Sheldon Haudenschild's Buckeye Brawl presented by NOS Energy Drink

The first World of Outlaws race at Millstream since 1994 goes to the defending champion after a battle with last year’s Rookie of the Year

West Coast. East Coast. It doesn’t matter where they’re at. David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports just win.

The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champions won $83,000 at Thunderbowl Raceway’s Dennis Roth Classic in California last Saturday. Six days later the scene shifted more than 2,000 miles east to Findlay, OH’s Millstream Speedway for Sheldon Haudenschild’s Buckeye Brawl presented by NOS Energy Drink. The result? Another trip to Victory Lane for Gravel and the Big Game crew.

The Watertown, CT native lined up on the front row, but it was polesitter Michael “Buddy” Kofoid leading the way early on. Gravel kept Kofoid within his sights to set up a duel between the current top two in World of Outlaws points and the two winningest drivers on the tour this year.

Gravel stalked Kofoid in traffic and made the winning move on Lap 9 when Kofoid slipped in traffic. The Big Game No. 2 rolled under the Roth Motorsports No. 83 out of Turn 4 to take the top spot. Several cautions lined Kofoid up alongside Gravel for restarts, but Gravel didn’t flinch. He kept Kofoid behind on his way to a $17,000 triumph. Add that to his Dennis Roth Classic paycheck, and that’s an even $100,000 for his last two days of work.

“Sometimes it’s better to be running second,” Gravel said. “Buddy was searching around and running low below guys, and I got really big runs on him on the top. He didn’t know. He was just trying to get by lapped cars, and I was lucky to take advantage of it. He kind of went low and slid across, and I kind of followed him in to hit the bottom really good and got in front of him off of (Turn) 4. That was the winning move. I knew it was going to come down to a corner or two.”

Gravel’s 15th victory of the year equaled his 2024 total, and he’s now three away from reaching his career best mark of 18 in a year. The 118th of his career also moved him within four of tying Danny Lasoski for the sixth most all-time with The Greatest Show on Dirt. Gravel becomes the sixth different World of Outlaws winner at Millstream.

Kofoid claimed the second spot worth $11,000 after leading the opening eight circuits. The Penngrove, CA native and the Roth crew have now pieced together 11 consecutive top five finishes. Despite continuing their recent stretch of consistency, Kofoid came away a bit disappointed after feeling like he let a potential checkered flag slip from his grasp.

“I just feel like that’s probably where I gave the race away is traffic,” Kofoid said. “It’s just disappointing. I feel like my car was good in traffic, but I feel like I made bad decisions in traffic. I got a good run and just anticipated them to maybe slide across or run the top, and they just went to the bottom, and I just lost the momentum. I did that probably one or two turns too many.”

The final spot on the podium went to Logan Schuchart as he kept his recent hot streak rolling aboard the Shark Racing No. 1S. Schuchart now has 15 straight finishes of sixth or better. The Hanover, PA native is happy with his team’s recent speed as his 12th year on the World of Outlaws tour winds down.

“I just felt like I was on the edge of disaster the whole time,” Schuchart explained. “Sometimes that’s fun. Sometimes that puts on the best races for fans, and that’s what we’re here for is to put on a show. I’m happy that we could put this thing on the podium.”

Garet Williamson and Kasey Jedrzejek completed the top five.

Darin Naida marched from 24th to 15th to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.

Carson Macedo set a new track record and grabbed his seventh Simpson Quick Time of 2025 in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.

Heat Races belonged to Carson Macedo (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Garet Williamson (Real American Beer Heat Two), and Sheldon Haudenschild (WIX Filters Heat Three).

The SPA Technique #1 Redraw went to Buddy Kofoid.

Kofoid also topped the Toyota Dash.

Hunter Schuerenberg won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Carson Macedo.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their final Ohio appearance of 2025 at Hartford, OH’s Sharon Speedway for the Federated Auto Parts Showdown on Saturday, Sept. 27. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

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

FEATURE RESULTS:

NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[2]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson[3]; 5. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[11]; 6. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]; 7. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog[15]; 9. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz[17]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[19]; 12. 7S-Chris Windom[16]; 13. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[12]; 14. 18-Emerson Axsom[13]; 15. 10RR-Darin Naida[24]; 16. 28N-Trey Jacobs[21]; 17. 98-Ricky Peterson[22]; 18. 33W-Cap Henry[9]; 19. 6-Zach Hampton[18]; 20. 15S-Kerry Madsen[8]; 21. 99-Skylar Gee[7]; 22. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 23. 15C-Chris Andrews[10]; 24. 17R-Tylar Rankin[23]