By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
Is there a better way to celebrate your birthday than with a World of Outlaws win? You’d have to ask Jason Johnson Racing driver Carson Macedo. On his 29th birthday, Macedo would tame the Atomic Speedway in the rubber and take home his 50th career World of Outlaws win– but it didn’t come easy.
Macedo would set quicktime (11.588 seconds) and win his heat race over fellow Californian and Linderville semi-resident Buddy Kofoid. Macedo would draw the two for the dash, with hometown hero Cole Duncan drawing the pole. Duncan would cruise to the dash win with Macedo in second, setting the front row for the 25 lap feature, with rubber looming.
With Duncan on the inside, looking for his first career World of Outlaws, which would send Atomic Speedway into a frenzy, and Macedo on the outside, looking to bounce back after a rough feature Saturday night at Attica and put an exclamation point on his birthday; your front row was set.
The green flag flew, and it was evident that the outside was the place to be. Macedo jumped to the early lead despite a Duncan slider attempt. The yellow would fly though before lap one could be completed as Bill Balog slid to a stop in turns three and four. Rerack and try again. The results of the one and only restart were the same. Duncan tried to slide Macedo in turns one and two, but couldn’t pull it off. Macedo led over Duncan, Chris Windom, and Hunter Schuerenberg.
Soon enough, the rubber set in, and it would make passing difficult for everybody on track. Macedo had about a one second lead on lap four, but would reach lapped traffic on lap five, which would prove to be tricky in the rubber.
By lap six, Duncan had closed to Macedo’s tailtank. The following lap, Duncan had a peak at Macedo for the lead, but couldn’t make the move work. Duncan again got a run on lap eight and would try a slider and would be side-by-side with Macedo for the lead, but Macedo would eventually hold serve. This brief battle allowed Chris Windom to close in, also looking for his first career Outlaw win.
The leaders would then settle into a groove, as everyone was running about the same pace due to the rubber. Macedo was steadily about two car-lengths ahead of Duncan. Macedo reached heavier lapped traffic on lap 19/20, and Duncan was primed to make a move. The game of cat and mouse would continue over the last five laps, with Duncan closing in, only for Macedo to stretch the lead back out slightly.
Duncan got a run on Macedo down the backstretch on the final lap and went to rip the top in turns three and four. There wasn’t grip up there like Duncan had hoped, and he tagged the wall, letting Macedo get the win, and Chris Windom would also slip by for the second spot.
Rubber down races aren’t what anyone wants to see, but it was still an exciting finish, and a race that kept me on the edge of my seat all 25 laps. It was Macedo’s third win of the 2025 season, and as mentioned, the 50th of his Outlaw career.
When asked about the start of the race, Macedo acknowledged that being on the outside helped put him at an advantage: “I definitely think it was helpful, just being able to get to the cushion first into turn one. That gave me the opportunity to get off turn two quicker than he did. I think that was the crucial move, and in the grand scheme of things, to get into the position to lead the race, and take control when it did take rubber.”
The lone restart did make Macedo think, though. He had shown his hand on the original start, and that’s not something you want to do with a guy like Cole Duncan behind you.
“Well, I thought I was in trouble,” Macedo said. “I thought if he got a better start, he was going to cross lanes and get to the top first. But, I got a good enough start the second time that he wasn’t able to get to the top. I was able to get there first and get the run off of two. I knew I needed to get another good start, or I would be in trouble.”
The work wasn’t done off the start though, having a guy like Cole Duncan tail you for the entirety of a feature at Atomic Speedway is enough to make the most seasoned drivers shake in their boots.
“Well, he’s a dangerous person to have in second,” Macedo added. “Especially here, at Atomic, he’s really good. His car is really good, and he’s really aggressive here. And you know he’s not running for points, he didn’t have anything to lose. I knew he would be gunning super hard for the win.”
“I knew I needed to step up in the seat and make sure that I didn’t miss the rubber. But, it was getting edgy. We got to traffic and it got so tough to negotiate the traffic. I was nervous that I was going to push too much and miss the rubber and then be in trouble,” added Macedo.
“I tried to settle in and not miss the rubber and made sure that I had nice, consistent laps. We’ve had a little bit of bad luck lately, so it’s good to get this thing back in victory lane,” concluded Macedo.