After Carson Macedo took the win in the dash on Saturday night to qualify for the front row alongside Kerry Madsen, the action at Knoxville looked all too familiar.
Macedo and Madsen battled through the feature on Friday, with the driver of the No. 41 taking advantage of a caution to make the race-winning pass for the lead and eventually the win.
However, on Saturday, Macedo wouldn’t need a yellow flag to do it, and he captured one of the biggest wins of his career.
“I feel like my racecar was really good the whole event there,” Macedo said in Victory Lane.
The Jason Johnson Racing driver captured his second-straight win with the series for the first time in his career, earned a career best fifth win this season, and that wasn’t even the most remarkable thing.
Defending series champion Brad Sweet had to come from the B-Main on Saturday, and finished with a P16 run, allowing Macedo to close his points deficit to just 60 points – the closest he’s ever been to the lead at this point in a season.
“I didn’t know where to run at times,” Macedo said. “I’m thinking I’m plugging pretty good laps around the bottom there, and Kerry got a lane up there working and got by me. In traffic, he was superb. I couldn’t quite get through there as well.”
Sheldon Haudenschild even passed Macedo for third in the latter half of the race.
It helped Macedo realize what he needed to do to capture the win.
“There at the end, Sheldon got by me, and I plugged the bottom of three and four really nice trying to get back by him,” Macedo said. “I realized how much better it was, if I was a little more patient and stayed down a little bit longer. When I got back up to Kerry, I realized he was making the same mistake…he was fading out. I plugged the bottom really well, and was trying to set him up to pass him in three and four. It just worked out that he slid up out of the bottom (in turn two).”
Madsen was dejected following the race.
He sat behind the board that sits in Knoxville Raceway’s victory lane with a stark look on his face. He had lost out on a win for the second night in a row in the Tony Stewart Racing 14.
“I kind of got really tight there in dirty air,” Madsen said. “When I made a move on one of the Kahne cars, it was pretty aggressive in the rubber, and I thought we should be ok. I should have brought that home for sure. This car is so fun to drive. I feel like I let the boys and the team down on this one, but I think we can get some.”
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to the track at another Iowa location, on Thursday at 34 Raceway in Burlington. Always Race Day will have full coverage and for fans that can’t make it, DirtVision, as always, will have the live stream.
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Results
Knoxville Raceway
1. Carson Macedo
2. Kerry Madsen
3. Sheldon Haudenschild
4. Gio Scelzi
5. Logan Schuchart
6. Aaron Reutzel
7. Brent Marks
8. James McFadden
9. Parker Price-Miller
10. Brian Brown
11. David Gravel
12. Donny Schatz
13. Matt Juhl
14. Kraig Kinser
15. Davey Heskin
16. Brad Sweet
17. Wayne Johnson
18. Kasey Kahne
19. Ayrton Gennetten
20. Justin Henderson
21. Chris Martin
22. Sam Hafertepe Jr.
23. Jacob Allen
24. Scott Bogucki
25. Brock Zearfoss
| World of Outlaws Sprint Car Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Brad Sweet | 4188 | – | |
| 2 | David Gravel | 4140 | -48 | |
| 3 | Carson Macedo | 4128 | -60 | |
| 4 | Donny Schatz | 4054 | -134 | |
| 5 | Sheldon Haudenschild | 4050 | -138 | |
| 6 | Logan Schuchart | 4022 | -166 | |
| 7 | Aaron Reutzel ® | 3980 | -208 | |
| 8 | Kraig Kinser | 3702 | -486 | |
| 9 | James McFadden | 3624 | -564 | |
| 10 | Brock Zearfoss ® | 3522 | -666 | |
