By Alex Nieten
CONCORD, NC (November 7, 2025)
David Gravel might’ve secured his second straight World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series title on Thursday, but that doesn’t mean he’s cruising to the finish line.
Complacency isn’t what leads to two championships in a row with The Greatest Show on Dirt. Winners want to win. And winners is exactly what Gravel and the Big Game Motorsports team are.
A runner-up on Thursday’s World of Outlaws World Finals opener heightened the hunger for a trip to Victory Lane. It was Rico Abreu who held Gravel off, and he got his chance at redemption just one night later.
On Friday night, Abreu took the lead from Brent Marks on a late restart as Gravel surged from fourth to second. Then Gravel chipped away at Abreu’s advantage as the laps waned. The Rico Abreu Racing No. 24 got slightly held up coming to the white flag, and Gravel capitalized. He shot to the inside of Abreu and slid ahead. Abreu tried a slider to regain the top spot in Turns 1 and 2 but didn’t have enough. Gravel pulled away and took the checkered flag at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
“Just being back a couple rows and getting to pace some guys and see what works and what doesn’t,” Gravel explained of what helped lead him to victory. “I felt like the bottom of (Turns) 1 and 2 wasn’t very good but in (Turns) 3 and 4 I felt pretty good. I wasn’t having good exit speed but was really gaining to the center. I just kept working it. I changed my entry a lot of times there in (Turns) 3 and 4 at the end. The more I got in the brown, the better and more I gained on him (Abreu). He definitely started hanging for sure. He was struggling there in (Turns) 1 and 2. I got faster than him in the cushion, and he was definitely hanging on. It’s good to get a win.”
The victory gave Gravel 17 in 2025 with the World of Outlaws, moving him one away from equaling his personal best mark for one season. It’s the 120th of his career, and he’s two from tying Danny Lasoski for sixth all-time. Eight of those have come at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. That’s just one behind Williams Grove Speedway for the winningest facility on his résumé.
Rico Abreu came home with the runner-up spot, narrowly missing out on two triumphs in a row. The St. Helena, CA native made one slip in traffic that he thought may have been the difference. A win and a second will still line him up on the pole of a Heat Race for Saturday’s season finale.
“I’ve got to watch to see where the 2 car was making ground,” Abreu said. “I felt like on lower air pressure I was really good firing off. Then we caught traffic, and I was trying to watch and judge where the traffic was going. The 17 just kind of moved right up in front of me, and I had to make a last minute decision. You just kill your momentum when you make big, altering movements like that. I think looking back on it I was really aggressive in the beginning of the race on my tires. I used a lot of the left rear tire and could feel it grinding.”
Donny Schatz drove from 10th to third for a much-needed encouraging finish aboard the Sides Motorsports No. 15. The 10-time Series champion has faced some struggles over the last several months, but Friday turned the tides as he collected his first podium since early August at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
“We found something to get the motor running in that Heat Race there,” Schatz said. “I don’t know if we got something in the fuel, but it kind of plugged the nozzles. We made up that ground in the Heat Race, which is huge. When you get inside the top 10, you can go race. We’ve run good around here in the past. I could kind of float the middle there after the restarts for a couple laps then you had to get up and go. I just couldn’t finish the corner quite right. I watched David, and he was kind of in the line I wanted to be, so I had to be off his right rear a little bit. It got my car a little upset, but we’ll take it.”
Chase Randall and Spencer Bayston completed the top five.
Carson Macedo took the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 from 25th to eighth to bag the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.
Heat Races belonged to Brent Marks (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Rico Abreu (Real American Beer Heat Two), David Gravel (WIX Filters Heat Three), and Garet Williamson (TheGreatestStoreonDirt.com Heat Four).
The SPA Technique #1 Redraw went to Rico Abreu.
Brent Marks topped the Toyota Dash.
Justin Peck won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Garet Williamson.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars wrap up the 2025 campaign with a $25,000-to-win/$1,750-to-start finale at The Dirt Track at Charlotte as World Finals comes to a close. 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 (25 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[6]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 4. 9R-Chase Randall[4]; 5. 17JR-Spencer Bayston[3]; 6. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid[16]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo[25]; 9. 10-Ryan Timms[7]; 10. 42-Sye Lynch[5]; 11. 26-Justin Peck[21]; 12. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[14]; 13. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[23]; 14. 15S-Kerry Madsen[27]; 15. 18-Cory Eliason[19]; 16. 49X-Cale Thomas[22]; 17. 71-Parker Price Miller[13]; 18. 2MD-Darin Naida[18]; 19. 99-Skylar Gee[20]; 20. 7S-Chris Windom[29]; 21. 19-Brent Marks[1]; 22. 6-Zach Hampton[17]; 23. 2C-Cole Macedo[12]; 24. 28M-Conner Morrell[30]; 25. 17B-Bill Balog[28]; 26. 14-Corey Day[24]; 27. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[11]; 28. 23-Garet Williamson[8]; 29. 1S-Logan Schuchart[26]; 30. 24D-Danny Sams III[15]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 26-Justin Peck[1]; 2. 49X-Cale Thomas[2]; 3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[3]; 4. 14-Corey Day[5]; 5. 17B-Bill Balog[4]; 6. 15S-Kerry Madsen[9]; 7. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 8. 9-Daison Pursley[11]; 9. 71RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[8]; 10. 7NY-Matt Farnham[6]; 11. 44-Chris Martin[12]; 12. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[15]; 13. 5-Jeremy Weaver[10]; 14. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[14]; 15. 28M-Conner Morrell[13]
C Feature (10 Laps): 1. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[1]; 2. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 3. 84-Ty Gibbs[9]; 4. 13-Tanner Holmes[7]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[8]; 6. 7S-Chris Windom[5]; 7. 3J-Jacob Begenwald[4]; 8. 6R-Bill Rose[11]; 9. 4-Colton Young[6]; 10. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[12]; 11. 0-Glenn Styres[10]; 12. X-Greg Wilson[2]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps): 1. 19-Brent Marks[2]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 3. 17JR-Spencer Bayston[3]; 4. 9R-Chase Randall[6]; 5. 42-Sye Lynch[4]; 6. 2-David Gravel[5]; 7. 10-Ryan Timms[7]; 8. 23-Garet Williamson[8]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Brent Marks[2]; 2. 42-Sye Lynch[1]; 3. 27-Emerson Axsom[3]; 4. 71-Parker Price Miller[8]; 5. 6-Zach Hampton[4]; 6. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[10]; 7. 26-Justin Peck[5]; 8. 15S-Kerry Madsen[9]; 9. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[6]; 10. 7S-Chris Windom[11]; 11. 84-Ty Gibbs[7]; 12. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[12]
Real American Beer Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 2. 10-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 4. 24D-Danny Sams III[4]; 5. 18-Cory Eliason[6]; 6. 14-Corey Day[8]; 7. 41-Carson Macedo[5]; 8. 9-Daison Pursley[7]; 9. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 10. 13-Tanner Holmes[9]; 11. 6R-Bill Rose[11]
WIX Filters Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 17JR-Spencer Bayston[2]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz[7]; 4. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[3]; 5. 2MD-Darin Naida[5]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog[6]; 7. 71RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[9]; 8. 44-Chris Martin[8]; 9. X-Greg Wilson[10]; 10. 3J-Jacob Begenwald[11]; 11. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]
The Greatest Show on Dirt Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Garet Williamson[1]; 2. 9R-Chase Randall[4]; 3. 2C-Cole Macedo[6]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid[7]; 5. 99-Skylar Gee[3]; 6. 7NY-Matt Farnham[8]; 7. 5-Jeremy Weaver[9]; 8. 28M-Conner Morrell[5]; 9. 49X-Cale Thomas[2]; 10. 4-Colton Young[10]; 11. 0-Glenn Styres[11]