Watertown, Conn.—April 18, 2013 — It’s become second nature for David Gravel over the last six weeks to visit a track for the first time and have a handful of laps to get up to speed. He did exactly that on 11 occasions in four different states during the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series West Coast Swing. Now back in the Midwest, he’ll visit a pair of tracks that he made his debut at last year and will thus be visiting for the second time as the series begins a stretch of races in the Midwest.

Prior to returning the Midwest, the native of Watertown, Conn., competed in the inaugural World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series event at El Paso Speedway Park in Texas, on Tuesday, April 16. He set a new track record in qualifying en route to his first fast time honor of the season at the three-eighths-mile and finished fourth in the 30-lap main event, which matched his best finish of the season. He charged from fourth to finish second in the first eight-lap heat race and finished fourth in the dash.

“We were fast right off the truck and to set a new track record is always neat, especially in a World of Outlaws event,” said Gravel. “Qualifying well and getting into the dash is so important with the Outlaws and we were able to do that and really put ourselves in a good spot. If we hadn’t had that late restart, I think we probably would have finished on the podium, but all in all, to finish fourth in our first time at El Paso was great.” Read more »

Watertown, Conn.—April 14, 2013 — After getting caught up by a lapped car while running fourth on Friday night at Kings Speedway, David Gravel was on a mission on Saturday night to wrap-up the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series West Coast Swing on a strong note in Bill Rose’s No. 6 Firetext Response Maxim. Gravel was able to accomplish that as he finished seventh at Perris Auto Speedway.

Gravel lined up seventh on Saturday, April 13 at the half-mile Perris Auto Speedway for the SoCal Showdown, which marked the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series only visit of the season to Southern California. After falling back a spot on the start he got back around three-time World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series champion Sammy Swindell on the second circuit to move back into seventh. The entire 30-lap main event went non-stop green-to-checkers in just under eight minutes on a very fast surface that was challenging to pass on.

“We got in the dash, which is always important and to come away with a top-10 in the feature was good,” said Gravel. “We didn’t quite get the dash draw we were hoping for, which put us back a bit, but at least we were up there. The track was definitely fast and tough to pass on and we finished where we started, so we didn’t lose any spots, so you can’t complain about that.” Read more »