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David Gravel says that defending his newly won World of Outlaws Sprint Car championship should not be fundamentally different than the dynamic in place while trying to win it last year in the first place.
For example, with Brad Sweet taking his five consecutive championships with him in the creation of High Limit Racing, Gravel was immediately viewed as the championship favorite. There was pressure associated with the expectation and this year is no different after winning the title.
Everyone is chasing Gravel and Big Game Motorsports.
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Prior to winning the championship, Gravel finished second in the standings three years in a row, so there was a degree of inevitability with the breakthrough as well.
“It just a feeling of accomplishment or relief really,” Gravel said during a media availability on Tuesday. “Not that it was expected but it wasn’t a big surprise because we’ve been working towards it three or four seasons and being very close when Brad was at his best.
“We all knew we could do it. It was just literally changing one or two outcomes over the course of the year, a crash here and a DNF here, getting better at a few things or not getting out of the work area one night. So, it was an accomplishment year to win the Kings Royal and get that championship.”
Then came the figurative elephant or potential asterisk, one that he brought up himself, that his first championship didn’t run through Sweet and Kasey Kahen Racing.
“It feels really, really good but, you know, I’ll be honest with you, Brad not being here, not being able to dethrone him, it lights a fire underneath my butt,” Sweet said. “I know we’re more than capable of beating anybody in the country any given year.
“We just have to put it all together and I think we’re there as a team and I think we could go out and beat anybody (on) any night and you’re always going to have off nights but I’m very confident in what we have going on right now.”
So, with that said, and with Sweet still racing on his own tour this season, how can Gravel validate his status and title without going head-to-head with the champion of the other national tour?
He answered with his resume.
“To me, you’re never going to validate it for everybody, right,” Gravel said. “There’s always going to be people with opinions but when you lead the nation in national wins, when you lead the nation in earnings and you and your team win driver and team of the year, that was the stamp on our season,” Gravel said.
“No matter what happened (last) year, who we race against, I don’t think the result would’ve changed. And I strongly believe that when you have an average finish under (5.0) that’s pretty hard to beat. We had that at 4.88 and that’s hard to beat. It’s going to be hard to replicate that but I think we have a couple of nights we can get back from last year too. If we clean up some of our bad nights, there is the potential that our average finish can get even better.”
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If anyone knows what it’s like to have his first title under any kind of scrutiny, it would be 10-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz. His ascendent championship in 2006 came when the National Sprint Tour attracted Steve Kinser, Jason Meyers, Danny Lasoski and Joey Saldana. Schatz won 19 times in his breakout season and it didn’t matter once everyone else came back as he went on to win nine more against them.
“There was obviously some scrutiny but we put that to bed right away,” Schatz said. “We won all the big races, won the championship well before the season ended. It was surreal to be honest with you.
“The way I look at it is David has been knocking on the door for quite a while but he had this persona like it had eluded him or owed him, like I carried with me for a while before I won the Nationals, and once I got that out of my mind and realized I’m not owed anything and you have to earn it, you’ve seen him mature a lot.
“He doesn’t have that ‘it owes me’ attitude like he used to.”
Schatz also takes exception to any perception that the World of Outlaws championship isn’t as valued now as a result of the defections or a second tour.
“I remember when the World of Outlaws was the most important title in dirt racing,” Schatz said. “Now there’s some people that say and act like it ain’t worth a damn thing because so and so isn’t here anymore.
“We’ve all built brands here and so for someone to say it’s not worth it anymore, I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make sense. I have built a lot of my life in this and will continue to … We’ve all grown up dreaming to do something as a kid, accomplished it, and the old adage is true that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”
Schatz said Gravel will be just fine and that he still views the current champion as the man to beat, despite his own aspirations at winning an 11th title in 29 years.
So next up for Gravel is exactly what he talked about, adding to the resume, and proving that he is what the statistics and awards say he is — the man to beat in national Sprint Car competition.
“I would love to be a multi-time champion and a multi-time Knoxville Nationals champion and we’ve been close to that,” Gravel said. “It’s very important to me. The first championship made me more hungry. It’s pretty cool what I’ve done so far but there are some goals that are realistic that I really want to reach and it’s an exciting time for me.
“I’m a lucky person but a second championship will help vindicate it for those who are talking smack.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.