Inheriting the lead on Lap 30 Saturday night, David Gravel kept a perfect streak of top-five finishes alive in the Huset’s High Bank Nationals at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota and pocketed a record World of Outlaws prize. The winner’s share of the purse was $250,000.
Moving up from his fourth-place starting position, Gravel assumed the lead from Michael “Buddy” Kofoid when his engine blew after 30 uninterrupted laps of racing. Once Gravel assumed the lead, he never relinquished it, although he had to survive one more restart with eight laps remaining following a multicar crash.
Gravel’s win was accompanied by several strong storylines as it came on the track owned by his car owner Tod Quiring, was on the heels of two second-place finishes in preliminary action for the High Bank Nationals and brought Gravel to within one win of Brad Sweet.
“I guess all the seconds paid off,” Gravel said in a press release. “One of these times I was going to win one, so this is a good one to win. We’ve been really good here.
“It’s good to take some of the boss’ money tonight.”
Gravel’s pair of second-place finishes at Huset’s came in the first two nights of action when he finished behind Kyle Larson on Wednesday and James McFadden on Thursday. On Friday night, Logan Schuchart became one of the favorites to win the High Bank Nationals as his steady progression through the four-night program gave him the most recent win.
Gravel beat Rico Abreu, who scored his second podium finish of the High Bank Nationals. Abreu was second to Larson Wednesday night.
“I’m just thankful to my crew for never giving up on me,” Abreu said. “It just shows with these results here. We were kind of mediocre all week to be honest. We had a good run Wednesday night then struggled the last two nights. Then Ricky (Warner, crew chief) really made a big swing at our car and made some big changes which allowed us to get in the hunt here.”
After qualifying seventh for the NASCAR race at Nashville Superspeedway, Larson flew to South Dakota in a quest to steal the $250,000 from the Outlaws regulars. He improved throughout the race before settling for third.
“Once we got the cautions there, the track kind of switched over and my car got really good, just ran out of time there,” Larson said. “I thought we could catch traffic a little quicker and maybe get those guys racing in front of us but just a little too late.
“Honestly, I look back at Thursday night, and if I don’t get into Rico off of (Turn) 2, I finish better and probably start further forward in the Feature and give myself a better shot.”
After his contact with Abreu Thursday night, Larson’s race ended in the work area in 22nd.
Schuchart in fourth and Carson Macedo rounded out the top five.
Gravel is now 10 points behind Sweet in the championship standings as the series prepares for Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wisconsin and the Independence Day Spectacular.
RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[4]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[3]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[6]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet[22]; 8. 5-Spencer Bayston[10]; 9. 11-Cory Eliason[9]; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen[11]; 11. 15-Donny Schatz[13]; 12. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]; 13. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[21]; 14. 20G-Noah Gass[16]; 15. 3-Tim Kaeding[18]; 16. 7S-Robbie Price[19]; 17. 11S-Parker Price Miller[17]; 18. 21-Brian Brown[12]; 19. 25-Lachlan McHugh[23]; 20. 83-James McFadden[14]; 21. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[1]; 22. 83H-Justin Henderson[15]; 23. 88-Austin McCarl[24]; 24. 17B-Bill Balog[20]
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