By T.J. Buffenbarger
ROSSBURG, Ohio (September 23, 2020) — David Gravel rebounded from a crash on Tuesday night to win the $52,000 top prize during the Governor’s Reign at Eldora Speedway with the Ollies Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1. Gravel from Watertown, Connecticut had to hold off an incredible surge by Kyle Larson through turns three and four to win by just 0.098 seconds at the finish.
The win was Gravel’s sixth win of the season with Jason Johnson Racing. It did not come easily thought with Larson closing in during the final laps with a pair of slower car racing for position ahead of him.
“Those guys racing at the end on the last lap I thought the top was open on entrance and I had to take it,” Gravel said about the final lap. “Even if (Larson) slid me, I thought I could turn underneath. I saw him with about three or four to go poke his nose and I figured it was him. I just had to make a couple of good laps. Obviously, he was closing but when you’re running second sometimes it’s a little better in lapped traffic and the guys in front of me were racing really hard in front of me.”
Larson admitted after the race that he should have changed his line through turns one and two earlier to set himself up for that pass at the end, but was quick to credit Gravel for running a good race.
“I should have given up on that line a few laps sooner and maybe could have carried more speed down the backstretch to try what I did on the last lap because I would have been much closer,” said Larson. “It was a good race, David did a great job, he didn’t make any mistakes out front. There were a couple of times he had to go to the bottom in three and four and I thought I was going to get some steam going up top to close on him but he hit the bottom nice and got the win.”
Gravel started on the front row with Tuesday’s feature winner Brent Marks. The initial attempt to start the feature had cars get stacked up with Brock Zearfoss making contact with the turn four water barrels at pit entrance with the nose of his car along with Jacob Allen and James McFadden coming to a stop in turn four. All three cars were able to restart.
The second attempt to start the feature was successful with Gravel driving away from Marks and Caron Macedo. Further back in the field Larson started to pick his way through the pack from 10th starting position up to seventh by lap five and moving forward.
As Gravel entered slower traffic by lap 10 but was able to maintain his advantage over Marks. As traffic became heavier Marks closed in for just a moment by lap 14, but Gravel quickly disposed of the slower cars and stretched his advantage.
Behind the lead duo Larson continued to work his way through the field, passing Carson Macedo for the third position on lap 19. One lap later Larson caught a break he needed when the caution appeared for Cory Eliason doing a 360 degree spin in turn four. Donny Schatz also came to the work area during the caution period to repair front wing damage he suffered during the incident on the opening lap.
After the restart Gravel pulled away while Larson drove by Marks to take the second position. Gravel continued to pull away from Larson until lap 27 when Gravel started to encounter thicker traffic.
Until that point Larson had dove low into turns one and two and slid up the race track. The final two laps Larson abandoned that line, tracing the top all the way around turns one and two and quickly closed in on Gravel.
Gravel still appeared to have a sizeable advantage coming around turns three and four on the final lap when Larson tried one final dive into turns three and four the catch Gravel. Larson quickly closed in and was able to pull alongside Gravel but could not complete the pass as Gravel won by a nose over Larson. Sheldon Haudenschild, Marks, and Macedo rounded out the top five.
Afterwards in victory lane the win over such a deep collection of talent and the paycheck was not lost on Gravel.
“It feels really good to beat the best. Whenever it pays over fifty grand that is a crown jewel to me. We will take that to the bank and we have got three more races this weekend. We need to stay focused and win the championship.”
Governor’s Reign – Night #2
Ollies Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1
Eldora Speedway
Rossburg, Ohio
Wednesday September 23, 2020
Lincoln Electirc Qualifying
1. 41-David Gravel, 12.816[14]
2. 14P-Parker Price Miller, 12.916[11]
3. 21-Brian Brown, 12.946[10]
4. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.959[6]
5. 57-Kyle Larson, 12.967[4]
6. 14-Tim Kaeding, 12.970[9]
7. 17S-Sheldon Haudenschild, 12.996[35]
8. 1A-Jacob Allen, 13.001[41]
9. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 13.020[23]
10. 49-Brad Sweet, 13.030[20]
11. 2-Carson Macedo, 13.036[42]
12. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 13.042[34]
13. 71-Shane Stewart, 13.043[25]
14. 28-Tim Shaffer, 13.076[8]
15. 39M-Anthony Macri, 13.081[37]
16. 72-Daryn Pittman, 13.089[16]
17. 12N-Joey Saldana, 13.100[40]
18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 13.102[31]
19. 5-Brent Marks, 13.103[21]
20. 2M-Kerry Madsen, 13.107[45]
21. 26-Cory Eliason, 13.143[36]
22. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 13.161[24]
23. 17B-Bill Balog, 13.164[26]
24. 9-James McFadden, 13.166[29]
25. 3-Jac Haudenschild, 13.166[13]
26. 17A-Austin McCarl, 13.171[22]
27. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 13.173[1]
28. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 13.176[46]
29. 11-Zeb Wise, 13.181[17]
30. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 13.187[15]
31. 67-Buddy Kofoid, 13.216[5]
32. 13-Paul McMahan, 13.217[2]
33. 69-Brady Bacon, 13.220[3]
34. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.222[28]
35. 70-Cale Thomas, 13.223[12]
36. 41S-Dominic Scelzi, 13.228[30]
37. 17-Ian Madsen, 13.241[7]
38. 3C-Cale Conley, 13.283[43]
39. 5T-Travis Philo, 13.286[33]
40. 21B-Christopher Bell, 13.291[39]
41. 83-Spencer Bayston, 13.314[19]
42. 4-Cap Henry, 13.402[27]
43. 99-Skylar Gee, 13.409[32]
44. 15K-Chad Kemenah, 13.412[38]
45. 39-Sammy Swindell, 13.535[44]
46. 24-Rico Abreu, 26.126[18]
Ford Performance Heat Race #1 (8 Laps):
1. 57-Kyle Larson[2]
2. 21-Brian Brown[4]
3. 14-Tim Kaeding[1]
4. 15-Donny Schatz[3]
5. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[6]
6. 28-Tim Shaffer[5]
7. 13-Paul McMahan[8]
8. 67-Buddy Kofoid[7]
9. 17-Ian Madsen[10]
10. 69-Brady Bacon[9]
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat Race #2 (8 Laps):
1. 72-Daryn Pittman[2]
2. 41-David Gravel[4]
3. 3-Jac Haudenschild[1]
4. 14P-Parker Price Miller[3]
5. 11K-Kraig Kinser[6]
6. 83-Spencer Bayston[8]
7. 24-Rico Abreu[9]
8. 70-Cale Thomas[7]
9. 11-Zeb Wise[5]
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat Race #3 (8 Laps):
1. 5-Brent Marks[1]
2. 49-Brad Sweet[3]
3. 71-Shane Stewart[2]
4. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]
5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[5]
6. 17A-Austin McCarl[7]
7. 17B-Bill Balog[6]
8. 4-Cap Henry[9]
9. W20-Greg Wilson[8]
Mobil 1 Heat Race #4 (8 Laps):
1. 17S-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]
2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[1]
3. 39M-Anthony Macri[2]
4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]
5. 9-James McFadden[6]
6. 26-Cory Eliason[5]
7. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[7]
8. 5T-Travis Philo[8]
9. 99-Skylar Gee[9]
Kistler Racing Products Heat Race #5 (8 Laps):
1. 2M-Kerry Madsen[1]
2. 12N-Joey Saldana[2]
3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]
4. 2-Carson Macedo[3]
5. 21B-Christopher Bell[7]
6. 1A-Jacob Allen[4]
7. 3C-Cale Conley[6]
8. 15K-Chad Kemenah[8]
9. 39-Sammy Swindell
Computer Man Inc C-Main (10 Laps):
1. 67-Buddy Kofoid[1]
2. 70-Cale Thomas[2]
3. 4-Cap Henry[3]
4. 11-Zeb Wise[5]
5. 5T-Travis Philo
6. 15K-Chad Kemenah[4]
7. 99-Skylar Gee[7]
8. W20-Greg Wilson
9. 17-Ian Madsen[6]
DNS: 69-Brady Bacon
DNS: 39-Sammy Swindell
Kears Speed Shop Dash #1 (4 Laps)
1. 41-David Gravel[1]
2. 21-Brian Brown[2]
3. 15-Donny Schatz[3]
4. 17S-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]
5. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]
6. 87-Aaron Reutzel[6]
Elliotts Custom Trailers and Carts Dash #2 (4 Laps)
1. 5-Brent Marks[1]
2. 2-Carson Macedo[2]
3. 72-Daryn Pittman[3]
4. 14P-Parker Price Miller[4]
5. 57-Kyle Larson[6]
6. 2M-Kerry Madsen[5]
Computer Man Inc C-Main (10 Laps)
1. 67-Buddy Kofoid[1]
2. 70-Cale Thomas[2]
3. 4-Cap Henry[3]
4. 11-Zeb Wise[5]
5. 5T-Travis Philo
6. 15K-Chad Kemenah[4]
7. 99-Skylar Gee[7]
8. W20-Greg Wilson
9. 17-Ian Madsen[6]
DNS: 69-Brady Bacon
DNS: 39-Sammy Swindell
Classic Ink USA B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 1A-Jacob Allen[1]
2. 28-Tim Shaffer[2]
3. 9-James McFadden[4]
4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]
5. 11K-Kraig Kinser[6]
6. 26-Cory Eliason[8]
7. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[5]
8. 83-Spencer Bayston[10]
9. 21B-Christopher Bell[7]
10. 17B-Bill Balog[11]
11. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[13]
12. 24-Rico Abreu[15]
13. 13-Paul McMahan[12]
14. 17A-Austin McCarl[9]
15. 70-Cale Thomas[17]
16. 3C-Cale Conley[14]
17. 67-Buddy Kofoid[16]
Ollies Bargain Outlet A-Main (35 Laps)
1. 41-David Gravel[1]
2. 57-Kyle Larson[10]
3. 17S-Sheldon Haudenschild[7]
4. 5-Brent Marks[2]
5. 2-Carson Macedo[4]
6. 49-Brad Sweet[13]
7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[9]
8. 2M-Kerry Madsen[12]
9. 1S-Logan Schuchart[20]
10. 1A-Jacob Allen[21]
11. 72-Daryn Pittman[6]
12. 14-Tim Kaeding[16]
13. 87-Aaron Reutzel[11]
14. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[24]
15. 21-Brian Brown[3]
16. 9-James McFadden[23]
17. 26-Cory Eliason[25]
18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[15]
19. 15-Donny Schatz[5]
20. 12N-Joey Saldana[14]
21. 39M-Anthony Macri[18]
22. 14P-Parker Price Miller[8]
23. 13-Paul McMahan[26]
24. 71-Shane Stewart[17]
25. 3-Jac Haudenschild[19]
26. 28-Tim Shaffer[22]