MECHANICSBURG, Pa.: So much for the Pennsylvania Posse being at a disadvantage against the World of Outlaws over the weekend at Williams Grove Speedway. The swing was, actually, pretty equal.
David Gravel did even things up on the weekend at Williams Grove with a solid 30-Lap march to land the Morgan Cup Saturday night, as well as a $15,000 payday. It also gave the World of Outlaws a slight 2-1 edge in feature wins over the week.
But the Posse did its damage, which turned out to be one of our talking points. Justin Whittall came home second Saturday night, with Troy Wagaman Jr., Sheldon Haudenschild, and Friday winner Kasey Kahne completing the top five.
SprintCarUnlimited.com was there and has you covered every step of the way. We continue our weekend coverage with five takeaways from a quick and efficient show at the famed oval.
A solid weekend: Just when it looks like Carson Macedo and-or Buddy Kofoid make up ground on David Gravel, the Big Game Motorsports driver pulls off a weekend like this. Gravel backed up Friday’s third-place finish with a flag-to-flag victory in the Morgan Cup Saturday night. The win was Gravel’s fifth of the season, and if you combine that with Macedo’s sixth-place finish and Kofoid’s 11th-place showing, it’s another productive night toward a third-straight series championship. Gravel continues to be lights out in qualifying and efficient with no mistakes in feature action. Good luck beating this team over the long haul this season.
Better than advertised: Most of the attention in the central Pennsylvania region is directed toward Chase Dietz, Danny Dietrich, Anthony Macri when healthy, Freddie Rahmer, and Troy Wagaman Jr. on occasion. Justin Whittall … I still think he flies under the radar. But this guy has speed almost every time he touches the track, and that was the case on Saturday night. The New Jersey driver was making his second start in a partnership deal with car-owner Rod Gross and chased David Gravel to the finish, falling short by a mere .542 seconds at the stripe. The runner-up finish was a career-best against the World of Outlaws and showed that he can compete against the best in the business. Watch him when High Limit comes to town in two weeks.
Speaking of Wagaman: The biggest criticism of Troy Wagaman Jr. over the last year is that he doesn’t qualify well in World of Outlaws events. That usually means being forced to dig himself and his team out of a big hole, which is beyond difficult against such a stacked field. It happened Tuesday night at Lincoln, when Wagaman and the Heffner Enterprises team was left watching the main event from the pit area. The Hanover, Pa., driver flipped the script at the Grove, recording a fifth-place run and then coming back to secure a career-best third-place result against the series regulars on Saturday. Like Justin Whittall, I think Wagaman is talented, and he got a chance to show it over the weekend. There are more wins to come.
Backing up a win: You always wonder how a driver is going to back up a historical or monumental moment in their career. Kasey Kahne won his first World of Outlaws event in a Friday night thriller that won’t soon be forgotten, and you had to wonder what he was going to do for an encore. Try going second quick in his flight, winning his heat race, as well as the Dash, and sitting on the pole for the main event. Sure, David Gravel got the jump and some other drivers got by, but Kahne did enough to nail down a respectable fifth-place finish. That gives the former NASCAR star an average result of 6.5 over four starts, which far exceeds the expectations of many in the dirt-track community. Well done.
A good Posse showing: There was a fear that the Pennsylvania Posse was going to get overwhelmed by the invaders over the weekend. That didn’t happen, and in fact, the Posse was a little better than the traveling band. The two sides split wins over the weekend, but the Posse claimed four spots in the top five and two out-of-towners running Posse cars. As for the Outlaws, they did have an edge in top-10 finishes but fell short in top-five runs. Only two Outlaws drivers — David Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild — landed top fives. Meanwhile, the Posse had Kasey Kahne twice, Chase Dietz, and Troy Wagaman Jr. twice, and Justin Whittall up front. I underestimated the locals on this swing.