KENNEDALE, Texas — The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car season didn’t start the way Michael “Buddy” Kofoid would’ve liked, but he’s quickly turning things around.
The Penngrove, Calif., native entered 2025 with many viewing him as a championship contender after a stellar ending to 2024. He and Roth Motorsports closed out last year’s campaign with six wins in the final 16 races, but the pairing missed the top 10 in the first three nights of this season.
Kofoid rolled into Saturday’s Cowtown Classic finale with some momentum built back up courtesy of six straight top 10s, and the recent strides culminated in his first trip to Victory Lane of the year at Kennedale Speedway Park.
The 23-year-old started on the front row of the 30-lap feature, but it was Texan Sam Hafertepe Jr. taking the early advantage from the pole.
After a fierce battle with Logan Schuchart for second, Kofoid chased Hafertepe down and cleared the Texan with a Lap 10 slider, but the race was far from over. Hafertepe refused to go down without a fight in front of home state fans.
The pilot of the Hills Racing No. 15h hounded Kofoid as the two ripped through heavy traffic, but Kofoid had enough to hold on and secure an encouraging checkered flag.
“All year we’ve just been off a little bit,” Kofoid admitted. “We just kept working hard at it, and we just want it really bad. We weren’t going to let it get to us. Obviously, it’s a long, grueling, so it’s nice to get a win somewhat early on and change some things for this to happen today. I just want to thank them (team) for their hard work. It goes into a lot. We changed cars today, and this was actually the car we ended the year with last year, so I’m really happy about that.”
Kofoid’s first win of the season gave him 11 for his career with The Greatest Show on Dirt and made him the seventh different winner through 10 races.
The first of the year for Roth Motorsports was the 115th for Dennis and Teresa Roth’s team and made it 15 consecutive seasons in which they’ve won at least one World of Outlaws Feature.
The No. 83 could move all around the Texas bullring on Saturday, and Kofoid was quick to credit his crew for the maneuverability that guided him to victory.
“A really good one,” Kofoid said of his car. “Going into today, even yesterday even though the track was vastly different, with seeing how heavy it was probably going to be, I told Dylan (Buswell), ‘I think to be good you’re going to have to be able to move around and be able to run lines that are kind of goofy.’ I was running a big diamond in (Turns) 1 and 2 or could run in the middle through the holes. I was just really good anywhere. That’s just a testament to Dylan, Nate, and John. They’ve been doing a really good job.”
Hafertepe Jr. held on to the runner-up spot, marking his first World of Outlaws podium since March of 2022.
“I just didn’t get through traffic the first time right,” Hafertepe Jr. said. “I didn’t pick my spots right then got too tight off of (Turn) 4 here and gave him a pretty good lane to get by us there. Nothing to hang our head about. I really wanted to win this race starting up front like that and leading a lot of laps. We don’t run with these guys all the time. Two California guys running first and third, this is a California-style racetrack. Definitely not a track that I’m used to racing on.”
Completing the podium was Giovanni Scelzi in the KCP Racing No. 18.
“I felt a little free in the heat race,” Scelzi explained. “And then we snugged up for the dash, and it really got tighter. I felt like there was more mud on the race car in the dash than there was in the heat race, so I don’t know if the moisture kind of came back or we finally blew all that slime off where it got to grip. Hats off to the track crew. I feel like they worked really hard through the night and today to give us a racetrack to race on.”
Logan Schuchart and David Gravel completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[3]; 5. 2-David Gravel[4]; 6. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[14]; 7. 28M-Conner Morrell[6]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo[16]; 9. 39M-Anthony Macri[9]; 10. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[12]; 11. 23-Garet Williamson[17]; 12. 6-Zach Hampton[10]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee[26]; 14. 15-Donny Schatz[21]; 15. 22M-Rees Moran[13]; 16. 40-Howard Moore[11]; 17. 7S-Chris Windom[19]; 18. 2KS-Cory Eliason[20]; 19. 52-Blake Hahn[18]; 20. 24T-Christopher Thram[7]; 21. 6G-Cody Gardner[15]; 22. 2C-Cole Macedo[22]; 23. 27-Emerson Axsom[24]; 24. J2-John Carney II[23]; 25. 17B-Bill Balog[25]; 26. 32-Bryce Lucius[8]
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