PLACERVILLE, Calif. — Roth Motorsports teammates Buddy Kofoid and James McFadden traded slide jobs and explored different lanes around Placerville Speedway with Kofoid winning Saturday night’s World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event.
After winning the Federated Auto Parts 49er Gold Rush Classic, Kofoid climbed atop the wing of his Roth No. 83jr to chants of “Buddy!” from the grandstands.
“That’s badass for sure,” an ecstatic Kofoid said. “It’s even more special to do it here at Placerville where I cut my teeth in sprint cars. Man, I’m just so fortunate to have Dylan Buswell in my corner. He’s a wizard. Actually, I felt not great in the beginning of the day, and we just got better and better and better. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time with Roth Motorsports.”
While Kofoid won last week’s Gold Cup prelim, the Placerville score is his first official World of Outlaws victory since joining forces with the historic California team. The 21-year-old became the 16th different driver to top a race with The Greatest Show on Dirt for Dennis and Teresa Roth.
Kofoid now owns a trio of World of Outlaws wins, and he became the eighth different competitor to win at Placerville in the Series’ 10th visit.
After topping the Toyota Racing Dash, it was James McFadden leading the field to green with Justin Sanders to his outside. McFadden managed to power ahead when the race began to lead the opening circuit.
Kofoid started the 40-lap tilt in third and quickly challenged Sanders in the opening laps. On the fifth trip around, Kofoid slid Sanders to put the Roth duo atop the scoreboard. A few cautions interrupted the pace inside the opening 10 laps.
A green flag run as the race neared halfway allowed the battle between the Roth cars to ignite. Kofoid reeled in McFadden and attempted a slide job on lap 15 in turns three and four to no avail. A lap later Kofoid tossed another slider in the same set of corners and again came up short.
On the 18th lap, Kofoid pulled alongside McFadden heading to the finish line, and then on the next lap, Kofoid used the bottom to take the top spot. McFadden responded by heading to the low side in turns three and four to slip right back by Kofoid.
The back and forth continued on the next lap as the two swapped lines again, and Kofoid rolled under McFadden in turns one and two. Down on the other end of the racetrack, Kofoid’s slider attempt on a lap car came up short allowing McFadden to peek to the inside. The two came down the front straightaway side by side but Kofoid held on.
“I figured out the top down in (turns) one and two pretty early I felt like,” Kofoid explained. “I started third, fell back to fourth, and got right back to second running the top and sliding people into (turn) three. When I got to James, it had already gotten dirty to where I’d fire one off and get really loose across and kill my momentum. It wasn’t going to clear, and I wasn’t going to send one off into anyone especially James. It was a really good race. I moved back to the bottom and felt really good on the bottom.”
“Those guys have done a lot of laps around here growing up,” McFadden said. “You could pick which line to get on, and I had absolutely no idea of where I needed to be. The cushion was tricky and really dirty up there. You sort of had to lean against it then get away from it at some points.”
After taking over the top spot, Kofoid began to inch away from the rest of the pack, adding a tenth or two to his lead each time around. He gave McFadden hope a couple times as the cushion tripped him up, but ultimately Kofoid stayed comfortably ahead on his way to the checkered flag.
While the prelim win at Silver Dollar Speedway was nice, the one that’ll officially go in the record books tasted a little sweeter for Kofoid.
“Happy to get a full Outlaw win and to do it kind of at a home track for me,” Kofoid said. “Man, that was a tough race but such a fun race.”
Carson Macedo capitalized on a late mistake by McFadden to claim the runner-up spot aboard the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41.
“I felt like the restarts kind of went my way,” Macedo noted. “When I started on the top, I was able to get off the corner nice. Even when I started on the bottom, I could get through (turns) one and two nice on the bottom and get down the backstretch and slide guys in (turns) three and four.”
After leading the opening 19 laps, McFadden wound up completing the top three. Even though losing out left him feeling slightly disappointed, McFadden felt proud to be a part of a special night for Roth Motorsports in their home state.
“What a night for Dennis and Teresa Roth,” McFadden said. “We’d like it to be the other way around, but it’s still cool for the team, unreal for the team. They put a lot in it, so it’s cool to get a first and third in California for them… I feel like I’ve struggled a bit on short tracks over the past couple months, and we turned it around tonight. Happy with our performance.”
Justin Sanders and Corey Day rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[3]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 3. 83-James McFadden[1]; 4. 2X-Justin Sanders[2]; 5. 14-Corey Day[5]; 6. 24-Rico Abreu[4]; 7. 5-Spencer Bayston[13]; 8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[17]; 9. 17W-Shane Golobic[12]; 10. 57W-Chase Randall[9]; 11. 49-Brad Sweet[10]; 12. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[8]; 13. 2-David Gravel[14]; 14. 17M-Kalib Henry[7]; 15. 5V-Colby Copeland[22]; 16. 21-Cole Macedo[20]; 17. 15-Donny Schatz[16]; 18. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[11]; 19. 24X-Chase Johnson[18]; 20. 20G-Noah Gass[21]; 21. 83T-Tanner Carrick[24]; 22. (DNF) 1S-Logan Schuchart[23]; 23. (DNF) 42X-Justyn Cox[19]; 24. (DNF) X1-Michael Faccinto[15]