KENNEDALE, Texas — You couldn’t ask for anything more out of Kennedale Speedway Park on Friday night.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series came to town to kick off the Cowtown Classic, and the Texas bullring was absolutely perfect.
Fans were served 35 laps of some of the finest sprint car racing you’ll ever see. The NOS Energy Drink feature began by Christopher Thram, Bill Balog, and Michael “Buddy” Kofoid slicing and dicing for the top spot over the first three laps.
All three of them led at one point during the chaos as they traded sliders and crossovers. Finally, Balog secured control of the lead, but the battles behind him raged on as David Gravel and Carson Macedo joined in on the fun.
As the laps faded, Kofoid surged into second and began to reel in Balog. He pulled the trigger on a Lap 30 slider that got him the lead, but devastation struck on the next circuit as he got into the fence and crashed.
That gifted Balog the lead back, but he had five more laps ahead and a hungry David Gravel behind him. The defending Series champion chipped away at the advantage and finally built a run to throw a slider in the final set of turns. Balog appeared to have a shot to drive around the Big Game Motorsports No. 2’s outside, but he clipped the wall and lost his momentum heading toward the checkered as Gravel stole the win.
“Sometimes it’s better to be running second,” Gravel said. “The bottom was the best place to be in (Turns) 1 and 2, but Buddy started making some hay on the top. I just got my momentum built up. It was way farther around there. I felt like I was getting some runs on him. I think the first two or three laps he hit really good laps on the bottom, and with two to go, he kind of missed it. On the white flag lap, I felt like he started getting free. I wanted to hit the bottom a little better than I did, and I just touched it with my left sides and kind of drove across. I heard him. I know he had to hit the brakes, just going for the win. We’ve run second a bunch of times this year.”
The win gave Gravel 121 in his career with The Greatest Show on Dirt, moving within one of equaling Danny Lasoski for sixth most all time. Kennedale becomes the 56th different track where the two-time champion has won. He’s the sixth different winner through seven races in the 2026 season.
Balog’s runner-up result marked his best finish of the young season. Carson Macedo came home third in the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41, their fifth podium of the year.
Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[5]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[10]; 5. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[23]; 7. 24T-Christopher Thram[1]; 8. 27-Emerson Axsom[7]; 9. 7S-Chris Windom[21]; 10. 17-Spencer Bayston[22]; 11. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[13]; 12. 6-Kasey Jedrzejek[9]; 13. 2C-Cole Macedo[15]; 14. 23-Garet Williamson[14]; 15. 95-Matt Covington[17]; 16. 45X-Rees Moran[11]; 17. 16C-Scotty Thiel[8]; 18. 51-Scott Bogucki[20]; 19. 98-Ricky Peterson[24]; 20. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 21. 99X-Dalton Stevens[19]; 22. 71-Christopher Townsend[18]; 23. 88R-Ryder Laplante[12]; 24. 40-Howard Moore[16]