From DDR Motorsports PR
Watertown, CT — (April 21, 2013) — Oftentimes in racing top-five finishes lead to podiums, which ultimately lead to wins. David Gravel has finished among the top-five on a handful of occasions this year and move up to the podium on Saturday night with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series at Tri-State Speedway in Indiana, as he closes in on his first win of the season. He made a charge on the last lap, nearly passing eventual winner Tim Kaeding at the line. For Gravel, the runner-up p erformance was his best finish of the season as he continues to pilot the No. 6 Firetext Response Maxim for Bill Rose Racing.
In his second career start at Tri-State Speedway on Saturday, April 20, Gravel lined up fifth and battled Paul McMahan early in the race for the fourth spot. The native of Watertown, Conn., restarted fourth, following a lap-24 red flag and was up to third on the restart. One lap later, he got around McMahan for second and began to track down the leader, Tim Kaeding.
The caution came back out on lap-26 and on the ensuing double file restart, Gravel took the lead from Kaeding, only to have the caution flag come back out for a driver further back in the field, who had jumped the start. On the next restart, Kaeding got the advantage on Gravel and the latter tucked into the second position for the time being. With seven laps remaining, the leaders got into lapped traffic, allowing Gravel to close back in on Kaeding. Gravel made a last lap charge and came up just 0.518-seconds short of the win.
“I gave it everything I had and I can’t hang my head about that,” said Gravel. “Night in and night out our consistency is getting better and that’s what we have been working toward since I got in Bill’s car earlier this season. It was unfortunate that the one restart got taken back, but that’s racing. I was hoping I could do the same thing I did on the previous restart, but Tim (Kaeding) is a very good driver and he was ready for it. We put on a good show it sounds like for the fans and had a shot at it and that’s all you can ask for. ”
Gravel opened the night by turning the second-fastest lap in time trials with a very solid 39-car field in attendance. The East Coast racer finished fifth in the first 10-lap heat race to earn a spot in the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series dash. With a dash inversion of four, Gravel lined up in the third spot and finished fifth, following a three-wide battle for third on the final lap. The 20-year-old took the green flag for the 40-lap A-Feature from the inside of the third row.
“We’ve been pretty good in qualifying the last few races and that has helped us get into the dash, which is always important with the Outlaws,” he shared. “I think the more time I have in Bill’s car, the more comfortable I am getting and the better we are getting as a team. Hopefully we can keep this going and build on it.”
The event originally scheduled for Friday, April 19 at Paducah International Raceway in Kentucky was postponed due to flooding in the area. Track and series officials are currently working on finding a suitable date to reschedule that race.
Gravel, who is currently sixth in the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series championship standings, on the strength of eight top-10 and four top-five finishes, returns to action with the series aboard the Bill Rose Racing No. 6 on Friday, April 26 at Salina High Banks Speedway in Oklahoma and also will compete at the famed Knoxville Raceway in Iowa on Saturday, April 27 in his own No. 89G. Prior to those races, he’ll head home to Connecticut for a few days to regroup.
“I haven’t been home for quite a while, so I am looking forward to getting back there,” said Gravel as he sat in the terminal at the Indianapolis International Airport on Sunday night. “We were on the West Coast quite a while and during that stretch I also flew to Charlotte and then back to California, so it’s been a lot of travel. This past week we drove a couple thousand miles in the rig on our way back to the Midwest, so it will be nice to relax for a couple of days.”
Keep up-to-date with David Gravel and DDR Motorsports by visiting www.DavidGravel89.com. Follow David on Twitter @davidgravel89g and like David on Facebook.