By T.J. Buffenbarger
T.J.’s Takeaways From the 43rd Kings Royal
(July 18, 2026) — After four nights of racing at Eldora Speedway the crown from the 2026 edition of the Kings Royal is headed back to Pennsylvania after Anthony Macri became the second driver in the event’s history to win the feature in back-to-back years.
Here are some takeaways from a highly entertaining close to the weekend.
• The Macri Motorsports team has been through some extreme highs and lows over the past 12 months. In that time frame the team won the Kings Royal twice, had to contend with driver Anthony Macri suffering two back injuries in separate incidents, and were able to get Kasey Kahne his first career World of Outlaws feature victory at Williams Grove Speedway while Macri was recovering.
With Macri’s ability to blast around the Port Royal Speedway gave off the impression that a pairing with Eldora Speedway seemed like a natural fit. When Macri won the Kings Royal last year it seemed logical.
PA Speedweek helped Macri get back into groove with his race team before coming to Ohio for his first visit to Eldora since the incident in September that caused his first of the aforementioned injuries to his back. Macri admitted some minor trepidation at first on his return to Eldora and the 9th and 21st place finishes in the two features he did compete in leading into the Kings Royal did not give off Kings Royal contending vibes.
Big time performers know how to come through in the biggest moments, and Macri is proving to be one of those types of drivers. The soft-spoken young man from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania seemed to get his swagger back on Saturday with his driving rhythm around Eldora resembling what we witnessed before his crash in September.
The most impressive part of Macri’s victory was losing the lead and dropping back to third but realizing how many laps he had left to work with and make the adjustments to his top wing and car placement to fight his way back to the front.
Macri is quickly becoming the leader of the PA Posse when they hit the road away from the Central PA Sprint Car Circuit. The fan support he has garnered is passionate as fans were overheard chanting his name during the post-race press conference until he exited the media center.
The fun part about that passionate support is that Macri does not lean into stirring up his supporters like Jeff Shepard, Bob Weikert, or Fred Rahmer would. He’s not a guy that boasts loudly and even seems a little shy yet appreciative when receiving those accolated, yet the fans still respond to him with every bit of passion as they do with some of their other more boisterous stars.
• After the first night of competition this week at Eldora Speedway I mentioned having a strong gut feeling that it could be a breakout performance for Garet Wiliamson. After qualifying on Saturday, I suggested that he was the driver that finally made me believe he was the pick to win the Kings Royal finale.
For a majority of the main event, it seemed like the proper prediction as Williamson appeared to be on the verge of achieving that career highlight moment. Had the race gone non-stop without the caution flag on lap 34, I feel we would have been seeing Williamson wear that crown.
Macri was able to get by Wiliamson after that restart and the green/white/checkered finish ended up being Williamson’s undoing, dropping to sixth position at the finish, but does not dimension the progress the 26 year old driver from Columbia, Missouri continues to make.
Williamson is on the verge of winning a lot of races, and I feel this is going to start happening sooner than later.
• Rico Abreu found himself again coming up one position away from sending the Eldora Speedway fan base into a frenzy by scoring that elusive win in the Kings Royal.
Abreu has done well to have his performance at the major events match what we see him do at Eldora the rest of the year, working on the mental side of approaching those moments in the racecar while being one of the most accessible stars in sprint car racing.
The Kings Royal weekend was a showcase of the potential of the pairing with Tony Stewart Racing with the flashy paint scheme announcement where Abreu’s car was videoed being helicoptered into Eldora, a VIP themed suite experience between turns one and two that is what you would expect to see out of Abreu and TSR.
While keeping a positive tone in the post-race media activities one could see how badly Abreu wants to win the Kings Royal. I still believe in the next couple of seasons we will see Abreu ascend that throne and send the Eldora crowd into a level we have not witnessed.
• The social media reaction to the fuel stop before the green/white/checkered finish Saturday at Eldora Speedway was largely negative as fans continue to be frustrated with having a fuel stop being part of a any sprint car race that is 40 to 50 laps on a half mile racetrack.
While a lot of the anger is directed towards the World of Outlaws, it’s more of an entire industry problem rather than just an issue with the Outlaws. For years we have let engines become more powerful than they have ever been. With that power comes a thirst for fuel. Mandating a larger fuel cell will not solve the issue because teams will avoid filling them up all the way, but what would work is increasing the minimum amount of green and caution flag laps before a fuel stop.
An increase of laps along with a mandate that if you do run out of fuel you cannot add more to rejoin the field from the work area I feel would help the issue. There would be some rough moments early on, but those that chose not to carry the appropriate amount of fuel or have their engine make an amount of power that does not make it feasible for them to make the minimum level laps.
We have built fuel stops into races such as the Knoxville Nationals and Tuscarora 50, and the Kings Royal almost is assured to have one based on the 40-lap distance. Throw in the work area where teams try their best to rebuild and entire sprint car at times in two minutes and the solution is more difficult that one might assume.
Until multiple series agree to do something of this nature the reality is fuel stops are here to stay. For this to change the tow National series along with multiple regional series and weekly race tracks must be on the same page to address this issue, which I just don’t’ see happening anytime soon.