By T.J. Buffenbarger
MECHANICSBURG, PA (July 26, 2024) — TJ Stutts defended his home turf Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway in impressive fashion Friday night by winning the World of Outlaws feature event during the Morgan Cup. Stutts, from Liverpool, Pennsylvania, held on despite constant pressure from Kings Royal winner and World of Outlaws point leader David Gravel throughout the 25-lap distance. The win was Stutts third victory of the 2024 season and first career World of Outlaws victory.
In victory lane Stutts embraced the underdog role as the Willliams Grove crowd chanted his name.
“We beat the goddamn Outlaws!” exclaimed Stutts in victory lane. “Not just any Outlaw, but David Gravel. There’s about five Outlaws that are in that league and we just got to drive with one of them to beat them. We just go to work every day. This is our version of golf. If we played in the PGA they wouldn’t even let us play with them. I don’t even know what to say this is beyond words”
Stutts was able to take the lead the start of the main event and maintained it through two double file restarts. In the closing stages Gravel was able to get a run under Stutts for the lead, making the pass in turn three, but Stutts was able to cross over Gravel to maintain the lead.
From there Stutts was able to maneuver through slower traffic to extend his lead to 1.957 seconds at the finish.
Stutts felt his car improving throughout the race and catching traffic at the right moments were keys to the victory.
“Honestly the lap cars just fell right,” said Stutts. “The longer we went we actually kept getting better and better and we could move off that curb. I think being able to run three and four like we did in the last couple laps was the only reason we were able to beat (Gravel).”
Gravel finished in second position for the second night in a row coming off his Kings Royal triumph at Eldora, continuing to extend his point lead over Carson Macedo.
“I probably should have maybe slid more aggressively across the got to the cushion a little faster, but the lap cars were running the top there and that really slowed me up those last five laps,” said Gravel of the closing laps. “TJ was good those last three four laps and can really maneuver around. It seemed like as the fuel came off, I just got a little bit up on the left rear and had to rely on the top. I moved the wing back then it was harder and harder to run the cushion and I think that’s where TJ just got us. He didn’t have to rely on the cushion.”
Macedo, Anthony Macri, and Freddie Rahmer rounded out the top five with local Pennsylvania teams taking three out of the top five positions in the main event.
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
Morgan Cup
Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Friday, July 25, 2024
Sea Foam Qualifying
1. 2-David Gravel, 16.676[3]
2. 39M-Anthony Macri, 16.806[12]
3. 41-Carson Macedo, 16.821[10]
4. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr, 16.885[6]
5. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 16.910[4]
6. 67-Justin Whittall, 16.995[1]
7. 1A-Jacob Allen, 16.996[13]
8. 11-TJ Stutts, 17.012[5]
9. 13-Justin Peck, 17.041[8]
10. 19-Brent Marks, 17.069[21]
11. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 17.104[25]
12. 48-Danny Dietrich, 17.118[11]
13. 69K-Daryn Pittman, 17.130[19]
14. 8R-Freddie Rahmer, 17.132[15]
15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 17.142[14]
16. 2D-Chase Dietz, 17.144[32]
17. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 17.147[33]
18. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 17.154[24]
19. 6-Kelby Watt, 17.175[9]
20. 5-Spencer Bayston, 17.198[26]
21. 8-Cory Eliason, 17.202[30]
22. 12-Lance Dewease, 17.226[7]
23. 15-Donny Schatz, 17.228[34]
24. 39-Kody Hartlaub, 17.269[27]
25. 83-Michael Kofoid, 17.277[31]
26. 70-Kraig Kinser, 17.340[2]
27. 19B-Aaron Bollinger, 17.344[28]
28. 17B-Bill Balog, 17.352[20]
29. 1X-Chad Trout, 17.399[22]
30. 33W-Michael Walter, 17.429[18]
31. 35-Austin Bishop, 17.449[16]
32. 7S-Landon Crawley, 17.488[23]
33. 17BX-Steve Buckwalter, 17.505[17]
34. 53-Jessie Attard, 17.672[29]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]
2. 2-David Gravel[1]
3. 13-Justin Peck[3]
4. 69K-Daryn Pittman[4]
5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]
6. 8-Cory Eliason[6]
7. 83-Michael Kofoid[7]
8. 17BX-Steve Buckwalter[9]
9. 1X-Chad Trout[8]
Milton Hershey School Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 39M-Anthony Macri[1]
2. 8R-Freddie Rahmer[4]
3. 67-Justin Whittall[2]
4. 19-Brent Marks[3]
5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]
6. 70-Kraig Kinser[7]
7. 53-Jessie Attard[9]
8. 12-Lance Dewease[6]
9. 33W-Michael Walter[8]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 41-Carson Macedo[1]
2. 1A-Jacob Allen[2]
3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[4]
4. 15-Donny Schatz[6]
5. 6-Kelby Watt[5]
6. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[3]
7. 19B-Aaron Bollinger[7]
8. 35-Austin Bishop[8]
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 11-TJ Stutts[2]
2. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[1]
3. 48-Danny Dietrich[3]
4. 2D-Chase Dietz[4]
5. 5-Spencer Bayston[5]
6. 39-Kody Hartlaub[6]
7. 7S-Landon Crawley[8]
8. 17B-Bill Balog[7]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps)
1. 2-David Gravel[2]
2. 11-TJ Stutts[1]
3. 41-Carson Macedo[3]
4. 8R-Freddie Rahmer[6]
5. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]
6. 39M-Anthony Macri[5]
7. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[7]
8. 1A-Jacob Allen[4]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps)
1. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[1]
2. 8-Cory Eliason[2]
3. 83-Michael Kofoid[5]
4. 70-Kraig Kinser[3]
5. 12-Lance Dewease[10]
6. 39-Kody Hartlaub[4]
7. 17B-Bill Balog[12]
8. 53-Jessie Attard[6]
9. 17BX-Steve Buckwalter[9]
10. 7S-Landon Crawley[8]
11. 19B-Aaron Bollinger[7]
12. 35-Austin Bishop[11]
13. 1X-Chad Trout[13]
14. 33W-Michael Walter[14]
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps)
1. 11-TJ Stutts[2]
2. 2-David Gravel[1]
3. 41-Carson Macedo[3]
4. 39M-Anthony Macri[6]
5. 8R-Freddie Rahmer[4]
6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]
7. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[7]
8. 19-Brent Marks[14]
9. 13-Justin Peck[9]
10. 48-Danny Dietrich[12]
11. 15-Donny Schatz[15]
12. 1A-Jacob Allen[8]
13. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[17]
14. 5-Spencer Bayston[20]
15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[11]
16. 1S-Logan Schuchart[18]
17. 8-Cory Eliason[22]
18. 2D-Chase Dietz[16]
19. 83-Michael Kofoid[23]
20. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[21]
21. 67-Justin Whittall[10]
22. 35-Austin Bishop[26]
23. 6-Kelby Watt[19]
24. 7S-Landon Crawley[25]
25. 70-Kraig Kinser[24]
26. 69K-Daryn Pittman[13]