UNBEATABLE BUDDY: Kofoid Cruises to Merced Victory, California Weekend Sweep

The Californian bags fourth victory in the last five races with a perfect night at Merced

Another day, another Michael “Buddy” Kofoid win.

The 22-year-old has quickly established himself as the hottest driver on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car tour with Roth Motorsports. And he delivered yet another piece of evidence at Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts Yosemite Showdown hosted by Merced Speedway.

Kofoid flexed his muscle every time he hit the track on his way to a clean sweep. It started with his fifth Simpson Quick Time of the year, moved on to victories in NOS Energy Drink Heat One and the Toyota Racing Dash, and the punctuation mark was made with a commanding showing in the Feature.

The Penngrove, CA native started on the pole and led every circuit at the “Golden State” bullring. Thick traffic made things interesting on multiple occasions, but Kofoid made all the right moves on the path to yet another home state triumph.

“I feel like our car has just been exceptional,” Kofoid said. “It’s all those guys – Dylan (Buswell), Nate (Knotts), and Gage (Tyra). They work so hard. They’ve just got us rolling. They’ve got me really comfortable and confident. You’ve got to have confidence on the Outlaw tour and really any Series that you’re doing. I feel like I just have a ton of confidence and know exactly what I’m going to get.

“Happy to get another win. Just want to say thank you to Dennis and Teresa Roth. I can’t thank them enough for letting me live my dream on the Outlaw tour. Being this good is just a lot of fun right now.”

After earning four victories in his first 120 Feature starts with The Greatest Show on Dirt, Kofoid has now reeled off four more in the last five starts, elevating his career total to eight. Half of them have come in his home state of California. He’s now made three total trips to Merced Victory Lane to go along with USAC National Midget checkered flags in 2021 and 2022. The Roth team now hasn’t finished worse than fourth in the last nine races with an average finish of second over that span.

The pole position for the 35-lapper belonged to Kofoid after taming the Toyota Racing Dash. One the green was displayed he darted ahead to an early advantage.

Some early yellows offered Kofoid a hand as they kept him out of lapped traffic throughout the early portion of the race with Tim Kaeding looking to pounce. A restart with 26 laps remaining nearly gave Kofoid a new challenger as Carson Macedo slid Kaeding for second, but another caution before the lap was complete returned the spot to “TK.”

That yellow proved to be the final one of the evening as the laps clicked away fast once the action resumed. Kofoid faced heavy traffic with a hungry Kaeding looking for his first Series win since 2015 right behind him.

A couple close calls nearly gave Kaeding the chance he needed as first Kofoid almost slipped over the cushion and off track in Turn 2, but he managed to keep the car within the banking. Then when he attempted to lap Landon Crawley, Kofoid slid sideways and nearly spun but managed to maintain control.

After the two near misses, Kofoid drove much smoother on his way to win number five in 2024 against the country’s best Sprint Car drivers.

This hot streak couldn’t come at a better time for Kofoid as the Series now steers toward one of the season’s biggest events that happens to honor Kofoid’s car owner – the Dennis Roth Classic. Next weekend’s two-night event at Tulare, CA’s Thunderbowl Raceway will send the winner home with a massive $83,000 payday as a nod to Roth’s iconic car number. With the great help of his crew chief Dylan Buswell, Kofoid is heading to Tulare having the most fun racing he’s ever had and with all the momentum in his corner.

“Dylan has helped me enjoy Sprint Car racing again,” Kofoid said. “There was a while where I wasn’t enjoying it and not questioning things, but I wasn’t in the best place I wanted to be in and should be in. Dylan, and of course Dennis and Teresa Roth and everyone involved, helped me find that drive again to just enjoy it. Obviously, you’ve got to have fun to enjoy it even at this professional level. Without Dylan, Nate, and Gage it wouldn’t be this fun. And obviously running good helps it become fun. Hopefully we can just keep this rolling and try to bring the Dennis Roth Classic back to the shop.”

Finishing second was San Jose, CA’s Tim Kaeding in the Williams Motorsports No. 0, marking his first appearance on the World of Outlaws podium since the 2019 Gold Cup opener at Silver Dollar Speedway. Kaeding has now finished second in four of the six Series races contested at Merced. He thought traffic might’ve given him a shot, but overall came away happy with the runner-up.

“He (Kofoid) kept trying to dive bomb some lapped cars there,” Kaeding said. “And I thought he was going to maybe slide across the racetrack and miss it a little bit, but he didn’t. Buddy is having the time of his life right now running for the Dennis Roth car. We just needed a little bit of luck there. I’m going to take second. That’s a win for us. We’ve struggled almost all year. We’ve had a fast race car, and it finally showed tonight.”

The final step of the podium belonged to Carson Macedo and Jason Johnson Racing. The No. 41 has been within the top three in five of the last six outings as they continue to click away consistency. A 13th place run for David Gravel allowed Macedo to trim his point lead down to 86 markers.

“Ultimately, we’ve just got to keep putting good nights together,” Macedo said. “That’s what we’ve been able to do lately, and it’s paying off. Man, it was a wild race there. I felt like on that one restart I wish it would’ve went. We jumped up into second, but we didn’t quite go a lap so we ended up getting put back.”

D.J. Netto and Cole Macedo completed the top five.

A 24th to 14th run earned Shane Golobic the KSE Racing Hard Charger.

Buddy Kofoid claimed his fifth Simpson Quick Time of 2024 and the 10th of his career in Sea Foam Qualifying.

NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Buddy Kofoid, D.J. Netto, and Sheldon Haudenschild. Milton Hershey School Heat Two went to Carson Macedo.

Buddy Kofoid topped the Toyota Racing Dash.

Kraig Kinser won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Chance Grasty.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars finalize the California swing in a big way with Thunderbowl Raceway’s (Tulare, CA) Dennis Roth Classic on Sept. 20-21 offering an $83,000 payday to the winner. Tickets will be available at the gate.

If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.

FEATURE RESULTS:

NOS Energy Drink Feature (35 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 2. O-Tim Kaeding[2]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto[3]; 5. 21-Cole Macedo[6]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog[8]; 7. 2X-Justin Sanders[16]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[14]; 9. 1S-Logan Schuchart[12]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz[18]; 11. 10-Dominic Gorden[15]; 12. 17AU-Jamie Veal[7]; 13. 2-David Gravel[17]; 14. 17W-Shane Golobic[24]; 15. 57W-Jock Goodyer[13]; 16. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[22]; 17. 83T-Tanner Carrick[23]; 18. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[10]; 19. 7S-Landon Crawley[19]; 20. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 21. 70-Kraig Kinser[21]; 22. X1-Chance Grasty[11]; 23. 45-Landon Brooks[9]; 24. 73-Ryan Bernal[20]

For complete results, CLICK HERE.

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Merced Speedway

900 Martin Luther King Jr Way

Merced, California, 95341

Event Schedule

*All times Pacific

Merced Speedway

900 Martin Luther King Jr Way

Merced, California, 95341