; 8. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 13.701; 9. 15-Donny Schatz, 13.740; 10. 18-Gio Scelzi, 13.740; 11. 10-Ryan Timms, 13.749; 12. 48-Danny Dietrich, 13.756; 13. 1A-Jacob Allen, 13.814; 14. 44-Chris Martin, 13.830; 15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 13.847; 16. 49-Brad Sweet, 13.887; 17. 5-Brenham Crouch, 13.936; 18. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 13.943; 19. 32-Bryce Lucius, 14.003; 20. 2C-Cole Macedo, 14.069; 21. 6G-Bryan Gossel, 14.097; 22. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 14.148; 23. 0-Glenn Styres, 14.181; 24. 88J-Joey Amantea, 14.539; 25. 77T-Tyeller Powless, NT; 26. 6-Zach Hampton, NT.

Non-Qualifier (8 laps, top four to heats): 1. 6G-Bryan Gossel [2]; 2. 34-Sterling Cling [1]; 3. 15K-Creed Kemenah [4]; 4. 16TH-Kevin Newton [7] / 5. 17B-Bill Balog [9]; 6. 99-Skylar Gee [3]; 7. 36-Jason Martin [5]; 8. 7S-Chris Windom [11]; 9. 0-Glenn Styres [6]; 10. 88J-Joey Amantea [8]; 11. 6-Zach Hampton [12]; 12. 77T-Tyeller Powless [10].

Heat #1 (8 laps, top five transfer): 1. 27-Emerson Axsom [1]; 2. 26-Justin Peck [2]; 3. 24D-Danny Sams III [4]; 4. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [6]; 5. 13-Daison Pursley [3] / 6. 9-Kasey Kahne [5]; 7. 11T-T.J. Stutts [7]; 8. 17GP-Landon Crawley [9]; 9. 6G-Bryan Gossel [11]; 10. 97UK-Ryan Harrison [10]; 11. 28-Conner Morrell [8].

Heat #2 (8 laps, top five transfer): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid [2]; 3. 71-Parker Price Miller [4]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson [3]; 5. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [5] / 6. 88-Austin McCarl [9]; 7. 12S-Adyn Schmidt [6]; 8. 12X-Kameron Key [7]; 9. 64-Andy Pake [8]; 10. 34-Sterling Cling [11]; 11. 16G-Austyn Gossel [10].

Heat #3 (8 laps, top five transfer): 1. 21-Brian Brown [1]; 2. 2-David Gravel [4]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson [2]; 4. 39M-Anthony Macri [3]; 5. 10-Ryan Timms [6]; 6. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [8]; 7. 1A-Jacob Allen [7]; 8. 32-Bryce Lucius [10]; 9. 5-Brenham Crouch [9]; 10. 15K-Creed Kemenah [11]; 11. 15-Donny Schatz [5].

Heat #4 (8 laps, top five transfer): 1. 69K-Christopher Bell [1]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo [2]; 3. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [4]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet [8]; 5. 16T-Brady Bacon [3] / 6. 48-Danny Dietrich [6]; 7. 18-Gio Scelzi [5]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [9]; 9. 44-Chris Martin [7]; 10. 16TH-Kevin Newton [11]; 11. 2C-Cole Macedo [10].

Toyota Dash (6 laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo [1]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid [2]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart [3]; 4. 69K-Christopher Bell [6]; 5. 26-Justin Peck [4]; 6. 2-David Gravel [7]; 7. 27-Emerson Axsom [5]; 8. 21-Brian Brown [8].

C-Feature (10 laps, top two transfer): 1. 97UK-Ryan Harrison [1]; 2. 15K-Creed Kemenah [2] / 3. 16TH-Kevin Newton [4]; 4. 2C-Cole Macedo [6]; 5. 34-Sterling Cling [3]; 6. 99-Skylar Gee [9]; 7. 16G-Austyn Gossel [7]; 8. 88J-Joey Amantea [13]; 9. 6-Zach Hampton [14]; 10. 0-Glenn Styres [12]; 11. 28-Conner Morrell [5]; 12. 17B-Bill Balog [8]; 13. 36-Jason Martin [10]; 14. 7S-Chris Windom [11]; 15. 77T-Tyeller Powless [15].

MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 laps, top four transfer): 1. 15-Donny Schatz [2]; 2. 9-Kasey Kahne [1]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [4]; 4. 88-Austin McCarl [3] / 5. 48-Danny Dietrich [6]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [8]; 7. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [14]; 8. 18-Gio Scelzi [10]; 9. 11T-T.J. Stutts [5]; 10. 12X-Kameron Key [11]; 11. 12S-Adyn Schmidt [7]; 12. 44-Chris Martin [17]; 13. 5-Brenham Crouch [16]; 14. 32-Bryce Lucius [12]; 15. 17GP-Landon Crawley [9]; 16. 64-Andy Pake [15]; 17. 97UK-Ryan Harrison [18]; 18. 15K-Creed Kemenah [19]; 19. 6G-Bryan Gossel [13].

NOS Energy Drink A-Feature (25 laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo [1]; 2. 2-David Gravel [6]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson [10]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [3]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet [16]; 6. 21-Brian Brown [8]; 7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [12]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [21]; 9. 39M-Anthony Macri [14]; 10. 26-Justin Peck [5]; 11. 71-Parker Price Miller [11]; 12. 10-Ryan Timms [18]; 13. 24D-Danny Sams III [9]; 14. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [26]; 15. 9-Kasey Kahne [22]; 16. 69K-Christopher Bell [4]; 17. 16T-Brady Bacon [20]; 18. 23-Garet Williamson [15]; 19. 88-Austin McCarl [24]; 20. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [25]; 21. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [13]; 22. 7S-Chris Windom [27]; 23. 13-Daison Pursley [17]; 24. 83-Michael Kofoid [2]; 25. 27-Emerson Axsom [7]; 26. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [19]; 27. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [23].

Lap Leader(s): Carson Macedo 1-25

Hard Charger: 15-Donny Schatz (+13)