THE DOTY DOUBLE: David Gravel Nets Second Brad Doty Classic Win and 10th Victory of 2024
Gravel’s early pass on Macedo leads him to becoming the sixth different driver with multiple Brad Doty Classic titles
ATTICA, OH (July 16, 2024) – The incredible 2024 campaign for David Gravel keeps on rolling.
The Watertown, CT native entered the year carrying the weight of heaps of expectation. And he continues to meet them as he chases his first World of Outlaw NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship.
Entering this huge week of Sprint Car Racing in Ohio, Gravel and the Big Game Motorsports crew had already made nine trips to Victory Lane. And they displayed on the same speed on Tuesday night at Attica Raceway Park that they’ve shown time and time again this year. This time it came with the prestige of the Ohio Logistics Brad Doty Classic presented by dac® Pet Products on the line.
Gravel waited patiently for the right moment and pounced to take the top spot on the 17th circuit of the 40-lapper and drove to his 10th win of 2024 with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He also helped his crew chief Cody Jacobs get some Brad Doty Classic redemption. Oddly enough, it was Gravel himself who denied Jacobs of the event back in 2017.
“Happy to get one for Cody because I stole one from him when I was in the CJB (Motorsports) car, and he was in the 49 car with (Tim) Shaffer,” Gravel said. “Happy to get him a Brad Doty Classic and Stephen (Hamm-Reilly) and Zach (Patterson) were working hard. It was hot as hell today. It feels good to get number 10 on the year.”
The victory made 2024 the fifth year in which Gravel has reached double-digit checkered flags as his career win total with the World of Outlaws grew to 98. He joined Donny Schatz, Kyle Larson, Steve Kinser, Danny Smith, and Dale Blaney as the sixth competitor to top multiple Brad Doty Classics. The 32-year-old also joined Schatz, Larson, and Blaney as those with at least three World of Outlaws victories at Attica.
The field was led to green by Carson Macedo with Gravel alongside him. Macedo jumped out to the early advantage.
The early stage of the race was marred by a flurry of yellow flags for several incidents. One early restart allowed Kyle Larson the opportunity to slide ahead of Gravel for second and lock his view on Macedo as “Yung Money” chased a third straight Brad Doty Classic win.
Another restart with 33 laps left gave Larson the opening to slide Macedo to take over the top spot and lead Lap 8. But the Jason Johnson Racing pilot slid back ahead of Larson in Turns 1 and 2. In the same set of corners, Larson got a little crossed up and also let Gravel roll back by him for the runner-up spot.
After he reclaimed second, it became a game of cat and mouse for Gravel and Macedo. Gravel searched around the Attica surface and found speed wherever he went. Macedo began to drive defensively, but it wasn’t enough as Gravel smoothly rolled the bottom of Turns 3 and 4 right by Macedo for the lead on Lap 17.
Gravel promptly built his advantage after taking possession of the top spot. While it might’ve been smooth sailing up front, the battles were wild behind the Huset’s Speedway No. 2. A hard charging Logan Schuchart passed Larson for third and went after Macedo for second. They traded sliders before Schuchart secured the spot. Larson, Corey Day, and Donny Schatz with a damaged nose wing went at it behind them.
An issue under a late caution period left Schuchart broken hearted as he gave up the runner-up position to head to the Federated Car Care Work Zone. The problem gave second to Larson, but Schatz passed him on the restart with 14 laps to go as Larson slipped off track in Turn 2 trying to get a run at Gravel.
Schatz did everything he could to close in on Gravel as the last handful of laps unfolded, but the No. 2 was too smooth. Gravel got win number 10 in 2024 with just over seven tenths of a second advantage when the checkered flag waved. A methodical approach paved the path for the current point leader.
“I was just biding my time,” Gravel said. “Carson was racing pretty defensive. I think he knew he was in trouble and was running a lot of different lines and just trying to figure out what the best line was before I could get the lead because you’re just guessing out there. All of those cautions. I don’t know how many cautions there were, but it was so many. It was hard to get a rhythm.
“We unloaded pretty well. Didn’t really feel good in Qualifying, but whatever Cody did to the car for the Dash gave me a really, really good car – something I didn’t have to push too hard and could kind of drive my own race.”
Donny Schatz brought the No. 15 home second for his seventh podium in the last 12 Attica races. It was also his 12th top three of the 2024 World of Outlaws campaign. The damaged nose wing didn’t slow the 10-time Series champion at all as he rolled from 11th to second.
“It (nose wing) didn’t really affect it like everybody thinks,” Schatz said. “We’re not on the gas that hard here, and I think there were probably parts of the racetrack where it helped. Ultimately, I think I would’ve liked to have had it there and seen what happened. All in all a good effort. The guys got things rolling, and they’re working. This is the type of racetrack that happens in the summer. We had an opportunity. That’s all you can ask for.”
Rounding out the podium was Kyle Larson in the Silva Motorsports No. 57. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion was strong all night, but a slight mistake on a late restart potentially cost him a shot at a third consecutive Brad Doty Classic.
“I wish I could have that last restart back,” Larson said. “Obviously, I knew all I could do was really blitz the top there with Gravel. He was really good. I just got my right-rear (tire) hung off the edge and fell back to fourth and had to battle Carson and Corey to get back to third. I was kind of hoping for another caution to get reset, but my car felt pretty good.”
Carson Macedo and Corey Day completed the top five.
A 23rd to 11th run earned Cale Thomas the KSE Racing Hard Charger.
Giovanni Scelzi claimed his fourth Simpson Quick Time of 2024 and the 13th of his career in Sea Foam Qualifying presented by Jon and Janet Wright.
Gill Construction Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Giovanni Scelzi (51st Heat Race win of career), Kyle Larson (41st of career), and Michael “Buddy” Kofoid (25th of career). Milton Hershey School Heat Two presented by Gill Construction went to Carson Macedo (129th of career).
Carson Macedo topped the Toyota Racing Dash presented by Racing Optics.
Joel Myers Jr. won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown presented by CK Mechanical.
The Smith Titanium Brake System Break of the Race went to Logan Schuchart.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars head to Rossburg, OH’s Eldora Speedway for a massive two nights of racing. First up is the $25,000-to-win Knight Before on Friday, July 19. Then the 41st Kings Royal is offering up a $175,000 payday to the victor on Saturday, July 20. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[11]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[3]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo[1]; 5. 14-Corey Day[5]; 6. 83-Michael Kofoid[7]; 7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]; 9. 25-Daison Pursley[10]; 10. 26-Zeb Wise[15]; 11. 23-Cale Thomas[23]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms[19]; 13. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 14. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[18]; 15. 9-Trey Jacobs[22]; 16. 15K-Creed Kemenah[13]; 17. 19H-Joel Myers Jr[21]; 18. 1S-Logan Schuchart[6]; 19. 29-Zeth Sabo[12]; 20. 97-Cole Macedo[24]; 21. 101-Kalib Henry[16]; 22. W20-Greg Wilson[17]; 23. 22-Brandon Spithaler[14]; 24. 99-Skylar Gee[9]