BRISTOL, Tenn. – It took just 12 of 27 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series qualifiers on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway for a new page of history to be written on the dirt at The Last Great Colosseum.

Driving the No. 2 sprinter for Big Game Motorsports, David Gravel dashed to a new dirt sprint car track record during the opening night of the Bristol Throwdown, clocking a lap of 13.672 seconds (138.502 mph) around the .526-mile, dirt-covered high banks.

Gravel’s time shattered the previous mark – 13.860 seconds (136.623 mph), set by Sammy Swindell in June of 2000 – by nearly two tenths of a second.

“It was really fast out there,” said Gravel after his qualifying run. “I’m happy to get the track record and hope it stands [through the weekend]. You can’t go any faster in a sprint car than that, that’s for sure.

“Things happen really, really fast. You’re wide open and it’s almost like a slot car with the banking and everything,” Gravel added. “We want to see it slick off a little bit for later, but we wanted to qualify well to set ourselves up well for the heat and we’ve done that, so now we’ll just go forward from here.”

Gio Scelzi, the third qualifier out, set the provisional record of 13.752 seconds (137.696 mph) in the KCP Racing No. 18 before Gravel took over and shuffled Scelzi back to second in the final qualifying rundown.

Carson Macedo (13.831/136.910), Paul McMahan (13.838/136.841) and Sam Hafertepe Jr. (13.856/136.663) filled out the top five and were all under the previous track record as well.

Closing the top 10 in qualifying were Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, Parker Price-Miller, Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild.

Pre-race favorite Kyle Larson was, surprisingly, just 15th-quick in the Silva Motorsports No. 57 at 14.023.

Shark Racing’s Jacob Allen was feeling under the weather Friday and scratched for the evening prior to time trials. He’ll receive show-up points, per the World of Outlaws rule book, because his car was on the property and presented for competition.

World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series; Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway; April 23, 2021

Slick Woody’s Qualifying: 1. #2 – David Gravel, 13.672; 2. #18 – Gio Scelzi, 13.752; 3. #41 – Carson Macedo, 13.831; 4. #23 – Paul McMahan, 13.838; 5. #15h – Sam Hafertepe Jr., 13.856; 6. #15 – Donny Schatz, 13.863; 7. #71 – Spencer Bayston, 13.905; 8. #19 – Parker Price-Miller, 13.929; 9. #1s – Logan Schuchart, 13.945; 10. #17 – Sheldon Haudenschild, 13.950; 11. #49 – Brad Sweet, 13.966; 12. #83 – Aaron Reutzel, 13.986; 13. #3z – Brock Zearfoss, 13.994; 14. #9 – James McFadden, 13.995; 15. #57 – Kyle Larson, 14.023; 16. #24 – Rico Abreu, 14.029; 17. #7bc – Tyler Courtney, 14.058; 18. #9jr – Derek Hagar, 14.064; 19. #26 – Cory Eliason, 14.094; 20. #20 – Ryan Taylor, 14.116; 21. #11k – Kraig Kinser, 14.120; 22. #2c – Wayne Johnson, 14.122; 23. #72 – Tim Shaffer, 14.176; 24. #33m – Mason Daniel, 14.329; 25. #7s – Jason Sides, 14.340; 26. #22 – Jac Haudenschild, 14.396; 27. #85 – Dustin Daggett, 14.469; 28. #1a – Jacob Allen, NT.