Carson Macedo won Friday's WoO opener at Wilmot (Trent Gower Photo) (Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
The Californian laps up to ninth on his way to victory in the Federated Auto Parts Larry Hillerud Memorial Badger 40 opener
WILMOT, WI (July 12, 2024) - Carson Macedo and Jason Johnson Racing have Wilmot Raceway figured out right now.
They entered Federated Auto Parts Larry Hillerud Memorial Badger 40 weekend as winners of the two most recent World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car races at the Wisconsin facility. And on Friday night the pairing delivered their strongest statement yet at the 1/3 mile.
Macedo started second for the 40-lap Feature and put on a masterclass. After surviving one early challenge from Michael “Buddy” Kofoid, he simply drove away. The Lemoore, CA native wheeled the Albaugh No. 41 wherever he wanted. He worked through traffic on the top. He worked through traffic on the bottom.
When the checkered flag waved to punctuate the beatdown, Macedo had lapped up to the ninth place finisher and crossed the line nearly six seconds ahead of Kofoid in the runner-up spot. From the moment the green flag dropped, Macedo knew he was steering a special setup on Friday night.
“That was ridiculous. My car was unbelievable there, especially when we got into traffic,” Macedo said. “I knew we were going to be in really good shape when we got to traffic just because I could pretty much run wherever I wanted as long as I had clean air on my wings. It would go pretty much everywhere. I could split cars. And you know when you’re good like that it’s going to be tough to get by you. Tonight was one of those nights. It was definitely a Philip Dietz race car, just incredible from start to finish.”
The third consecutive Wilmot victory matches David Gravel’s run of three straight in 2014, 2016, and 2017 for the longest streak at the track. Wilmot is also now tied with Tri-State Speedway, Eldora Speedway, and Jackson Motorplex as the track where Macedo has won most often with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He’s up to 38 career World of Outlaws triumphs. He also cut the gap between himself and Donny Schatz for second in the standings down to just two points.
Kofoid and Macedo led the field to green for the night’s 40-lap conclusion. It took no time for Macedo to flex his muscle as he powered ahead of Kofoid on the outside and led the first lap.
A flurry of early cautions forced Macedo to withstand multiple restarts. Kofoid kept him honest as Brady Bacon, Sheldon Haudenschild, David Gravel, and Giovanni Scelzi all jockeyed for spots within the top five behind them.
A golden opportunity for Kofoid to challenge for the win arose on a restart with 30 laps remaining. Kofoid kept the Roth Motorsports No. 83 close to Macedo as the green brought the field back to life. Exiting Turn 4 on the next lap he got a strong run on the bottom and looked under Macedo in Turns 1 and 2. Right when it looked like he may slide him for the lead, the yellow lights flashed once again for a slowing car on the other end of the racetrack.
On the ensuing restart Macedo made sure Kofoid had no chance at slipping by. He powered ahead when the green flag flew and began to build what eventually became an enormous advantage.
Kofoid managed to stay within striking distance in clean air, but instead of traffic helping him erase the gap, it played to Macedo’s advantage. One the lead duo caught the tail of the field, Macedo went to work slicing his way through as Kofoid struggled to maintain pace. The margin grew over a second on Lap 22. Two laps later it was over two seconds. By Lap 30 he had pushed the lead to more than four seconds, and the next circuit it ballooned to more than five seconds.
Traffic stood no chance of slowing his march toward the checkered flag. The gap reached its peak on Lap 38 when Macedo crossed the line 6.785 seconds ahead. He sealed the deal with just under a six-second margin between himself and the runner-up.
After losing out on multiple wins this year late in races, Macedo and the JJR crew have prioritized maintaining speed through the duration of Features. And that’s exactly what they did at Wilmot.
“I think that we’ve been trying to work on that for the last few races,” Macedo said. “And I feel like we definitely hit it tonight. It seemed like as the race went on I kept getting my wing back and just kept getting better. I looked up at one point and was like, ‘Man, I’m all the way back.’ And I felt like I could maybe even grab a little more wing, but then at times I would get tight as well. Just hats off to this JJR team.”
Kofoid brought the Roth Motorsports machine home second to earn back-to-back runner-up finishes after claiming second on Wednesday at Beaver Dam. He knew Macedo had an incredibly fast machine but couldn’t help wonder what could’ve been if the early ill-timed yellow hadn’t occurred.
“The 41 guys were just really good, and Carson did a really good job,” Kofoid said. “Who knows if the green stayed and the yellow didn’t come out. There was still a whole race left, and they were extremely good, but it would’ve been nice to see how it played out at least.”
After slipping back to sixth early in the race, David Gravel clawed his way back to third to round out the podium. That marked his 18th World of Outlaws podium of the season in the Big Game Motorsports machine as the No. 2 really came alive late for yet another strong run.
“Man, we just weren’t really good around the bottom of (Turns) 1 and 2,” Gravel said. “I thought, if your car was operating good, that would’ve been the place to be. But we had to slide across, keep our wing speed up, hit that grip, and get down the backstretch really, really fast. Once I did that, I was able to gain on Sheldon and get past Brady. We closed on Buddy, but just like all positioning, if he got held up by a lapped car I caught him, and when I got caught up he pulled away.”
Sheldon Haudenschild and Brady Bacon completed the top five.
A 14th to sixth run earned Donny Schatz his Series-leading sixth KSE Racing Hard Charger of 2024.
Brock Zearfoss claimed his frist Simpson Quick Time of 2024 and the second of his career in Sea Foam Qualifying.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Brock Zearfoss (21st Heat Race win of career), Brady Bacon (fifth of career), and Carson Macedo (128th of career). Milton Hershey School Heat Two went to Sheldon Haudenschild (114th of career).
Buddy Kofoid topped the Toyota Racing Dash.
Landon Crawley won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Bill Balog.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars complete the Federated Auto Parts Larry Hillerud Memorial Badger 40 at Wilmot Raceway on Saturday, July 13. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 3. 2-David Gravel[4]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]; 5. 21H-Brady Bacon[3]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[14]; 7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]; 9. W20-Greg Wilson[11]; 10. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[8]; 11. 73-Scotty Thiel[16]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson[15]; 13. 70-Kraig Kinser[10]; 14. 45-Landon Brooks[22]; 15. 6-Kelby Watt[18]; 16. 15K-Creed Kemenah[20]; 17. 24D-Danny Sams III[17]; 18. 17B-Bill Balog[12]; 19. 7S-Landon Crawley[21]; 20. 3N-Jake Neuman[23]; 21. 10V-Matt VanderVere[24]; 22. 96-Jake Blackhurst[19]; 23. 29-Logan McCandless[9]; 24. 10W-Mike Reinke[13]