Why David Gravel doesn't back away from Sprint Car rivalries

David Gravel is not afraid to stir the pot or to draw attention to rivalries he has found himself in en route to winning the past two World of Outlaws championships.

For example, last year there was the spat with Kyle Larson at the Eldora Speedway Knight Before the Kings Royal. There was contact between them during the cool down lap after the feature. It boiled over into the Knoxville Nationals where they traded jabs throughout the week.

The legendary Sammy Swindell said “if we switched cars, I'd kick his ass.” Hunter Schurenberg took his turn after contact between them at Knoxviile. Buddy Kofoid has been the closest contender to Gravel in the championship since last year and that always creates even the most subtle perspective of a rivalry.

As Gravel has become the face of World of Outlaws, he also never misses a chance to take a playful jab at those who left to race High Limit, creating an us versus them environment at all the crown jewels.

Through it all, Gravel isn’t afraid to bring it upon himself or tell the fans what he thinks when they feel compelled to boo him after what’s becoming the most common sight in Sprint Car racing --

The Big Game Motorsports No. 2 in Victory Lane

“I mean, I’m always going to be fairly true to myself and how I feel,” Gravel told Motorsport.com on Thursday. “It could be looked at as the wrong way or the right way.

“The thing with High Limit, is that it’s frustrating sometimes, because while it’s good for the sport with how we’ve all seen purses grow because of what happened, it’s also bad for the sport.

“You go out and win a championship and people give you an asterisk because this guy left or everyone isn’t racing together now. They all get to race for these new races with big money that we don’t get to go to but they get to come to all our big races.”

The guy that left, most notably, is five-time World of Outlaws champion and inaugural High Limit champion Brad Sweet, who also happened to co-found the challenger tour alongside Larson and FloRacing.

Gravel never beat Sweet head-to-head over a full-season and that’s not a non-factor even if the 2019 Knoxville Nationals winner respects what The Big Cat has built for the industry.

“Brad, I have a lot of respect for him and what he's trying to do,” Gravel said. “Without the competition, I don’t think we pay what we pay today with the World of Outlaws.”

And Larson?

“There’s positives and negatives again, right, because I’m not going to let people push me around,” Gravel said.

At the time of their incident at Eldora, Gravel accused Larson of not respecting teams that race full-time in terms of aggressive pass attempts.

“I know when someone is racing me differently, especially when it’s not even for racing reasons, and I have a problem with that,” Gravel said. “Kyle and I are fine and good now but he had a problem with my crew chief (Cody Jacobs) and he took that out on me. I wasn’t cool with that.

“At the end of the day, it’s part of the sport and we moved on from it. It’s a new season, clean slate, and we’re just going to try to beat everyone every night, no matter who is there for competition.”

The way he said it indicated that there was no showmanship whatsoever. No theater. It was genuinely a byproduct of things that happened on the race track and not his efforts to create storylines for the industry either.

“It all depends on the situation,” Gravel said when asked about how much he’s serious versus being a showman. “Sometimes, when your blood gets flowing, things get said differently.

“I just feel like, if 50 percent of the fans are booing you, while you’re talking, I’m going to speak the way I feel. Dale Earnhardt did that. Steve Kinser was one of the most outspoken racers. Sammy Swindell as well. Denny Hamlin, before he has everything that’s happened, which is terrible.

“But he would make a stink at people who booed him when he won a race. So, I get it. When there are thousands of people shouting over you on the podium, it scrambled your train of thought, and I wish if someone had a true problem with me, I would rather just talk it out and show them my perspective.”