OHSWEKEN, Ontario — There’s a reason so many circled the return of Ohsweken Speedway when the 2025 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series schedule was released.
Wednesday night showed exactly why.
The Federated Auto Parts Showdown at Ohsweken brought The Greatest Show on Dirt back to Canada for the first time since 2017. Ohsweken was a staple of the schedule from the late 2000s to 2017 before the hiatus.
The slick three-eighths-mile delivered thrillers without fail whenever the tour rolled to town.
First, an all-time World of Outlaws upset looked to be brewing as Jordan Thomas, making only his fifth series appearance, rocketed out to the early lead from the pole. But David Gravel did what David Gravel does and patiently reeled Thomas in and snatched the top spot on Lap 12.
The defending series champion was in control after grabbing the lead, but a Lap 19 restart set the stage for a thrilling conclusion. The green flew, and Carson Macedo used a monster restart to surge from fifth to the lead as he slid Gravel in Turns 1 and 2. The two titans of the sport then waged war over the next several laps.
Gravel fought back with sliders, and Macedo countered with crossovers. Gravel finally delivered the dagger on Lap 23 with a perfectly executed slide job that Macedo couldn’t fight back from.
That was all she wrote. Gravel drove the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 comfortably ahead on the route to his series-leading seventh checkered flag of 2025.
“I think you could race on every square inch of this track, and you can’t ask for anymore,” Gravel said. “I thought I was good here, and then I looked back at the results, and my best finish was fifth out of six times and that was about it. But I had a lot of confidence coming in, had a lot more laps here than a lot of the other guys that are on tour. It’s a slick racetrack Cody (Jacobs) and I were really excited for.”
Ohsweken made it 110 career World of Outlaws wins for Gravel, and he’s now only a dozen behind Danny Lasoski for sixth all-time. The victory also stretched his point lead to over a full race’s worth of security as the gap between he and Logan Schuchart sits at 158 markers.
“It just feels really good,” Gravel said. “That 79 (Jordan Thomas), man, he had a hell of a pace. He was doing a great job, and the air really slowed him down in lapped traffic and kind of came to us. We just bided our time, and it all worked out. I’m really proud of my guys. They gave me a great race car all night long.”
Sheldon Haudenschild stole the runner-up spot from Macedo with only a few laps remaining, completing a strong charge from sixth to second over the final 10 laps.
“I just got a little bit more wing in it as we were rolling,” Haudenschild explained. “I was really good on that long run, just on that restart Macedo went from fifth to the lead and just took advantage of the local guy there. I still feel like we had the best car tonight. We ran David down there at the end. We just lost 12 laps there with that restart.”
After his incredible restart and battle with Gravel, Carson Macedo came home third in the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41.
“I think the 79 fired off a little bit up, and there was a strip of grip right next to the wall on the bottom, and I was able to squeeze next to him there,” Macedo said. “I just kind of used that grip all the way down the frontstretch and just propelled me into Turn 1. Then I tried to get on defense mode. I felt really confident and good in (Turns) 3 and 4, but in (Turns) 1 and 2 I was struggling just a little bit to get off of (Turn) 2.”
Bill Balog and Thomas completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[2]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[7]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[8]; 4. 17B-Bill Balog[5]; 5. 79-Jordan Thomas[1]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz[12]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid[13]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]; 9. 6-Zach Hampton[15]; 10. 7S-Chris Windom[3]; 11. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[20]; 12. 1S-Logan Schuchart[9]; 13. 2C-Cole Macedo[11]; 14. 28-Jordan Poirier[19]; 15. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[14]; 16. 94-Todd Hoddick[18]; 17. 45-Nick Sheridan[22]; 18. 17X-Cory Turner[17]; 19. 15T-Ryan Turner[24]; 20. 28M-Conner Morrell[10]; 21. 52-Stewart Friesen[16]; 22. 22-Jonathan Preston[6]; 23. 23-Garet Williamson[21]; 24. 98-Joe Trenca[23]
