MESQUITE, Texas — The No. 41 sprint car has long been a familiar sight in the storied history of Devil’s Bowl Speedway, with the late Jason Johnson posting a multitude of wins atop the Mesquite black clay over the years.
But, for the first time on Friday night, Carson Macedo parked the JJR Albaugh No. 41 in Devil’s Bowl Speedway victory lane by wiring the field in the World of Outlaws “Final Stampede” opener on the final weekend atop the half-mile Devil’s Bowl clay oval.
Macedo capitalized on the pole starting position for the 25-lapper and led the way throughout to capture the $12,000 winner’s share with his seventh series score of the year that snapped a 17-race winless drought.
“Devil’s Bowl has a lot of history, a lot of the Johnson family are from this area or very close to it so it’s very special for them,” the Lemoore, California, racer commented in victory lane. “I won a cowboy hat, so I’ll finally bring one home.”
Macedo set the stage for the victory lane drive by establishing the night’s second-quickest time and then placing second in his heat before winning the dash to earn the pole position.
“I feel like we laid down a really respectable lap in qualifying,” Macedo explained. “We were able to get into the Dash, win the Dash from second and then capitalize on that pole starting position and lead every lap of the feature.”
While Macedo outgunned fellow front row starter David Gravel for the point at the drop of the green, it wasn’t without some pressure along the way as traffic became a factor with the race’s only caution flying in the first handful of laps.
“I was getting a little nervous behind that one lapper, I was having a hard time guessing where he was gonna go,” Macedo explained. “I felt like my pace was slowing way down, I knew they were probably catching me.”
Macedo ultimately raced to the checkered flag with a .677-second advantage over Gravel, who had his hands full fending off sixth-starter and current WoO points leader Brad Sweet for the runner-up slot over the latter half of the race after trying to press for the lead in the early going.
“I thought I had a really good run on him (Macedo) and had trouble with a lapped car, and later on I couldn’t run the top the way I could earlier,” Gravel explained of the runner-up finish.
“We were able to drive up there and honestly contend there for second and didn’t feel like Carson was driving away,” Sweet said after filling out the podium.
Spencer Bayston chased the lead trio to the line in fourth with Robbie Price rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[2]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[6]; 4. 5-Spencer Bayston[4]; 5. 7S-Robbie Price[3]; 6. 83-James McFadden[5]; 7. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[9]; 8. 1T-Tanner Holmes[8]; 9. 15-Donny Schatz[12]; 10. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[14]; 11. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[15]; 12. 52-Blake Hahn[11]; 13. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[19]; 14. 1S-Logan Schuchart[13]; 15. 1-Brenham Crouch[7]; 16. 95-Matt Covington[17]; 17. 84-Scott Bogucki[21]; 18. 9-Kasey Kahne[20]; 19. 11-Cory Eliason[18]; 20. 20G-Noah Gass[10]; 21. 72-Harli White[16]; 22. 87J-Jace Park[23]; 23. J2-John Carney II[22]; 24. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[24]