David Gravel is eager to put last weekend behind him.
The Big Game Motorsports driver ran into a tough weekend at Jackson Motorplex, which hosted the 45 th annual AGCO Jackson Nationals powered by FENDT. Gravel finished outside of the top 10 all three nights. It marked the first time since 2018 that he’s had a three-race stretch without a top 10.
“It seemed nothing was right and was just one of those weekends,” he said. “It seemed we were fighting an uphill battle all week. We just struggled.”
Gravel timed in sixth quickest on Thursday to kick off the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event. He placed eighth in a heat race to secure the 20 th starting position in the main event. Gravel climbed toward the top 10, but a flat tire late in the race resulted in a DNF.
“It started off good with qualifying strong, but I hit some grease in the heat race and pushed up the track and went to the back,” he said. “I tried to claw and fight back for what I could.
“Us blowing a tire in the feature, the worst part was that we DNFed and finished 24th. That was definitely very disappointing.”
He timed in 17 th quickest on Friday. A heat race win lined Gravel up on the outside of the fifth row in the main event. Unfortunately, a crash led to Gravel restarting at the back of the field. He rallied for an 11th-place result.
“I think we were seventh on a restart and I felt like I was in good shape for a good run,” he said. “We got together with three people trying to go to the bottom and my front end was cleaned out. We had to go to the work area again. Luckily, we had time to get it fixed up and the car wasn’t too damaged. I was able to fight back to finish 11 th to have some damage control.”
The weekend concluded on Saturday with a fourth-place finish in a qualifier before a run from 17 th to 13 th in the main event.
“Starting fourth in the qualifier I tried to make something happen and the gap closed and I fell to sixth,” he said. “Probably the best car we had all weekend was in that qualifier and we got back to fourth. I should have been more conservative with a regular start with being third into turn one and then trying to move forward. I regret going for it on the start and trying to make something happen.
“In the feature the track was lighting fast. Being in dirty air there wasn’t much going on and we only had the one caution with five to go. It was just a tough weekend overall where things didn’t seem to go well.”
Next up will be World of Outlaws shows on Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., for the Gerdau Presents the 2 nd Leg of the Northern Tour and Saturday at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D., for the Gerdau Presents the Duel in the Dakotas.
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 17 – Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minn. – Qualifying: 6; Heat race: 8 (5); Feature: 24 (20).
Aug. 18 – Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minn. – Qualifying: 17; Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 11 (10).
Aug. 19 – Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minn. – Qualifier: 4 (4); Feature: 13 (17).
SEASON STATS –
57 races, 10 wins, 39 top fives, 48 top 10s, 53 top 15s, 53 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., for the Gerdau Presents the 2 nd Leg of the Northern Tour and Saturday at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D., for the Gerdau Presents the Duel in the Dakotas with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
Inside Line Promotions PR
