By Alex Nieten
COLUMBUS, MS (March 9, 2025) – Perfection. That’s the only word to describe David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports on Saturday at Mississippi’s Magnolia Motor Speedway.
The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champions checked all the boxes. It began with setting their fourth consecutive Simpson Quick Time and establishing a new track record in the process. Next up was a Heat Race win. Then came a Toyota Dash victory.
All that remained was a 35-lap Feature, and Gravel put the punctuation on a perfect night. The Watertown, CT native led every single circuit on his way to his third trip to Victory Lane in 2025. He never flinched in traffic. Never faltered on a restart. It was yet another example of Gravel and his team being at the top of their game. At the top of the sport.
“Cody (Jacobs), Zach (Patterson), and Pete (Stephens) have been giving me great race cars every night,” Gravel said. “Look at what we’re doing in Qualifying. We could’ve potentially won last night too. It’s just been a dream to drive this Big Game No. 2.”
The dream has included an early stretch of dominance for Gravel and the Tod Quiring-owned team. They’re now up to seven podiums in eight races, and their worst result is fourth. Gravel’s average finish this season is an astonishing 2.13. All three of their victories have come in the last four races.
It was also a big night historically for the 32-year-old. Gravel’s 106th career triumph with The Greatest Show on Dirt pushed him ahead of Joey Saldana for sole possession of seventh on the all-time win list.
While he made it look easy, Gravel acknowledged it wasn’t a simple path to the checkered flag. Lapped traffic threw him some curveballs on where to race on the 3/8 mile. But even with a little indecision, it wasn’t nearly enough to drop him into the clutches of those chasing.
“I didn’t know where to run,” Gravel admitted. “I felt like it was the top, and then Skylar Gee had a really good pace and was running low and kind of running away from me in (Turns) 1 and 2. I felt like the top was better in (Turns) 3 and 4, but when I moved down I felt good in both lanes.”
The runner-up spot belonged to Carson Macedo in the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41. He stole the second position on the final lap from Sheldon Haudenschild to wrap up a strong night. The result was Macedo’s sixth consecutive top 10 and his first time on the podium since winning the 2025 season opener.
“I think I was actually really good on the bottom, and each time I’d get to his (Sheldon Haudenschild) left-rear, he’d cut my water off getting into (Turn) 1,” Macedo explained. “It just would kill my run off of (Turn) 2 and take me so long to get back to him. I switched in up there that last lap and went to the top in (Turns) 1 and 2 and made some good speed and was able to get a run down into Turn 3 and kind of get my angle right and hit the bottom nice and squirt off to the checkered.”
Rounding out the top three was Sheldon Haudenschild with the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing team. It was a welcome confidence boost for the Wooster, OH native as it marked his first podium of the season in the NOS Energy Drink No. 17.
“I think we have a lot of takeaways, finally just a good run and felt like I knew what I was doing again,” Haudenschild said. “Pumped with my team right now. This NOS Energy Drink/West Tennessee Expediting car is back where it belongs. I had a struggle of a start to the year at Volusia. It kicked our butts, but just felt really good from the start tonight.”
Buddy Kofoid and Logan Schuchart completed the top five.
The KSE Racing Hard Charger went to Zach Hampton with a run from 22nd to seventh.
Gravel’s Simpson Quick Time was the 126th of his career in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One and Two belonged to David Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild. WIX Filters Heat Three went to Austin McCarl.
Gravel topped the Toyota Dash after getting the SPA Technique #1 Redraw.
Bryce Lucius won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Austin McCarl.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars head to Texas for two nights (March 14-15) at Kennedale Speedway Park. 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 (35 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid[9]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 7. 6-Zach Hampton[22]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]; 9. 7S-Chris Windom[13]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 11. 27-Emerson Axsom[23]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson[11]; 13. 14-Spencer Bayston[18]; 14. 39M-Anthony Macri[6]; 15. 19-Brent Marks[12]; 16. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[17]; 17. 2C-Cole Macedo[15]; 18. 99-Skylar Gee[20]; 19. 32-Bryce Lucius[19]; 20. 9-Kasey Kahne[24]; 21. 28M-Conner Morrell[16]; 22. 40-Howard Moore[21]; 23. 88-Austin McCarl[4]; 24. 84-Brandon Hanks[14]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 32-Bryce Lucius[2]; 2. 99-Skylar Gee[5]; 3. 40-Howard Moore[3]; 4. 6-Zach Hampton[10]; 5. 27-Emerson Axsom[4]; 6. 9-Kasey Kahne[1]; 7. 15K-Creed Kemenah[7]; 8. 29-Logan McCandless[9]; 9. 73-Logan Julien[8]; 10. 44-Derek Hagar[6]
Toyota Dash (8 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]; 4. 88-Austin McCarl[3]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]; 6. 39M-Anthony Macri[4]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz[4]; 5. 7S-Chris Windom[5]; 6. 28M-Conner Morrell[7]; 7. 40-Howard Moore[10]; 8. 44-Derek Hagar[9]; 9. 15K-Creed Kemenah[8]; 10. 6-Zach Hampton[6]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson[6]; 5. 84-Brandon Hanks[8]; 6. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[5]; 7. 27-Emerson Axsom[7]; 8. 9-Kasey Kahne[4]; 9. 73-Logan Julien[9]
WIX Filters Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 88-Austin McCarl[1]; 2. 39M-Anthony Macri[2]; 3. 83-Michael Kofoid[4]; 4. 19-Brent Marks[3]; 5. 2C-Cole Macedo[6]; 6. 14-Spencer Bayston[7]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee[9]; 8. 32-Bryce Lucius[5]; 9. 29-Logan McCandless[8]
Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel, 00:11.216[10]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:11.317[18]; 3. 88-Austin McCarl, 00:11.325[5]; 4. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:11.407[20]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:11.419[6]; 6. 39M-Anthony Macri, 00:11.438[17]; 7. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:11.439[12]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:11.441[2]; 9. 19-Brent Marks, 00:11.443[16]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:11.480[1]; 11. 9-Kasey Kahne, 00:11.487[21]; 12. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:11.492[28]; 13. 7S-Chris Windom, 00:11.502[3]; 14. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 00:11.512[25]; 15. 32-Bryce Lucius, 00:11.534[13]; 16. 6-Zach Hampton, 00:11.564[9]; 17. 23-Garet Williamson, 00:11.623[24]; 18. 2C-Cole Macedo, 00:11.661[22]; 19. 28M-Conner Morrell, 00:11.696[7]; 20. 27-Emerson Axsom, 00:11.696[23]; 21. 14-Spencer Bayston, 00:11.769[8]; 22. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 00:11.843[26]; 23. 84-Brandon Hanks, 00:11.879[19]; 24. 29-Logan McCandless, 00:11.899[4]; 25. 44-Derek Hagar, 00:11.902[14]; 26. 73-Logan Julien, 00:11.911[15]; 27. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:11.940[27]; 28. 40-Howard Moore, 00:12.024[11]