It’s been a trying month for James McFadden and the Roth Motorsports team, which was penalized 500 driver and owner points in May for a failed tire sample that came back from testing labs.
On Monday, though, the pair came through for a third World of Outlaws win this season at Lawrenceburg Speedway’s Memorial Day Spectacular.
“We’ve obviously been through a lot as a team and I’ve just got to thank everyone for sticking behind us from Dennis and Theresa (Roth) to Toyota Racing Development,” McFadden said on DirtVision. “It’s hard enough doing this up and down the road and then to have the issues we’ve had was pretty brutal for our team. To be standing here in Lawrenceburg – it’s pretty crazy. It’s a top joint, man, I’ve just always felt really uncomfortable here.”
Despite the setbacks, McFadden’s third trip to victory lane in a single season is a personal record for the Australia native – and there’s still almost 3/4th’s of the full schedule to be ran.
There’s no guarantee that the team races every single World of Outlaws race going forward this season – it may chase a different event should the purse money or location, etc. appear valuable – but it showed on Monday that it can take whatever is thrown its way.
Rico Abreu rounded out the podium on the night behind Carson Macedo, who ties Brad Sweet for the current lead in the series points standings.
Sweet had pulled away slightly in the year-long battle, but it’s again tightened up to a three-car race atop the table with David Gravel just eight points back of the two.
Logan Schuchart is currently in fourth place in the standings, distantly back by 148 points. The Shark Racing driver came home P12 Monday and found himself in the middle of a dramatic scene midway through the race.
Cole Macedo, a brother to Carson Macedo, got into Bill Rose during the race, collecting Schuchart in the incident. Series officials had to prevent Rose from approaching Cole Macedo after the accident.
“Well, you’ve got a Macedo that does what Macedo’s do—turn right on the straightaway and hit Bill Rose and I just happened to be there,” Schuchart told DirtVision after the race. “So that’s what happened, that’s unfortunate and I think the outlaws should be like hockey sometimes and they shoulda just let Bill Rose go punch him.”
Schuchart shared his on-board camera over his social media feed, along with the statement saying Rose had a right to be angry with the younger driver.
Macedo didn’t have a lot to say following the race, telling Christopher DeHarde that Rose was simply going slower and he didn’t have anywhere to go. Rose wasn’t as understanding.
Rose stated in his interview with DeHarde that, “I was the slower car, but I was down and out of the way. Cole Macedo just drove over my left side, and I don’t know how Logan got involved in it, but I feel bad for Logan – Cole Macedo’s an idiot.
In an interview with DirtVision, Macedo said it was, “Just racing hard with Logan and we were going back and forth and got to Bill so fast I didn’t know what to do so I went below him and I think it scared him because we’re going so much faster than him and ended up hitting his left front and went for a wild ride. It’s probably the biggest flip I ever had.”
The series will return to the track this weekend, with a doubleheader set for Friday at River Cities to kick off a Midwest swing and a Saturday show at Ogilvie Raceway in Minnesota.
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series points
1. Brad Sweet 3344
1. Carson Macedo 3344
3. David Gravel -8
4. Logan Schuchart -148
5. Donny Schatz -174
5. Sheldon Haudenschild -174
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series results
Memorial Day Spectacular
Lawrenceburg Speedway
Mon. May 29, 2023
1. James McFadden
2. Carson Macedo
3. Rico Abreu
4. Gio Scelzi
5. Buddy Kofoid
6. Sheldon Haudenschild
7. Parker Price-Miller
8. David Gravel
9. Brad Sweet
10. Donny Schatzz
11. Brock Zearfoss
12. Logan Schuchart
13. Mitchel Moles
14. Brandon Wimmer
15. Noah Gass
16. Jacob Allen
17. Cody Maroske
18. Robbie Price
19. Skylar Gee
20. Justin Clark
21. Spencer Bayston
22. Kraig Kinser
23. Cole Macedo
24. Bill Rose
25. Bradley Ashford
