Buddy Kofoid and David Gravel left the rest of the field in their wake Friday night at Volusia Speedway Park and waged an entertaining battle in the 2026 season opener for the World of Outlaws. Yes, Spencer Bayston did win a World of Outlaws feature here on Wednesday night, but that was a non-points event that replaced what had traditionally been a practice night here at the DIRTcar Winter Nationals so, after Thursday's rainout, Friday's show would serve as the first points race for the Outlaws and it would play out in front of a standing room only crowd on a breezy and chilly evening in Florida.
You could actually trace Kofoid's win back to a final lap pass that he made in the fourth heat race where Iowa's Chris Martin had set a blistering pace and appeared headed for victory before a late caution reset the table with Logan Shuchart and Buddy Kofoid close behind him. Shuchart would put a slider on Martin in turn four only to have Chris answer with a crossover to maintain the lead. Schuchart would come right back at the leader the next lap and as they sped under the white flag Logan would edge down to block Martin and it would take away just enough of his momentum to allow Buddy to charge under Martin down the back stretch to steal second as the checkers waved.
Now why was this so newsworthy? I often say that you can point to a moment earlier in the evening that was crucial in determining the final outcome and this is a prime example as the last lap pass for second moved Kofoid into the Dash where, as the last driver to draw for starting positions, he found the number one as the only chip left in the NOS Energy can. He would then go on to finish second to Garret Williamson in the Dash putting him on the outside of the front row for the twenty-five lap feature and without that final move in the heat race he would have instead lined up twelfth for the main event.
Officially Kofoid would lead the race flag-to-flag, but there were at least three occasions in the final ten laps where Gravel was ahead of him only to have Buddy come charging back to always lead at the stripe. With two laps to go he was able to overtake two lapped cars in turns one and two and when Gravel was unable to do the same down the back stretch the race was decided with the young Californian taking the win over the two-time and defending Outlaws champion David Gravel. Carson Macedo would come from seventh to finish third, Anthony Macri was a contender early before slipping to fourth while Logan Schuchart finished where he had started, in fifth.
Just like Wednesday night, Donny Schatz did not qualify well, but he raced like old times as he came from seventh to win the B-Main and then started twenty-first and raced to sixth in the finale in his CJB Motorsports team car to young Brenham Crouch. The pole-sitter Williamson slipped to seventh, still an impressive run for the 2025 WoO Rookie-of-the-Year, Justin Peck finished where he started in eighth while two movers closed out the top ten. Cole Macedo who earlier went eighth to fifth in his heat race just to make the show then raced from seventeenth to ninth while Wednesday's winner Spencer Bayston overcame a slow qualifying effort to race to tenth after starting on the outside of row eleven,
Wisconsin driver Scotty Thiel was the rookie of the race finishing nineteenth after starting tenth. Thiel had a spot in the Dash seemingly in hand while running second in the third heat only to have Parker Price-Miller steal it away in the final lap. The 2025 Knoxville Nationals champion Ryan Timms finished fourteenth while Knoxville's track champion from last year, Austin McCarl, was twentieth and Chris Martin finished twenty-second in the twenty-seven car starting field.
Conner Morrell who is starting his second full year on the tour never took the green flag in either his heat race or the B-Main, but still came to the track as provisional starter for the feature where again the push truck brought him straight into the infield. That's a tough break for 2026 rookie contender Scott Bogucki who may have been next in line for an emergency provisional and who would have actually been able to compete in the main event, but instead watch from the pits.
An even one hundred UMP Modifieds were listed on the roster and they would run six fifteen-lap main events on this night with the top three in each locking in to Saturday's Big Gator finale for the division that has been in action here since Thursday the week before. We would see the first three of those races that were run prior to the Outlaws main event with southern Illinois ace Will Krup going flag to flag to win the opener over Tyler Nicely and Chris Wilson. In the second feature Maryland's Mitch Thomas got too high in turn two on lap number three and briefly climbed the wall dropping him from second to fourth and he battled back to second before the caution waved on lap seven. On the restart leader Zeke McKenzie was no match for the rim riding Thomas who made the pass in the same corner that nearly took him out previously and he would drive away to victory over McKenzie and David Stremme.
The third feature would see Kyle Strickler hold off a persistent challenge from Charlie Mefford to take the win while the third and final qualifying spot was like one of Jack Donlan's tasty hot potatoes that nobody could hold on to fresh off the grill. George Dixon had it until he clipped the wall on the back stretch and then climbed it in turn three. Justin Allgaier raced his way up to third on that restart but then lost it on the final restart to Vermont driver Justin Stone. Wait, they have UMP Modifieds in Vermont? Well no, not really as while Stone does race the division here in Florida during SpeedWeeks he regularly races in the Big Block Modifieds when back home in the northeast.
The final three Modified features took to the track as we headed for the warmth of our car Jordan Koehler, Trevor Neville and Ricky Thornton Jr. taking wins. Thanks to a former hometown Mount Pleasant race fan Troy Spence, and his now west Florida neighbor Scott Baldwin for organizing the fun afternoon and then evening and as always there is no better person to locate in a parking lot at a dirt track race than my good friend Jack Donlan who, as always, fed us well before the races.
With the weather warming up I hope to get back out to Volusia either once or twice next week with the Late Models headlining the action in this my first time back for Speed Weeks since 2022. Thanks for stopping by the Back Stretch!
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