The World of Outlaws Sprint Car points battle is always a war of attrition.
During the 90-scheduled races of the season, salvaging a half decent result on nights where disaster strikes is just as important as getting to the winner’s circle.
Now, as we’re past the 60th Knoxville Nationals – we turn to the race for the 2021 World of Outlaws championship, that culminates on November 6 at the World Finals in Charlotte.
That’s 22 nights of points racing still to come, and a trio of drivers trying to spoil a run at a third-straight championship for Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne Racing.
The biggest threat to that is a momentum riding No. 2 team with David Gravel at the helm of the ship.
Gravel has won two of the last five points races (excludes Knoxville Nationals) and outrun Sweet in four of the races during that span.
He’ll try and use that boost that his team got on Sunday night – winning at Huset’s – to put more of those results together.
Currently, Gravel is 120 points behind Sweet in the standings, which amounts to 60 positions on the race track excluding the two extra points gained via a win. To take down Sweet, he’ll need to outrun the Big Cat by three positions per race, on average.
Although, there’s something to say about the wily veteran in Donny Schatz.
He might be out of the race for the title, but the 10-time champion just corralled his 301st career World of Outlaws win at Red River Valley Speedway on Saturday.
The series remains in the Midwest for the rest of this week, concluding with a run at Black Hills on Sunday, so if there was ever a time for Schatz to catch fire this season, this could be the week.
Sitting between the two in the standings is Carson Macedo – who has seen a string of bad luck hit him along the way during the month of August.
While leading on Sunday at Huset’s, Macedo made contact with the lapped car of Matt Juhl, causing a spin and forcing him to the back of the pack during the feature event.
That came a week after an accident during the Knoxville Nationals that sent him and his team packing for the night, after he looked strong at the famed half mile in June.
Macedo’s fallen back to -162, but he’s on his best season of his career so far with the Jason Johnson Racing team. Don’t count him out just yet.
Wednesday’s 2nd leg of the Northern Tour is scheduled to kick off at River Cities Speedway on DirtVision.com at 6:15 p.m. CT.
| World of Outlaws Sprint Car Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Brad Sweet | 7722 | – | |
| 2 | David Gravel | 7602 | -120 | |
| 3 | Carson Macedo | 7560 | -162 | |
| 4 | Donny Schatz | 7484 | -238 | |
| 5 | S. Haudenschild | 7456 | -266 | |
| 6 | Logan Schuchart | 7418 | -304 | |
| 7 | James McFadden ® | 7010 | -712 | |
| 8 | Kraig Kinser | 6812 | -910 | |
| 9 | Brock Zearfoss ® | 6532 | -1190 | |
| 10 | Jacob Allen | 6338 | -1384 | |
