David Gravel
The title of this piece is not a misprint.
David Gravel currently sits second in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series standings but he, obviously, is hoping to catch leader Brad Sweet and move up one spot before the end of the 2023 season. After a runner-up finish behind Tyler ‘Sunshine’ Courtney on Friday night at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway the Big Game Motorsports driver narrowed the gap to Sweet and extended his margin ahead of third-place Carson Macedo.
The No. 2 team’s Friday night at Port Royal proved to be a work in progress. Gravel qualified fourth in Group A time-trials then won the second heat race. But a seventh place finish in the Toyota Dash placed him on the inside of the fourth row of the feature starting grid. The driver credited crew chief Cody Jacobs for his continued efforts to improve the car throughout the night.
“In the heat race we were decent but I felt like we needed to be better so we threw something at it and it definitely didn’t work in the Dash,” Gravel explained in his post-race interview with DirtVision.com. “I hit the wall on the front stretch and nearly hit the wall in three and four but Cody kept working on this thing and gave us a really good car in the A-Main.”
Gravel quickly began to work his way forward at the start of the race. He was well into the top-5 by the halfway point in the 25-lap main event finally taking second from James McFadden with just a few laps remaining. By that time, however, Courtney was too far ahead in a feature that would run caution free.
Ultimately, the 31-year-old driver was once again left close but short of a victory at Port Royal.
“I felt like in the beginning to the middle of the race we were really, really good,” Gravel said. “I felt like we were one of the best cars. At the end, I just kind of ran out of grip and Sunshine was running a really good pace and I never really got close to him. Congrats to him, that was a big win for him. We’d love to win here at Port Royal, we’ve been on the podium quite a few times and haven’t gotten a win. It’s a lot of track position, starting seventh there and picking our way through and getting to second is a good run but we just need to start fourth and we’d have a chance to win the race.”
The Watertown, Connecticut native has proven himself to be a consistent title contender. He has finished second to Sweet in each of the past two seasons. He also ended the 2018 and 2019 campaigns in the third position. At the end of the night, Gravel had the big picture in mind after finishing ahead of Sweet(6th) and Macedo(8th).
“We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. We had to beat the guys we’ve been racing in points so hopefully we can do that again and let Brad sweat here for the rest of the year.”
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series will conclude the Nittany Showdown at Port Royal on Saturday evening with the race being aired live by DirtVision.com.
Please consider also reading:
‘Sunshine’ Tyler Courtney reigns in taking WoO Sprints win at Port Royal
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