Gravel Leads Every Lap, Kofoid Second at Cedar Lake
NXTbets Pro | Published On: June 29, 2026
Gravel controls Cedar Lake
Big Game Motorsports driver David Gravel made Friday night’s Federated Auto Parts Independence Spectacular opener at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wisconsin, look like his race from the start. He was fastest in hot laps and qualifying, then backed that speed up by winning his heat race. Gravel drew the pole for the dash and won that, too, which put him in the best possible spot for the feature. He turned that advantage into a complete night. Gravel led all 35 laps and never gave the field a chance to get in front. The race followed the same pattern from start to finish, with Gravel setting the tone in every phase that mattered. He arrived with speed, kept it through the preliminary rounds and converted it when the main event began. That kind of sweep across the program gave him control before the feature field even had a chance to settle in. The opener belonged to Gravel from the first green flag of the night and stayed that way until the checkered flag.
Kofoid charges to second
Michael Kofoid gave Gravel the strongest chase from the front half of the field. He started eighth and drove to second, a run that stood out because it came from deep enough in the lineup to require clean laps and steady pace throughout the feature. Kofoid worked his way forward and finished behind a driver who never surrendered the lead, but the result kept him near the top of the night’s order. Bill Balog finished third and posted his best World of Outlaws result at Cedar Lake. Sheldon Haudenschild took fourth and Carson Macedo finished fifth, giving the race a clear top five behind Gravel’s wire-to-wire victory. The finishing order showed a field with enough balance to pressure each other, but nobody had a response once Gravel put the race on his terms. Kofoid’s climb from eighth made him the main mover at the front of the pack, and Balog’s third-place finish marked a strong breakthrough at the track. Haudenschild and Macedo followed with solid results of their own, and all four drivers behind Gravel had to settle for chasing the No. 2 spot once the leader established himself.
Gravel extends momentum
The Cedar Lake win gave Gravel a second straight victory after he won the $300,000 BillionAuto.com Huset’s High Bank Nationals the previous weekend. It was his seventh victory of the 2026 season and his third career win at Cedar Lake. Those numbers put the night in a broader context. Gravel is stacking wins and doing it at a pace that keeps him near the front of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series picture. He left Wisconsin with a feature trophy and a tighter points race, too. The Cedar Lake result moved him to within one point of Kofoid and Roth Motorsports in the 2026 standings. That leaves little separation at the top after another night where Gravel handled every key moment. He was quick in hot laps, fast in qualifying, strong in his heat, perfect in the dash and untouched in the feature. The sequence gave him a full-night performance rather than a single strong run. Gravel turned speed into track position, then turned track position into control. The win also added another Cedar Lake mark to his record, and the track now counts three of his career victories.
