Lonnie Wheatley (March 5, 2023) – Carson Macedo and James McFadden both picked up World of Outlaws feature wins at Barberville, Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park on Sunday night.
Macedo topped the scheduled 30-lapper after racing past Giovanni Scelzi on the tenth round while Aussie James McFadden wired the field in the 30-lap makeup feature event from February 11.
Feature One:
Macedo gridded the JJR No. 41 Sprint Car fourth in the night’s first feature and spent the opening rounds chasing pole starter Giovanni Scelzi on a fast, narrow, half-mile oval. Macedo made the move that worked to take command on the tenth round and paced the field ahead of Scelzi and Buddy Kofoid until the race’s only caution flew after 27 laps for Bill Rose’s stalled mount in turn four.
The restart shook up the top runners when Scelzi’s mount stumbled and collected Kofoid, sending both to the work area and moving series points leader at that time David Gravel into second.
Macedo jumped away once again on the restart and stormed to his first WoO win of the season ahead of Gravel with Kasey Kahne filling out the podium as Logan Schuchart and Brian Brown filled out the top five. Donny Schatz turned in Hard Charger honors by racing from 21st to seventh after suffering ignition box problems in heat race action.
“I thought the guys behind me had to be getting close,” Macedo explained afterward. “The car was just incredible in traffic and that’s what it was going to take to win tonight.”
Makeup Feature:
Putting finishing touches on the DIRTcar Winter Nationals that fell victim to rain prior to the final feature in February, Australia’s James McFadden capitalized on the pole starting position to lead all 30 laps to earn the 100th series win for the Roth No. 83 Sprint Car team and the first in WoO competiton for a Toyota-powered Sprint Car.
A pair of cautions after 18 and 22 laps did little to deter McFadden’s pace as he streaked to the checkered flag ahead of defending series champion Brad Sweet.
Minus a shoe after having a “shoey” atop the wing, McFadden explained that, “We struggled with speed on the top the last couple of nights, and they spun some spanners around and got it rolling. To win for Toyota, they’re so new to the sport, and to get an Outlaw win for them is unbelievable and hopefully a sign of things to come.”
Sweet put up his top finish of the young WoO season in second, commenting that, “I needed some lapped traffic to maybe spice it up, but honestly the lapped traffic was just as fast.”
After starting eighth, Brian Brown made a spectacular move on a lap 19 restart from sixth to second only to have it negated when Giovanni Scelzi came to a stop in turn three with a flattened right rear. Set back to sixth, Brown still made his way back up to third to fill out the podium.
Logan Schuchart finished the night out in fourth to take the DIRTcar Nationals “Big Gator” after previous leader David Gravel was collected along with Jacob Allen when Carson Macedo popped a left rear tire on the 19th circuit.
Donny Schatz rounded out the top five in the make-up feature event as Brock Zearfoss turned in top passing honors by racing from 18th to tenth.
Sunday – March 5, 2023, Results:
Volusia Speedway Park (Barberville, FL) – World of Outlaws
Class: Winged 410s
Car Count: 23
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 2. 2-David Gravel[3]; 3. 9-Kasey Kahne[6]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[8]; 5. 21-Brian Brown[5]; 6. 83-James McFadden[9]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz[21]; 8. 13-Justin Peck[12]; 9. 49-Brad Sweet[7]; 10. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[10]; 11. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[14]; 12. 5-Spencer Bayston[13]; 13. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[19]; 14. 1A-Jacob Allen[11]; 15. 8-Aaron Reutzel[17]; 16. 26-Zeb Wise[16]; 17. 11-Michael Kofoid[2]; 18. 20G-Noah Gass[18]; 19. 5T-Ryan Timms[15]; 20. 7S-Robbie Price[20]; 21. 97UK-Ryan Harrison[22]; 22. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]; 23. 6-Bill Rose[23]
Fast time: Brian Brown 13.652
Heat Winners: Carson Macedo, Buddy Kofoid, Giovanni Scelzi.
Makeup “A” Main from February 11 (30 Laps): 1. 83-James McFadden[1]; 2. 49-Brad Sweet[3]; 3. 21-Brian Brown[8]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz[7]; 6. 5-Spencer Bayston[4]; 7. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 8. 11-Michael Kofoid[10]; 9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[15]; 10. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[18]; 11. 8-Aaron Reutzel[16]; 12. 2-David Gravel[9]; 13. 9-Kasey Kahne[13]; 14. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[12]; 15. 1A-Jacob Allen[2]; 16. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[14]; 17. 7S-Robbie Price[20]; 18. 20G-Noah Gass[19]; 19. 13-Justin Peck[11]; 20. 5T-Ryan Timms[17]; 21. 6-Bill Rose[21]. DNS: 71-Cory Eliason; 48-Danny Dietrich; 55-Hunter Schuerenberg; 9p-Parker Price Miller; 39M-Anthony Macri; 19-Brent Marks; 7BC-Tyler Courtney.