By Alex Nieten
PAIGE, TX (March 18, 2025) – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are ready to two-step in Texas.
The country’s best Sprint Car drivers are partnered with their 900-horsepower machines. The music choice is the roar of the engines. And the venue is Paige, TX’s Cotton Bowl Speedway for the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step.
Cotton Bowl has hosted The Greatest Show on Dirt on eight previous occasions. The Paige, TX facility will equal North Texas Motor Speedway on Friday and then surpass it on Saturday as the seventh most visited Texas track by the World of Outlaws.
Last year, Cotton Bowl delivered a pair of thrillers and expect no different as the sport’s top talent returns for two more nights.
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Let’s look at the weekend’s top storylines:
HOT SAUCE HEATING UP: After a rough start to the season, Giovanni Scelzi and his KCP Racing team are heading in the right direction.
It began with a top 10 and a podium during Volusia’s Bike Week Jamboree to begin March. Mechanical issues in the Heat Race took him from a likely Dash birth and derailed the Talladega trip. But since then, it’s been an eighth at Magnolia Motor Speedway and a win and third at Kennedale Speedway Park.
As luck would have it, Scelzi now heads to a place that’s been plenty kind to him in the past. Last year’s Texas Two-Step saw the Fresno, CA native take the World of Outlaws point lead for the first time in his career when he finished third on night one. Then, he backed that up with a victory in the finale. He’s only missed the top 10 once in six tries at the Texas track and owns a 6.67 average finish.
COWBOY CARSON: Lemoore, CA’s Carson Macedo has excelled when he’s saddled up, put on the cowboy boots (race shoes) and headed to Texas in recent years.
He’s won once in the “Lone Star State” each of the past three years. Macedo topped a trip to the track on this weekend’s agenda in 2022. Then, it was a Devil’s Bowl Speedway victory during the track’s final weekend in 2023. Last year, he claimed the Series debut at Kennedale Speedway Park.
This weekend offers up Macedo’s final chance of the season to keep the streak alive. He and the Jason Johnson Racing crew are hungry for their first trip to Victory Lane since the season opener. They’ll head to Cotton Bowl on a streak of eight consecutive top 10 finishes including a pair of podiums.
HAUD ON THE HUNT: Another proven driver/team combination righting the ship is Sheldon Haudenschild and Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing.
The exciting Ohio gasser has finished sixth or better in four of the last six races including a season-best third at Magnolia. The recent speed lifted the 31-year-old into the top five in points.
Haudenschild is still chasing his first victory of the season, but the momentum he’s built coupled with his Cotton Bowl résumé suggests the odds are in his favor this weekend. He’s a two-time winner, driving from sixth to victory in 2021 and from seventh to the top of the leaderboard the next year. Another Texas triumph this weekend would make him the first to three Cotton Bowl wins with the World of Outlaws.
STILL STREAKING: David Gravel continues to appear unstoppable in 2025. The 32-year-old just made his 900th career start this past weekend and looks to be entering his prime.
After his first World of Outlaws championship in 2024, he and Big Game Motorsports have upped things to another level this year. The Watertown, CT native is yet to miss the top five through 10 races. Early contact Saturday at Kennedale knocked him back as far as seventh, but he still rallied to fifth by the time the checkered flag fell. The top five streak sits at 16 races dating back to last season.
Like most tracks he’s visited, Cotton Bowl has also been a source off success for Gravel. He’s competed at every World of Outlaws race the track has hosted and boasts a 5.75 average finish. The 2018 visit belonged to Gravel when he led every lap at the 3/8 mile.
TOP ROOKIE SWAP: With nearly an eighth of a season complete, it looks like the 2025 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year is going to live up to all the hype. Of the seven contestants, no driver has been able to take firm control as they all look to write their name in the history books. The first five are separated by a mere 60 points.
Garet Williamson sits atop the class and ninth overall in points thanks to his best weekend of the year in Texas. The Columbia, MO native finally broke into the top 10 on night one at Kennedale with a seventh. The next night he took the Fischer Motorsports No. 23 to an 11th place finish. He’s been the most consistent of the rookies as of late with an 11.3 average finish over the last six races.
Chris Windom slipped to second, just four markers behind Williamson. Hunter Schuerenberg continues to sneak up on both courtesy of three top 10s in the last five races. “Hunter Percent” trails Williamson by 24 points. Then, it’s Zach Hampton (-26 points), Cole Macedo (-60 points), Conner Morrell (-98 points), and Skylar Gee (-122 points).
THIS WEEKEND AT A GLANCE
WHEN AND WHERE
Friday-Saturday, March 21-22 at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige, TX
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CURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (10/89 Races):
1. David Gravel – Big Game Motorsports No. 2 (1402 PTS)
2. Logan Schuchart – Shark Racing No. 1S (-62 PTS)
3. Carson Macedo – Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 (-64 PTS)
4. Michael Kofoid – Roth Motorsports No. 83 (-106 PTS)
5. Sheldon Haudenschild – Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing No. 17 (-146 PTS)
6. Donny Schatz – Tony Stewart/Curb Agajanian Racing No. 15 (-146 PTS)
7. Giovanni Scelzi – KCP Racing No. 18 (-170 PTS)
8. Bill Balog – B2 Motorsports No. 17B (-174 PTS)
9. Garet Williamson – Fischer Motorsports No. 23 (-236 PTS)
10. Chris Windom – Sides Motorsports No. 7S (-240 PTS)