By lex Nieten
PAIGE, TX (March 22, 2025) – David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports came about as close to perfection as possible this weekend in the “Lone Star State.”
It began with Friday’s victorious night at Cotton Bowl Speedway. The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champion started the night with Simpson Quick Time and topped the opening Heat Race. Gravel then finished fourth in the Toyota Dash, and it would be the first and only time he wasn’t atop the leaderboard the entire weekend.
After claiming Friday’s Feature, Saturday started with another Quick Time and a new track record as the cherry on top. Gravel won his Heat and the Dash and put the thunderous punctuation on a dominant weekend by leading all 30 laps of the finale. The brooms were brought out. Gravel swept the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step.
“You just go out and have fun, and you believe in your race car every time you hit the track,” Gravel said of his recent success. “I’ve been pushing the limits of the car in Qualifying and then a couple of times going into Turn 1. Luckily there was grip up there, or I could’ve blew through the cushion. Cody (Jacobs) is giving me a lot of confidence and trying to bring the car to its full potential and everybody is doing a great job. We’re just having fun, and there’s no pressure. We just go out there and race and don’t think about it too much and listen to our instincts.”
The win was Gravel’s fifth in the last eight races with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He’s now up to 108 career World of Outlaws victories. It marked 114 Series wins for Tod Quiring’s Big Game Motorsports, moving them within one of equaling Roth Motorsports for fifth all-time. The weekend sweep coupled with Gravel’s 2018 Cotton Bowl checkered flag made him the first to own a trio of triumphs at the Paige, TX track.
And while Gravel might’ve been the one celebrating, Michael “Buddy” Kofoid didn’t make it easy on him. The Penngrove, CA native snagged the runner-up spot on Lap 20 and went to work on chasing down the No. 2. Kofoid narrowed the gap in the closing laps but just couldn’t find a way around Gravel despite taking a couple swipes at the top spot.
“Those last five laps I was just hanging on,” Gravel admitted. “I kept getting looser and looser, and I didn’t want to grab too much more wing because I needed to get through (Turns) 1 and 2 well. I saw he was getting close to me there on the jumbotron, but man what a run we’re on right now. I felt like we had a pretty good race car there. It just seems like sometimes when there’s a lot of cautions or reds the tires don’t fire off the best, and I feel like I lost a little bit of grip there, but I can’t complain with sweeping the night. Cody, Zach (Patterson), and Pete (Stephens) are just performing every night giving me great race cars and giving me the platform to show my talent.”
Kofoid settled for second for the second night in a row in the Roth Motorsports No. 83. The reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year was a little disappointed in not being able to get to Victory Lane, but the momentum continues to build as Kofoid collected his third consecutive top two finish.
“Yeah, that’s where I let my team down,” Kofoid said of a late attempt at taking the lead. “I knew the laps were winding down and just got too eager because I struggled really bad in (Turns) 3 and 4. I think it was more myself. Dylan, Nate, and John carried me here this weekend. This is a place that’s been weird for me to get ahold of, especially in (Turns) 3 and 4, and then I found a ton of speed through there. I just took my chance too early.”
The final spot on the podium went to “Lone Star State” local Sam Hafertepe Jr. The Sunnyvale, TX native slipped back as far as seventh early on but rallied for his second trip to the top three during the World of Outlaws Texas trip in the Hills Racing Team No. 15H.
“We just didn’t have the grip off of (Turn) 4 like those guys had,” Hafertepe Jr. explained. “So, we just started kind of blowing across there and getting up right next to the wall and getting the forward drive off. He (Logan Schuchart) went down low there on the restart and actually let me get a lot of momentum on the outside and got to third there.”
Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top five.
A 17th to eighth march earned Garet Williamson the KSE Racing Hard Charger in the Fischer Motorsports No. 23.
Gravel set a new Cotton Bowl Speedway track record in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying to claim his third consecutive Simpson Quick Time and his seventh of 2025.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One and Two belonged to David Gravel and Donny Schatz. WIX Filters Heat Three went to Sheldon Haudenschild.
Gravel topped the Toyota Dash after getting the SPA Technique #1 Redraw.
Conner Morrell won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Jace Park
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their way toward the Midwest with a weekend at Oklahoma’s Lawton Speedway on Friday, March 28 and 81 Speedway in Wichita, KS on Saturday, March 29.
FOR LAWTON TICKETS, CLICK HERE
FOR 81 SPEEDWAY TICKETS, CLICK HERE
For the complete 2025 schedule, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[5]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]; 5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 6. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 7. 2C-Cole Macedo[11]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[17]; 9. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 10. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[16]; 11. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 12. 17B-Bill Balog[21]; 13. 7S-Chris Windom[20]; 14. 99-Skylar Gee[18]; 15. 6-Zach Hampton[13]; 16. 24T-Christopher Thram[8]; 17. 73-Logan Julien[15]; 18. 28M-Conner Morrell[19]; 19. 88R-Ryder Laplante[24]; 20. 45X-Jace Park[12]; 21. 17GP-Landon Crawley[22]; 22. 15-Donny Schatz[6]; 23. 2KS-Cory Eliason[14]; 24. J2-John Carney II[23]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (10 Laps): 1. 28M-Conner Morrell[1]; 2. 7S-Chris Windom[5]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog[6]; 4. 17GP-Landon Crawley[2]; 5. J2-John Carney II[3]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[7]; 7. 85-Colby Stubblefield[8]; 8. 22M-Rees Moran[4]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]; 5. 83-Michael Kofoid[6]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[4]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[3]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]; 5. 6-Zach Hampton[5]; 6. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[6]; 7. J2-John Carney II[8]; 8. 17GP-Landon Crawley[7]; 9. 88R-Ryder Laplante[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15-Donny Schatz[2]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 3. 24T-Christopher Thram[4]; 4. 2C-Cole Macedo[3]; 5. 2KS-Cory Eliason[7]; 6. 23-Garet Williamson[5]; 7. 28M-Conner Morrell[6]; 8. 7S-Chris Windom[8]; 9. 85-Colby Stubblefield[9]
WIX Filters Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 3. 27-Emerson Axsom[6]; 4. 45X-Jace Park[2]; 5. 73-Logan Julien[4]; 6. 99-Skylar Gee[5]; 7. 22M-Rees Moran[8]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog[7]
Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel, 00:13.334[3]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 00:13.492[1]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 00:13.689[7]; 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:13.728[8]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:13.763[15]; 6. 45X-Jace Park, 00:13.783[9]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid, 00:13.828[14]; 8. 2C-Cole Macedo, 00:13.867[23]; 9. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:13.892[18]; 10. 41-Carson Macedo, 00:13.896[22]; 11. 24T-Christopher Thram, 00:13.901[12]; 12. 73-Logan Julien, 00:13.915[6]; 13. 6-Zach Hampton, 00:13.921[11]; 14. 23-Garet Williamson, 00:13.932[19]; 15. 99-Skylar Gee, 00:13.935[5]; 16. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 00:13.950[16]; 17. 28M-Conner Morrell, 00:13.963[26]; 18. 27-Emerson Axsom, 00:13.993[10]; 19. 17GP-Landon Crawley, 00:14.011[4]; 20. 2KS-Cory Eliason, 00:14.057[13]; 21. 17B-Bill Balog, 00:14.062[24]; 22. J2-John Carney II, 00:14.134[17]; 23. 7S-Chris Windom, 00:14.261[21]; 24. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:14.457[25]; 25. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:14.625[20]; 26. 85-Colby Stubblefield, 00:31.198[2]