Carson Macedo Outduels Buddy Kofoid For First Career Charlotte Victory; Gravel Locks Up First Career World of Outlaws Championship

Story By: ALEX NIETEN / WORLD OF OUTLAWS – CONCORD, NC – Carson Macedo came into the World of Outlaws World Finals knowing he wouldn’t leave anything on the table. The odds of climbing back in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship fight were slim, but that didn’t mean he’d give less than maximum effort. And that kind of attitude brought him to Victory Lane on Friday night.

Macedo and the Jason Johnson Racing crew earned the pole for the 25-lap finale and came out on top of a spirited battle with Michael “Buddy” Kofoid for a $15,000 score at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

Macedo led early before Kofoid roared by on the outside, but the Lemoore, CA native refused to be beaten by his fellow Californian as Macedo came back with a slide job that proved to be the winning move.

Only three spots behind him, David Gravel came home fourth to secure a World of Outlaws title and end Macedo’s outside chance. But the 28-year-old had nothing to hang his head about. He did everything he could by picking up the win, but Gravel and the Big Game Motorsports team continued the consistency they showed all season long.

“I think it takes time to win a race here,” Macedo explained. “It’s definitely a chess game. As the lines and stuff move around, you’ve got to be able to move around with them. I think your car, obviously, being good helps a lot, too. I felt really confident when Buddy got by me that I could maybe get back by him.

“Feels good to win the battle tonight, but obviously we kind of lost the war. That’s a little bit bittersweet, but congrats to the 2 team and David on winning the championship. Man, we fought all year. We fought as hard as we could. Someday maybe we can be sitting in that spot.”

The Charlotte win made it a dozen overall in 2024 for Macedo with The Greatest Show on Dirt. That marks a new personal best for him. It was also his first ever checkered flag from the North Carolina facility. His 47th career victory moves him within four of equaling Jeff Swindell for 17th all time.

As previously noted, a fourth place result locked up the championship for David Gravel. He becomes the 11th driver in Sprint Car history to own a World of Outlaws title. Big Game Motorsports team owner, Tod Quiring, is only the 10th owner to claim the championship and becomes the first new one since 2013 when Kasey Kahne got his first with Daryn Pittman behind the wheel.

“It feels good to go into tomorrow just racing for a win,” Gravel said. “I want to touch that trophy and raise that trophy above my head because I’ve been doing this for a long time. We’ve been close a lot of years and been on the podium a lot in the points. To finally get it done and do it with Levi, being a dad, and having a family and everything feels really, really cool. There’s a small list of World of Outlaws champions, and I’m just proud to be one of them.”

Macedo and Kofoid led the field to green, and Macedo jumped right out to an early lead.

The early part of the race allowed Macedo to inch away from Kofoid and Gravel as he rolled the bottom of the freshly prepped surface, but lapped traffic threw him a curveball.

Once traffic became a factor near the halfway point, Macedo’s lead started to shrink as Kofoid started to get the cushion going around the 4/10 mile. Kofoid finally found the momentum he needed to blast by for the top spot on Lap 16 out of Turn 2. Macedo came back at him with a slider in the next set of corners, but Kofoid calmly crossed him over to keep the lead.

It was a short-lived stint atop the leaderboard as the tricky cushion caught Kofoid. The Roth Motorsports driver tripped up outside of Turn 2 allowing Macedo back to his tail tank. He wasted no time looking to reclaim the top spot as he tried to throw a slider in Turn 3 but couldn’t clear him. However, one more set of corners was what Macedo required as he tossed a slide job that stuck in Turns 1 and 2.

From there, Macedo drove away with ease to his 12th World of Outlaws victory of the 2024 campaign.

“I was just the leader and didn’t really know where to be,” Macedo said of his race. “I was running the bottom at the time and felt like it was slowing down. My pace was just getting so low. I kept getting my wing back I tried it the one time and felt like I was on ice skates it was so dirty. I just never thought that it would’ve been that good. Then I could hear Buddy get to my outside, I thought, ‘Man, he must just be running just behind me.’ Then I see him leave my left rear off of (Turn) 2. I tried to slide him in (Turns) 3 and 4 and got over the cushion a little bit. But overall, my car was incredible.’

Kofoid came home in the runner-up spot for his second straight second place finish in the Roth Motorsports No. 83. He continues to make some final additions to his unbelievable rookie season résumé with the World of Outlaws.

“Obviously, Carson and the 41 guys were really good,” Kofoid said. “I just had my wing back to be really good down there (Turns 3 and 4) kind of through the dust before it cleaned up. And then I was kind of running across (Turns) 1 and 2, middle-up and kind of was just getting my wing back every lap. Then it looked clean enough, so I moved up more on top into (Turn) 1 and just plugged it a little bit too hard and let Carson back by.”

Like Kofoid finished up second both nights, the third position belonged to Justin Peck once again on Friday. The Monrovia, IN native continues to prove he’s quickly adapted to wheeling his new ride, the Rudeen Racing No. 26.

“Two nights in a row we’ve kind of started a bit free as we started that Feature. My car is awesome. After we get a couple laps into the race it starts coming in. The longer the race goes the faster I seem to get. The car is really good man.”

David Gravel and Kasey Kahne completed the top five.

A 23rd to 15th run earned Donny Schatz back-to-back KSE Racing Hard Chargers.

NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Giovanni Scelzi, Carson Macedo, and Justin Peck. Milton Hershey School Heat went to Buddy Kofoid.

Carson Macedo won the Toyota Racing Dash.

Logan Schuchart won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Danny Sams III.

NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[1]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[4]; 4. 2-David Gravel[3]; 5. 9-Kasey Kahne[8]; 6. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[13]; 7. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[7]; 9. 13-Daison Pursley[6]; 10. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[10]; 11. 23-Garet Williamson[11]; 12. 1A-Jacob Allen[17]; 13. 21-Brian Brown[9]; 14. 17B-Bill Balog[18]; 15. 15-Donny Schatz[23]; 16. 1S-Logan Schuchart[21]; 17. 10-Ryan Timms[16]; 18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[25]; 19. 2KS-Cory Eliason[24]; 20. 27-Emerson Axsom[22]; 21. 23W-Justin Whittall[19]; 22. 24D-Danny Sams III[15]; 23. 7S-Landon Crawley[14]; 24. 7N-Darin Naida[20]; 25. 99-Skylar Gee[12]