As championship battles heat up on the last weekend of the season for dirt racing’s premier series, the first of three nights at the World of Outlaws World Finals saw plenty of excitement across all three series. When the engines quieted for the night, David Gravel (World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars), Ricky Thornton Jr. (World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models) and Tim Fuller (Super DIRTcar Series) each emerged victorious.
Thornton Jr. Goes for Three in a Row; Championship Battle Tightens
Ricky Thornton Jr. continued his recent dominance at The Dirt Track at Charlotte with a third consecutive win on the four-tenths-mile clay oval during the first of three consecutive nights of World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model racing at the World of Outlaws World Finals.
Despite starting on the pole, Thornton Jr. lost the lead on the opening lap to outside pole-sitter Drake Troutman. Troutman held off Thornton Jr. for more than 20 laps, but the Chandler, Arizona racer proved to be too much on the long run, riding the cushion to the front with 12 laps remaining and pulling away to a 0.780-second win.
“I feel like we had a really good car there. I could roll on the bottom, go in the middle and pound the top,” Thornton Jr. said. “I hit the wall a couple of times in Turn 2 – just didn’t hit my line exactly perfect – but we ended up (in Victory Lane) and that’s all that matters.”
“I got about halfway through the race and I was like, ‘man, I won this thing running the wall last year; I might as well go try it.’ Once I got to Drake (Troutman), I couldn’t really do anything because he was running just high enough. I got him to move off the top and I was like ‘alright, now I’ve got to move it around.’ I kind of got to do whatever I need to. The track was really good. You could go all over it.”
Troutman finished second, ahead of Chris Madden, Mike Marlar and Daulton Wilson, who rounded out the top five.
Points leader Brandon Sheppard started 25th in Thursday’s A-main after struggling in the second of three Last Chance Showdown races. While he raced his way up to an 18th-place finish, the championship battle remains tight. Sheppard holds a 26-point cushion over Nick Hoffman and 34 marks over Brandon Pierce with just two nights of racing remaining.
Gravel Inches Closer to Championship in Thursday Win
Continuing on his journey for a championship, points-leader Gravel once again commanded the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars feature, claiming his 15th win of the season and seventh career win at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
While Gravel quickly began to lap cars at the back of the field, the real battle was mid-pack, where points runner-up Carson Macedo needed to finish 10th or higher to stay in championship contention. Clawing his way from a 14th-place start, Macedo looked to a Lap 10 caution to bunch up the field, giving him an opportunity to weave his way forward. Spoiling Gravel’s chance to lock-up the series, Macedo showed he is still in it to win it with a sixth place finish.
“Happy to hold on in a 25-lap race; it all happens pretty fast there on those restarts. Once you get in lap traffic, it’s like desert storm there, but just happy to hang on,” Gravel said. “It’s been an unbelievable season, hopefully a championship tomorrow night.”
As the checkered flag flew, Gravel crossed the start/finish line with a 1.42-second gap over second-place finisher Michael Kofoid, followed by Justin Peck in third, Brian Brown in fourth and Logan Schuhart rounding out the Top 5.
Fuller Throttles to Opening Night Victory
Tim Fuller, a 2023 Northeast Dirt Car Hall of Fame inductee, picked up his fifth career win at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, dominating Thursday’s 30-lap Super DIRTcar feature event.
The Edwards, New York driver charged out to a convincing lead on the opening lap, building a two-second gap over second place Anthony Perrego.
Fuller held off the competition after two late-race cautions and powered to a 1.725-second victory over Perrego. Demetrios Drellos, Mat Williamson and Louden Reimert crossed the line third through fifth, respectively. With Williamson’s fourth-place run and trouble for points leader Matt Sheppard that resulted in his first DNF of the season, Sheppard’s championship points lead shrunk to just 26 points heading into the final two nights of the season.
TICKETS:
Action continues Friday with qualifying for the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models and Super DIRTcar Series, followed by feature racing for all three series. Single-day tickets start at $45. Fans can catch all of the action on track with four-day tickets, starting at $139. Tickets are available online at www.charlottemotorspeedway.com/tickets.
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