Still A Rocket: Abreu Wins World Finals Sprint Car Opener
Rico Abreu (14) tracks down Bill Balog Thursday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. (Tyler Carr photo)
By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 5, 2026) – Rico Abreu is still undefeated at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in 2026 after Thursday’s sprint car portion of the Dave Smith Motors World Finals.
Following his sweep of Wednesday’s pair of qualifying sessions, Abreu continued his roll around the four-tenths-mile dirt oval by winning the first of three World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series features for the weekend in dramatic fashion.
The St. Helena, Calif., native used a deep turn-three slide job to pass race-long leader Bill Balog coming to four to go, then drove away from Tyler Courtney by 1.136 seconds to notch his second Outlaws win of the year and his second sprint car victory at the CMS dirt track as well.
It marked the 23rd victory of Abreu’s career against The Greatest Show on Dirt, one behind Ron Shuman for 29th on the series all-time win list.
“My car launched really well on the starts,” Abreu said of the Tony Stewart Racing No. 14, which has Stewart’s iconic maroon Rushville Rocket paint scheme back on it this week, just as it did during the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals in August.
“When I got to the outside row, the (No.) 7BC (Courtney) peeled off to try to pass the (No.) 17B (Balog), and I got a full clean lane up top. These guys kept working on this thing. I was a little concerned mid-race there if we were going to be too aero tight to get to the front, but things kind of played out, and I just kept trying to not forfeit positions,” Abreu added. “Ricky (Warner), Zack (Middlebrooks), Brady (Forbrook), and Todd (Devnich), just this whole organization, they keep fighting.”
Also of statistical note, Thursday was Abreu’s 11th overall sprint car triumph in 2026, and it marked the 332nd World of Outlaws win for TSR as an organization – 14 of which have come at Charlotte.
It was Balog who dominated most of the 25-lapper, after launching ahead from the outside pole and controlling the first 21 circuits despite four caution flags and subsequent restart sequences.
In fact, one of those restarts nearly cost Balog control out front, as he was swarmed by both Abreu and original polesitter Garet Williamson following a lap-six caution for the spinning car of Skylar Gee.
However, a quick yellow before the lap was completed – for contact between Buddy Schweibinz and Sheldon Haudenschild that sent Schweibinz around in turn four – gave Balog a needed reprieve.
From there, he fended off Williamson twice, but Abreu methodically marched forward after falling back as far as fourth before building up steam late once Balog caught slower traffic inside of 10 laps to go.
Abreu pounced on lap 21 after building a run exiting turn two, firing a shot down into the third corner that Balog had no defense for in the Anderson’s Maple Syrup No. 17B.
“Man, here it’s pretty hard to move off the top when you’re leading, so as good as we were … I felt good,” Balog, who faded back to third at the finish behind Courtney, told SWN afterward.
“I don't have a good answer for (what more was needed). I think he kind of just blew by me and then was able to … really not give me a chance to even come back and throw a bomb on him. Happy with third though,” Balog continued. “I mean, that could have went a lot worse for us. Car’s good, motor’s good, so we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
Just off the podium behind Balog, Buddy Kofoid and Garet Williamson finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
David Gravel used a sixth-place finish Thursday to effectively lock up his third straight World of Outlaws sprint car championship, holding a 120-point advantage with two features left in the season.
He’ll officially claim the crown again simply by collecting the 90 show-up points on Friday and Saturday.
Other feature winners Thursday during the World Finals were Ricky Thornton Jr. (late models) and Jimmy Phelps (big-block modifieds).
Action continues at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Friday with the second of three racing programs during the Dave Smith Motors World Finals. Every lap of the week can be streamed live via DIRTvision.
The finish:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 laps): 1. 14-Rico Abreu [3]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [4]; 3. 17B-Bill Balog [2]; 4. 83-Michael Kofoid [6]; 5. 23-Garet Williamson [1]; 6. 2-David Gravel [5]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart [8]; 8. 77-Giovanni Scelzi [7]; 9. 71R-Logan Rumsey [16]; 10. 17-Spencer Bayston [15]; 11. 51-Steven Snyder Jr [17]; 12. 41-Carson Macedo [11]; 13. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [14]; 14. 9-Chase Randall [22]; 15. 71-Parker Price Miller [21]; 16. 13-Tanner Holmes [12]; 17. 15-Donny Schatz [19]; 18. 19-Brent Marks [18]; 19. 39M-Anthony Macri [13]; 20. 7S-Chris Windom [24]; 21. 2C-Cole Macedo [20]; 22. 27-Emerson Axsom [25]; 23. 6-Bryce Lucius [27]; 24. 15K-Creed Kemenah [23]; 25. 28M-Conner Morrell [28]; 26. 69K-Buddy Schweibinz [9]; 27. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild [10]; 28. 16C-Skylar Gee [26].
