Tyler Courtney won the WoO finale at Charlotte Saturday (Trent Gower Photo) (Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
“Sunshine” pockets $25,000 at the site of his Series debut to close World Finals
CONCORD, NC (November 9, 2024) - In a week defined by uncharacteristically nice November weather, it’s only fitting that “Sunshine” found a way to Victory Lane.
Tyler Courtney was quietly consistent through the first three nights of the World of Outlaws World Finals. Sea Foam Qualifying Night led to him clocking in seventh and 11th in the pair of flights. Then he grabbed finishes of 10th and sixth on Thursday and Friday which set him up on the front row of a Saturday Heat Race.
Then came the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car season finale, and Courtney locked himself in the Toyota Dash. Good fortune in the redraw put him P1, and he capitalized.
Courtney won the Dash to set himself up on the pole for the 25-lapper, and he never looked back once the green flag flew at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. The Indianapolis, IN native led every lap of the Feature, surviving a brief challenge from Series champion David Gravel to get the win and bank $25,000.
“To end the year on a win like this gives us a little bit of momentum going into 2025,” Courtney said. “Just can’t say enough about all of my guys. Jake, Ron, Bobby, they bust their tails. We struggled a little bit the second half of the season but started to find our footing here in the last month or so. I heard them talking about my debut here with Danny Smith. I think I was racing Jacob Allen for the D-main that year. So 11 years later to come here and get a victory is great.”
It’s Courtney’s third win of 2024 with The Greatest Show on Dirt and his 12th overall this year in a 410 Sprint Car, tied for the third most in the country. It was a full circle night as Courtney got his first checkered flag from the site of his World of Outlaws debut back in 2013.
When the green flag dropped Courtney quickly pulled ahead of outside polesitter Brian Brown. Courtney had the Clauson Marshall Racing No. 7BC on cruise control as he stretched the advantage early.
David Gravel surged from seventh to the runner-up spot by Lap 13 and appeared primed to give Courtney a challenge when a caution came out a lap later erasing his more than five-second lead.
But Courtney refused to let it slip away even as Gravel pressured him on the restart. Courtney kept his NOS Energy Drink ride glued to the bottom as Gravel braved the top. Gravel got the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 wound up and closed in for about a lap, but ultimately Courtney prevailed as he rolled away and took the checkered flag with more than a two-second gap between himself and Gravel.
“I think we proved to not only ourselves but a lot of other people too that we belong on the national tour and that we can compete too,” Courtney said of he and his team’s season. “I haven’t won as many Outlaw races in a year as I did this year, so to go out and do that is really accomplishing for myself and our team and just awesome.”
Gravel’s runner-up gave him a strong punctuation to his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car championship. He and Big Game Motorsports pieced together 15 wins, 33 podiums, 44 top fives, and 60 top 10s on their way to a title. Gravel became the 11th different driver to earn a championship with The Greatest Show on Dirt while Quiring became the 10th different owner.
While they might’ve come up one spot short, the race exemplified why Gravel and the Tod Quiring-owned crew came out on top in 2024. They’ve got a fast race car with one of the most talented Sprint Car drivers in the country who does what he needs to do without taking unnecessary risks. The Big Game No. 2 came home P2 to close out the season.
“The beginning of the race really went my way,” Gravel explained. “A couple of guys missed the bottom, and I was able to get underneath them. “Brownie” (Brian Brown) got messed up on the cushion there, and I was able to get by him. Then a caution came out and kind of had a clean slate. Then we had that run, and he started getting into traffic, I felt like that was a little bit of my chance there. Then we had the caution or the red with five to go. He was really, really good in clean track.”
Rounding out the final podium of the season was Carson Macedo and the Jason Johnson Racing team. The Californian got the top going late in the running to work his way into third.
“I think late in the race there it transitioned back to the top,” Macedo said. “These guys (Courtney and Gravel) were actually running the middle which surprised me. But Brownie went to the bottom there on that restart and I think just spun a little bit, and I was able to get a run and get around him. It was a hard-fought race. It changed a lot just like I feel it has the last couple of nights with the way the track prep is. Man, hats off to this team. They’re doing a great job. They’re delivering, Philip Dietz, Adam Zimmerman, and Robby McQuinn.”
Ryan Timms and Brian Brown completed the top five.
Donny Schatz completed a clean sweep of the World Finals KSE Racing Hard Charger Awards by taking the Tony Stewart Racing No. 15 from 18th to ninth for his third in a row.
NOS Energy Drink Heats One, Three, and Four belonged to Sheldon Haudenschild, Carson Macedo, and Justin Peck. Milton Hershey School Heat Two went to Buddy Kofoid.
Tyler Courtney topped the Toyota Racing Dash.
Bill Balog won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Giovanni Scelzi.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars begin the 2025 season at Volusia Speedway Park’s Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals on Feb. 5-8. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
World Finals
the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Concord, North Carolina
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 2-David Gravel[1]
2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]
3. 88-Austin McCarl[5]
4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]
5. 2KS-Cory Eliason[9]
6. 13-Daison Pursley[6]
7. 17B-Bill Balog[10]
8. 70-Kraig Kinser[8]
9. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]
10. 17GP-Hank Davis[11]
11. 1B-Keith Baxter[12]
12. 1-Sammy Swindell[7]
Milton Hershey School Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 21-Brian Brown[1]
2. 10-Ryan Timms[2]
3. 69K-Logan Wagner[4]
4. 23W-Justin Whittall[3]
5. 23-Garet Williamson[6]
6. 15-Donny Schatz[7]
7. 24D-Danny Sams III[5]
8. 6X-Tim Shaffer[9]
9. 7NY-Matt Farnham[10]
10. 6-Dylan Cisney[8]
11. 97UK-Ryan Harrison[11]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]
2. 27-Emerson Axsom[2]
3. 39M-Anthony Macri[4]
4. 41-Carson Macedo[7]
5. 14-Spencer Bayston[5]
6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[6]
7. 7N-Darin Naida[9]
8. 5K-Adam Kekich[11]
9. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]
10. W20-Greg Wilson[10]
11. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]
2. 26-Justin Peck[4]
3. 1A-Jacob Allen[3]
4. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[5]
5. 55-CJ Leary[2]
6. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]
7. 99-Skylar Gee[8]
8. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[9]
9. 9-Kasey Kahne[11]
10. 77-Geoff Dodge[7]
11. 0-Glenn Styres[10]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps)
1. 21-Brian Brown[1]
2. 2-David Gravel[2]
3. 26-Justin Peck[3]
4. 10-Ryan Timms[6]
5. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]
6. 27-Emerson Axsom[4]
7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[5]
8. 83-Michael Kofoid[7]
C-Main (10 Laps)
1. 17GP-Hank Davis[3]
2. 9-Kasey Kahne[2]
3. 7NY-Matt Farnham[1]
4. W20-Greg Wilson[4]
5. 6-Dylan Cisney[5]
6. 77-Geoff Dodge[6]
7. 1-Sammy Swindell[11]
8. 97UK-Ryan Harrison[9]
9. 1B-Keith Baxter[7]
10. 0-Glenn Styres[10]
11. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps)
1. 7S-Landon Crawley[1]
2. 13-Daison Pursley[3]
3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]
4. 17B-Bill Balog[7]
5. 24D-Danny Sams III[9]
6. 9-Kasey Kahne[16]
7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]
8. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]
9. 7N-Darin Naida[8]
10. 70-Kraig Kinser[11]
11. 99-Skylar Gee[10]
12. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[14]
13. 17GP-Hank Davis[15]
14. 5K-Adam Kekich[12]
15. 15-Donny Schatz[5]
16. 6X-Tim Shaffer[13]
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps)
1. 2-David Gravel[2]
2. 83-Michael Kofoid[8]
3. 26-Justin Peck[3]
4. 21-Brian Brown[1]
5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[7]
6. 41-Carson Macedo[14]
7. 10-Ryan Timms[4]
8. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]
9. 39M-Anthony Macri[10]
10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[13]
11. 69K-Logan Wagner[11]
12. 88-Austin McCarl[9]
13. 23-Garet Williamson[19]
14. 15-Donny Schatz[25]
15. 1A-Jacob Allen[12]
16. 14-Spencer Bayston[18]
17. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[23]
18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[16]
19. 2KS-Cory Eliason[17]
20. 23W-Justin Whittall[15]
21. 13-Daison Pursley[22]
22. 7S-Landon Crawley[21]
23. 27-Emerson Axsom[6]
24. 17B-Bill Balog[24]
25. 55-CJ Leary[20]