ATTICA, Ohio — Spencer Bayston held off the best in the business to earn his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victory in Tuesday night’s 33rd annual Brad Doty Classic at Attica Raceway Park.
Leading the final 33 laps, the 22-year-old Bayston remained calm, cool and collected with two-time series champion Brad Sweet breathing down his neck during several late-race restarts.
Bayston, who won Saturday night’s Lou Blaney Memorial at Sharon Speedway, collected his first World of Outlaws victory in his 44th series start. It was also the first World of Outlaws triumph for team owner Sam McGhee.
Bayston’s breakthrough came with the ultimate task: beating Sweet heads up.
Sweet threw several challenges at the up-and-coming star, but Bayston never wavered in clutch time. Following the final restart with 10 to go, Bayston cruised away to a 2.174-second victory.
He climbed out to the roars of a packed crowd, stood atop the wing and let his jubilant screams echo throughout the fairgrounds.
“This is something every kid dreams of when they grow up watching the World of Outlaws,” Bayston admitted. “You know I when I was a kid, I thought these guys were like the NFL, the NBA, the best in the dirt world. I wanted to go out and compete against them, let alone actually beat them. It’s hard to describe. Wow.”
Becoming the third and final leader in Tuesday’s 40-lap affair, Bayston executed a pitch-perfect restart on lap eight and successfully came out ahead of Logan Schuchart and Cory Eliason in a three-wide move out of turn two.
Capitalizing on every turning point of the race, Bayston’s bid for the lead came following contact between Schuchart and Tyler Courtney. The duo had gone back and forth while exchanging the lead in the first five laps, but they hit on lap five and the result sent Courtney spinning.
Ironically enough, Courtney falling wayside in pursuit of his first-career win is what helped open the door for Bayston to get his.
Once into command, Bayston initially checked out and built a sizable gap as he raced into lap traffic while Sweet dueled with Schuchart for second. The first of two restarts came on lap 27 when fourth-running Eliason spun to a stop and erased Bayston’s advantage.
He survived Sweet’s first attempt at the top spot, but the caution would fly again on lap 30. However, being with 10 to go, the rules called for a single-file restart with Sweet stuck to the tail of Bayston. He gave it another shot entering turn one, but fell short and Bayston rode off into a sunset filled with glory.
“I was thinking about how many times I’ve watched DIRTVision and Brad stole the win on a late-race restart,” Bayston joked. “I tried to get in the zone as much as possible and just hit my marks. I knew that if I could get to the exit of turn two clean then I would be good. I knew that would win me the race. I was looking at the board every lap just counting down the laps and trying to remember to breath.”
The magnitude of the win wasn’t lost on the young man throughout post-race celebrations. He’s now the 146th driver in history to win a World of Outlaws race.
More importantly, its proof that his brand new relationship with Sam McGhee Motorsports is firing on all cylinders.
“I don’t know where to start with these guys,” Bayston said. “To come here with a team that I think we’ve ran 13 races together and do this is unbelievable. We’ve got a badass crew chief that’s younger me (Sam McGhee, 21) and we are all so fresh as a unit. We almost won an All-Star race our second night, then we won Sharon last week, and now we’ve got an Outlaw win.”
Sweet came home second, with Carson Macedo third.
Donny Schatz raced from 22nd to finish fourth on the third-mile dirt track.
To see full results, turn to the next page.