KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Gio Scelzi scored a comeback win Friday night at Lakeside Speedway to become the 15thdifferent winner in World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series competition this season.
After starting on the pole, the 19-year-old fell back to as far as fourth before rallying to take the lead on the final restart with four laps left. The kid they call “Hot Sauce” brought the heat on the only single-file restart of the race as he tracked Kerry Madsen down the frontstretch, throttled the high side through turns one and two and pitched a perfect slide job into turn three.
It was Scelzi’s third career World of Outlaws victory and first of the season aboard the KCP Racing No. 18.
The victory at Lakeside’s four-tenths-mile oval also came in Dylan Buswell’s debut as new crew chief of the Aspen Aire, Logan Contractors Supply No. 18. The Australian most recently worked with Roth Motorsports and Aaron Reutzel before joining KCP two weeks ago.
Once clear of Madsen for the race lead, Scelzi controlled the final four laps and cruised to a.893-second margin of victory at the checkered flag.
“This is a huge relief,” Scelzi said. “I think the monkey is off our back. No matter how low the lows get, this team never gives up. I was hoping a caution would come out and sure enough we got it. I knew that was my only chance to get Kerry and it worked perfect. It was fast, but the track widened out well.”
“I fell back early when Aaron Reutzel tried to crash me on the frontstretch,” a smirking Scelzi added. “It bent the tie rod, drag link, the steering was almost sideways, but it just gave me some extra motivation to race that much harder.”
Donny Schatz also capitalized on the final restart and moved up to finish second. It was the 10th runner-up result of 2021 for the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team s.
“I was hoping we’d get more traffic, but the yellows kept coming,” Schatz said. “Gio was so good on those restarts, it’s just the way it played out. The guys did a great job and we made the right adjustments.”
After leading the opening 26 laps, Madsen settled for a third-place effort aboard the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing No. 14.
“It’s unfortunate for this Tony Stewart team,” Madsen admitted. “We had the best car and I had the opportunity to close it out, but just didn’t do it. Being disappointed with a third-place finish means you’re doing something right, though.”
Aaron Reutzel collected his best World of Outlaws finish of his SRS No. 8 tenure in fourth-place, while Logan Schuchart drove the Drydene Performance Products No. 1s to fifth place.
To see full results, turn to the next page.