From Brian Walker
PORT ROYAL, Pa. (October 8, 2022) — It took Anthony Macri more than five years and 60 starts to win his first-career World of Outlaws NOS Energy DrinkSprint Car Series Feature; then it only took him another 23 hours to quickly top his second.
The 23-year-old sensation earned his 23rd win of 2022 on Saturday night, doing so in spectacular fashion as swept the Nittany Showdown at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway to bank a $25,000 weekend on home turf.
Unlike Friday’s flag-to-flag domination, Saturday’s score required much more of a battle as the Dillsburg, PA native went toe-to-toe with Myerstown, PA’s Brent Marks. The duo swapped slider-after-slider for three laps near the midway point, but Macri’s #39M ultimately prevailed on Lap 15 and never looked back.
It was the perfect exclamation point on what has easily been the most incredible season of Macri’s young career. He’s the winningest driver in the country, he won the $60,000 Tuscarora 50 last month, now he’s a back-to-back World of Outlaws winner; and the year still isn’t officially over.
“It’s honestly incredible,” Macri remarked on his year. “This is something that I didn’t think was ever feasible. It’s a testament to how hard this team works and the effort we put in. We had a great car all night long again. I had to kind of wait for Brent [Marks] to hit dirty air or a restart to make a move on him. I knew I needed to turn the wick up, but mainly keep it out of the fence once I got by him.
I don’t know what it is, honestly, that has changed for us. Nothing specific is different, I’m pretty sure this car is leftover from last year. I think it’s just been a mindset thing for this group. I finally started to get my head out of my butt more often, too. It’s unreal.”
After leading the opening 14 laps, Brent Marks slipped back to earn runner-up honors with his eighth podium of the year in World of Outlaws competition. It was a strong rebound for the Murray-Marks #19 after leaving on the wrecker during Friday’s Feature.
“This kind of feels like a win after these last two races,” Marks mentioned. “We had a good car all night long, but the #39M is just so good here. It’s a unique setup for this track and they have it nailed down. I felt like we had a winning car, but we’re not as good as them right now. I’m proud of this team for all the adversity we’ve faced lately.”
Finishing third and snapping the PA Posse’s streak of podium sweeps at Port Royal was David Gravel in the Big Game Motorsports #2. Across both nights, he chopped off 28 points in the championship chase and now sits only 66-points behind Brad Sweet with six nights remaining.
“Anything is possible,” Gravel noted on the title pursuit. “I’m really proud of our effort this weekend. It feels good to be competitive at a place like this against these guys. They’re just willing to go to that next level here that I’m not as comfortable with yet. Once we get to race here more and more, I think I’ll get used to it down the road.”
Closing out the top-five at Port Royal was 10-time World of Outlaws champion, Donny Schatz, in fourth, and 121-time Port Royal winner, Lance Dewease, finishing fifth.
Rounding out the top-10 on Saturday was Danny Dietrich in sixth, Lucas Wolfe in seventh, James McFadden in eighth, Brad Sweet in ninth, and Kasey Kahne in tenth.
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, Pennsylvania
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Qualifying Flight A
1. 39M-Anthony Macri, 15.659[3]
2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 15.769[9]
3. 1A-Jacob Allen, 15.785[16]
4. 19-Brent Marks, 15.797[15]
5. 69K-Lance Dewease, 15.826[4]
6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 15.828[21]
7. 83-James McFadden, 15.851[19]
8. 67-Justin Whittall, 15.868[20]
9. 42-Sye Lynch, 15.870[10]
10. 48-Danny Dietrich, 15.885[11]
11. 23-Devon Borden, 15.908[17]
12. 5C-Dylan Cisney, 15.966[1]
13. 73-Scotty Thiel, 15.966[8]
14. 21-Brian Brown, 16.004[14]
15. 6D-Ryan Smith, 16.044[2]
16. 35-Austin Bishop, 16.077[5]
17. 17B-Steve Buckwalter, 16.087[12]
18. 1M-Landon Myers, 16.309[13]
19. 29-Dan Shetler, 16.497[18]
20. 8X-Nick Sweigart, 16.718[7]
21. 12W-Troy Fraker, 17.745[6]
Qualifying Flight B
1. 2-David Gravel, 15.674[17]
2. 5-Spencer Bayston, 15.752[5]
3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 15.820[13]
4. 49-Brad Sweet, 15.842[10]
5. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 15.868[12]
6. 41-Carson Macedo, 15.898[1]
7. 15-Donny Schatz, 15.911[4]
8. 55-Mike Wagner, 15.920[7]
9. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 15.969[2]
10. 45-Jeff Halligan, 15.978[11]
11. 7S-Robbie Price, 15.993[19]
12. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 16.013[16]
13. 9-Kasey Kahne, 16.155[20]
14. 20G-Noah Gass, 16.187[8]
15. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 16.289[14]
16. 8-Freddie Rahmer, 16.323[15]
17. 6-Bill Rose, 16.365[3]
18. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer, 16.426[9]
19. 77-Danny Varin, 16.444[6]
20. 97-Brie Hershey, 16.571[21]
21. 1-Logan Wagner, 16.571[18]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 39M-Anthony Macri[1]
2. 83-James McFadden[4]
3. 23-Devon Borden[6]
4. 69K-Lance Dewease[3]
5. 42-Sye Lynch[5]
6. 73-Scotty Thiel[7]
7. 1A-Jacob Allen[2]
8. 6D-Ryan Smith[8]
9. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[9]
10. 29-Dan Shetler[10]
11. 12W-Troy Fraker[11]
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 19-Brent Marks[2]
2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[1]
3. 48-Danny Dietrich[5]
4. 67-Justin Whittall[4]
5. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]
6. 5C-Dylan Cisney[6]
7. 21-Brian Brown[7]
8. 35-Austin Bishop[8]
9. 1M-Landon Myers[9]
10. 8X-Nick Sweigart[10]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 2-David Gravel[1]
2. 15-Donny Schatz[4]
3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[3]
4. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[2]
5. 9-Kasey Kahne[7]
6. 7S-Robbie Price[6]
7. 11K-Kraig Kinser[8]
8. 1-Logan Wagner[11]
9. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[5]
10. 77-Danny Varin[10]
11. 6-Bill Rose[9]
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 5-Spencer Bayston[1]
2. 49-Brad Sweet[2]
3. 41-Carson Macedo[3]
4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]
5. 8-Freddie Rahmer[8]
6. 20G-Noah Gass[7]
7. 45-Jeff Halligan[5]
8. 97-Brie Hershey[10]
9. 55-Mike Wagner[4]
10. 8S-Trenton Sheaffer[9]
C-Main
1. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[2]
2. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[1]
3. 77-Danny Varin[4]
4. 1M-Landon Myers[3]
5. 29-Dan Shetler[5]
6. 8X-Nick Sweigart[7]
7. 6-Bill Rose[8]
DNS: 8S-Trenton Sheaffer
DNS: 12W-Troy Fraker
DIRTVision FAST PASS Dash (6 Laps)
1. 19-Brent Marks[1]
2. 39M-Anthony Macri[2]
3. 49-Brad Sweet[4]
4. 2-David Gravel[3]
5. 15-Donny Schatz[5]
6. 5-Spencer Bayston[6]
7. 83-James McFadden[8]
8. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[7]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps)
1. 1A-Jacob Allen[1]
2. 55-Mike Wagner[2]
3. 73-Scotty Thiel[3]
4. 7S-Robbie Price[4]
5. 20G-Noah Gass[6]
6. 11K-Kraig Kinser[8]
7. 6D-Ryan Smith[9]
8. 21-Brian Brown[7]
9. 5C-Dylan Cisney[5]
10. 45-Jeff Halligan[10]
11. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[14]
12. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[15]
13. 35-Austin Bishop[11]
14. 97-Brie Hershey[13]
15. 1-Logan Wagner[12]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 39M-Anthony Macri[2]
2. 19-Brent Marks[1]
3. 2-David Gravel[4]
4. 15-Donny Schatz[5]
5. 69K-Lance Dewease[12]
6. 48-Danny Dietrich[10]
7. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[13]
8. 83-James McFadden[7]
9. 49-Brad Sweet[3]
10. 9-Kasey Kahne[17]
11. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[18]
12. 41-Carson Macedo[11]
13. 23-Devon Borden[8]
14. 42-Sye Lynch[16]
15. 55-Mike Wagner[21]
16. 1A-Jacob Allen[20]
17. 6D-Ryan Smith[26]
18. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[15]
19. 11K-Kraig Kinser[24]
20. 73-Scotty Thiel[22]
21. 7S-Robbie Price[23]
22. 1S-Logan Schuchart[9]
23. 67-Justin Whittall[14]
24. 8-Freddie Rahmer[19]
25. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[27]
26. 5-Spencer Bayston[6]
27. 45-Jeff Halligan[25]