Scelzi Returns To World Of Outlaws Victory Lane With Spire
Gio Scelzi celebrates in victory lane Friday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. (KR Poole Photos)
By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 6, 2026) – To say that Giovanni Scelzi, long ago tagged with the nickname “Hot Sauce”, is ending his national sprint car season on a major hot streak would be understating the obvious.
Scelzi, the High Limit Racing championship runner-up in his first year with the new Spire Motorsports sprint car operation, added a return to World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victory lane to his resume in commanding fashion during night two of the Dave Smith Motors World Finals.
After starting from the outside pole, Scelzi ripped the outside of turns one and two on the green flag, threaded the needle to scoot past polesitter Sheldon Haudenschild, and never looked back in the Chili’s No. 77.
Scelzi led all 25 laps at The Dirt Track at Charlotte and banked a $15,000 check for his 11th career World of Outlaws victory, adding a trophy with The Greatest Show on Dirt to the three-race win streak he ended the High Limit season on.
All told, Scelzi has won four of his last five 410 sprint car starts and hasn’t finished worse than eighth since a 12th-place finish in Port Royal Speedway’s Tuscarora 50 on Sept. 12.
Buch Motorsports’ Tanner Holmes made it interesting on the final lap, closing to within three car lengths as Scelzi worked lap traffic, but Scelzi held strong to give the Spire organization a victory just down the road from its Mooresville, N.C., headquarters.
It was also the 25-year-old Fresno, Calif., native’s first victory at Charlotte since May 2019, when he won during Memorial Day weekend in the Indy Race Parts No. 71.
“The cushion got lipped up there pretty quick after they tilled it,” Scelzi said of the quick track work that took place before feature competition. “Man, I know we were all angry at first, but kudos to the track crew. Thank you to the fans for staying here. We’ve been here for nearly 12 hours. To get a win in Spire’s home state is awesome with the Chili’s 77 car.
“It’s very, very cool to win here. It’s been seven years since I won here last.”
Only one caution flag slowed the 25-lapper Friday night, when PA Posse young gun Logan Rumsey slowed down the frontstretch from 27th place with nine laps complete.
That caution was also heartbreaking for Bill Balog, however, who was running fifth under the yellow but had to pull to the work area to change a deflating right-rear tire.
The final 16 circuits ran uninterrupted, with Holmes sliding up in front of Haudenschild to take second at five to go, as Scelzi was hitting a thicket of lap traffic.
That allowed Holmes to make a charge, but the Oregon young gun came up just short on time as Scelzi collected the laurels.
Still, however, it was a career-best World of Outlaws finish for Holmes in second place.
“I think we all were [wishing for a few more laps], but I don’t think our tires were,” Holmes told SWN after the race. “I don’t know what Gio’s looked like, because they were celebrating when we were at the tech trailer, but … I don’t know if we were using our stuff up trying to get to him, but we didn’t have a ton [of tread] left.
“Tried to peek each lap until we got to the white [flag]; I knew we were getting close to the end of the race. Just ran out of time.”
Haudenschild completed the podium, followed by PA Posse drivers Cameron Smith and Buddy Schweibinz, piloting two of sprint car racing’s iconic cars in the Shark Racing No. 1a and Kreitz Racing No. 69K, respectively.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series concludes its 2026 season during Saturday night’s Dave Smith Motors World Finals finale, with a 25-lap feature paying $25,000 to win.
Broadcast coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET, with every lap of action streamed live via DIRTvision.
The finish:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 laps): 1. 77-Giovanni Scelzi [2]; 2. 13-Tanner Holmes [3]; 3. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild [1]; 4. 1A-Cameron Smith [4]; 5. 69K-Buddy Schweibinz [7]; 6. 41-Carson Macedo [10]; 7. 83-Michael Kofoid [13]; 8. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [9]; 9. 2-David Gravel [11]; 10. 71-Parker Price Miller [6]; 11. 14-Rico Abreu [17]; 12. 27-Emerson Axsom [12]; 13. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [15]; 14. 23-Garet Williamson [19]; 15. 39M-Anthony Macri [14]; 16. 51-Steven Snyder Jr [21]; 17. 15-Donny Schatz [25]; 18. 1S-Logan Schuchart [24]; 19. 19-Brent Marks [20]; 20. 7S-Chris Windom [18]; 21. 17B-Bill Balog [5]; 22. 17-Spencer Bayston [22]; 23. 24D-Danny Sams III [16]; 24. 7NY-Matt Farnham [8]; 25. 71R-Logan Rumsey [23]; 26. 2C-Cole Macedo [26]; 27. 28M-Conner Morrell [28]; 28. 16C-Skylar Gee [27].
