PEVELY, Mo. — A winless drought can cause doubt to form for even the strongest teams. Such was the case for Spencer Bayston, heading into the Ironman weekend with a winless streak dating back to June 2022.
While cut nine laps short due to an incident with the track fence, Bayston had already made himself untouchable in feature. After taking the lead on lap five, he gapped the field by seconds, leading to he and CJB Motorsports’ first win of the season.
“You start to wonder if you can win again,” Bayston said. “You know, it’s been over a year. We have all the tools. We have great partners. Great members and a phenomenal car owner with Chad Clemens. There’re times you start to question yourself. Just to get his out of the way feels really, really good.”
When it came time for the feature, Cole Macedo started pole with David Gravel – the championship points leader entering the night – to his outside. Macedo darted ahead of the field in the first corner while Gravel looked to have an anchored tied to him and fell to fourth on the opening lap.
Brad Sweet moved up to second and Bayston wasn’t far behind in third. “The Big Cat” bicycled on the second lap, allowing Bayston to dive underneath him and steal the spot.
Two laps later, Macedo had his own scare, hitting a rut and bouncing all four wheels off the track. Like the camo on his No. 5 car, Bayston then made the pass for the lead so quick Macedo couldn’t have even seen it coming.
Once the CJB machine was in clear air out front, it was in a class of its own. Behind it, Sweet and Giovanni Scelzi soared by Macedo before sparring for second. The two traded attacks lap after lap, eventually letting James McFadden join in on the fight.
Scelzi won the battle and soon after benefited from a caution on lap 19, erasing the four second lead Bayston had over him.
When the race resumed, Bayston pulled ahead but Scelzi wasn’t letting him out of his sight. However, the brewing battle was halted when Corey Day flipped into the turn-four fence, bringing out the red flag. With the fence damage too severe to fix for the night, the race was deemed complete.
Spencer Bayston celebrates victory Friday at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55. (Mark Funderburk photo)
Bayston’s drought was finally over.
“It feels so good,” Bayston said about getting his fifth career World of Outlaws win. “I know that’s not the normal, conventional, way to do it, but I was certainly happy for that one to be over. But I was so confident with my car and with what [my CJB Motorsports team] did with it there before the Feature to give me a car that was versatile and could move around through traffic and could battle. I was confident if we ran that one out, I could keep cutting my laps and we’d be in good shape.”
Scelzi had to settle for second, his second top-five finish in a row and third podium of the season.
“Good call to end the race; smart call by the officials,” Scelzi said.
Sweet finished third, adding to his insane I-55 statistics. Now, in 16 starts at the third-mile track, he has 14 podium finishes.
With Gravel finishing eighth, Sweet also reclaimed the points lead – making for the ninth lead change of the season. The Grass Valley, CA driver now leads Gravel by two points going into Saturday’s Ironman 55.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 5-Spencer Bayston[3]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[4]; 4. 83-James McFadden[6]; 5. 21T-Cole Macedo[1]; 6. 11-Cory Eliason[7]; 7. 20G-Noah Gass[9]; 8. 2-David Gravel[2]; 9. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 10. 45-Rusty Hickman[12]; 11. 41-Carson Macedo[11]; 12. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[13]; 13. 14-Corey Day[15]; 14. 31-Zach Daum[16]; 15. 51B-Joe B Miller[14]; 16. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[17]; 17. 17AU-Jamie Veal[21]; 18. 7S-Robbie Price[19]; 19. 97-Scotty Milan[23]; 20. 1S-Logan Schuchart[25]; 21. 101-Cody Maroske[18]; 22. 22-Riley Goodno[24]; 23. 7A-Will Armitage[20]; 24. (DNF) 1A-Jacob Allen[22]; 25. (DNS) 17-Sheldon Haudenschild
Keyword: Bayston Wins, Sweet Regains Point Lead