WATERTOWN, Conn. — Nov. 6, 2013— David Gravel has received quite an education this year competing full-time with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series. Traveling from coast-to-coast he has raced nearly 60 times against the best sprint car drivers in the world. He has a couple of classes remaining this week as the series heads to Charlotte to wrap up the 2013 campaign with the seventh running of the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C.
The Seventh Annual World Finals are set for Thursday, Nov. 7, Friday, Nov. 8 and Saturday, Nov. 9. Thursday night will serve as the qualifying night, with two rounds of time trials setting heat race lineups for Friday and Saturday. Heat races, a dash, consolation races and a 30-lap main event will comprise the race program on both Friday and Saturday. CBS Sports Network will be on-hand taping the action for broadcast in December. Along with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and Super DIRTcar Series will be on the bill at the World Finals.
“The World Finals is certainly one of the biggest races of the year,” said Gravel, who will make one final start in his familiar No. 89 FMR Racing/JRC Transportation/Musco Fuel/Model Craft J&J with a Kistler Mopar under the hood. “I definitely have some confidence going into the weekend, after winning the ASCS race last weekend. I’ll be back in my car and that’s the car I’ve driven the most this year and have felt the most comfortable in. Hopefully all of that will lead to a successful weekend.”
Gravel has competed in the World Finals each of the last three years. He was the final of 50 cars to hit the track for time trials for the Saturday night portion of the event last year and set quick time, which was his sixth fast time award of the season with the series. The native of Watertown, Conn., would follow that up with a 10th-place finish in 30-lap finale on Saturday night. He just missed qualifying for the feature during the Friday portion of the 2012 World Finals.
“At Charlotte, you always have to pay attention to where you are running and hit your marks, especially in time trials,” he shared. “It’s a tough place to get around and you have to just about be perfect in qualifying to give yourself a good chance. With the number and quality of cars that will be there, starting up front in a heat race can really make the night go quite a bit smoother, than if you are battling from the back of a heat.”
This season at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, Gravel finished 13th on Memorial Day weekend, coming from the 17th starting position. He opened that night by turning the 18th-fastest lap in time trials and finished sixth in the third heat race to earn a spot in the main event. Gravel made his debut at Charlotte in 2009 with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series.
“With all three classes of cars and all the cars that will be running, you really have to keep an eye on the track and stay on top of what the surface is doing,” explained the East Coast racer. “We’ll pay close attention to everything and look at some of what has worked there for us in the past and hopefully we’ll make the right calls throughout the weekend, set-up-wise.”
Entering the World Finals, Gravel is the leading contender for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series. He has one A-Feature win and one preliminary feature win in 2013, along with 25 top-10 finishes, of which seven are top-five showings.
“First and foremost, we want to make the show both nights and that is not going to be easy by any means,” said Gravel. “Getting two top-10 finishes is our second goal and if we are running in the top-10, then we’ll maybe have a chance to put ourselves in an even better position. It all starts on Thursday night and those couple of laps of time trials in each of the two sessions are of the utmost importance. We’re looking forward to the challenge and will give it everything we got.”
Keep up-to-date with David Gravel and DDR Motorsports by visiting www.DavidGravel89.com. Follow David on Twitter@davidgravel89g and like David on Facebook.
