Gravel Bests Schatz For Another Eldora Outlaws Win

David Gravel celebrates in victory lane Friday night at Eldora Speedway. (Trent Gower photo)

ROSSBURG, Ohio – Lately in World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series action at Eldora Speedway, the wars have seemed to come down to a clash of the titans between David Gravel and Donny Schatz.

Friday night’s #LetsRaceTwo opener at the half-mile Ohio speed plant was no different.

Though Gravel started from the pole and led all 30 laps, Schatz charged from 10th to second and gave the defending series champion a serious run for his money.

In the end, however, Gravel put just enough lap traffic between himself and Schatz in the final laps to clinch his fourth win at Eldora in his last six starts at the track.

It was his eighth Eldora win with the Outlaws and the 109th of his career with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He also swept the night, setting fast time, winning his heat race, and topping the dash before wiring the main event.

“Man, what a tricky track tonight,” Gravel said. “It was tough to feel grip, tough to exit well, and I felt the best against the cushion and didn’t feel as good down the track. But it’s hard to do that when you’re leading and your pace is fast. You can start basing off other guys and trying the bottom better.

“I don’t think Donny was that far up early on. He must’ve really got going late,” Gravel added. “I saw there were a lot of movers and shakers at the end. Cody (Jacobs), Zach (Patterson), and Pete (Stephens) just give me a good race car night in and night out.”

Timing his passes in traffic was the ultimate key to victory, according to Gravel.

“I was just trying to be patiently aggressive there,” he explained. “The 4 car was running a good pace up high and slowing me down a little bit, but he was going pretty good up there. I tried to pass him once or twice and feel like it really broke my momentum. I felt like I had to get back up and hustle again.”

Schatz’s runner-up marked his best run of the Outlaws season thus far, as well as his fifth second-place finish in his last six races at the track owned by his boss, Tony Stewart.

“Everything seemed to be working tonight,” Schatz said. “We could really run anywhere, the top, the middle, the bottom. Making strides out of here really helped. It was fun to be able to see the leader and kind of get to him and pick through lapped traffic.

“That yellow really helped. We took off really good. I guess when the air pressures went down under yellow it helped a ton and got a few spots, but the longer I ran the worse I got.”

Cole Macedo notched the first podium of his rookie full-time campaign with the Outlaws by finishing third, followed by 14th-starting Logan Schuchart and Buddy Kofoid.

Schuchart’s run gave him KSE Hard Charger honors for the evening.

In addition to Gravel, Zach Hampton, Gio Scelzi, and Bill Balog won heat races, while Emerson Axsom was best in the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown to lead the transfer cars into the main event.

Brady Bacon won the USAC National Sprint Car Series portion of Friday’s Eldora program.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season caps off #LetsRaceTwo weekend at Eldora with another complete program Saturday night.

The finish:

NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 laps): 1. 2-David Gravel [1]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [10]; 3. 2C-Cole Macedo [12]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [14]; 5. 83-Buddy Kofoid [6]; 6. 6-Zach Hampton [3]; 7. 18-Gio Scelzi [4]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo [17]; 9. 71-Parker Price Miller [19]; 10. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[ 9]; 11. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [2]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson [11]; 13. 21-Tanner Holmes [13]; 14. 7S-Chris Windom [18]; 15. 21H-Brady Bacon [15]; 16. 99-Skylar Gee [22]; 17. 1K-Kelby Watt [7]; 18. W20-Greg Wilson [24]; 19. 4-Zane DeVault [23]; 20. 1A-Ashton Torgerson [8]; 21. 32-Bryce Lucius [16]; 22. 97-Justin Clark [20]; 23. 27-Emerson Axsom [21]; 24. 17B-Bill Balog [5].

Lap Leader(s): David Gravel 1-30

Hard Charger: 1S-Logan Schuchart (+9)