It’s been a short, yet winding, road for Austyn Gossel trying to find his groove in the national 360 Sprint Car world.
The 25-year-old from Fort Collins, CO, was only 12 laps away from his first national-level Feature win with the American Sprint Car Series last Saturday night at Batesville Motor Speedway when he collided with a lapped car, damaging his car beyond timely repair and doing more than just knocking him out of the race.
“It was just, it all happened so incredibly fast. Definitely the hardest hit I’ve ever taken. Knocked the wind out of me, for sure,” he said.
Gossel climbed from his car uninjured, scored 17th in the official results with his first DNF of the season. Though the crash left him with a frame-damaged race car, it did not break his spirit.
“I’m not dwelling on the incident,” Gossel said. “I know it sucks, and a lot of people would be hanging their heads, but I moved on from the situation really quick. Now, I’m just looking forward to getting right back to it and doing it all over again.”
Many drivers his age would struggle to put such an incident behind them and avoid the pitfall of self-reflection, but Gossel is unlike many drivers. He’s got plenty of reason to believe he’s closing in on his first big trophy.
Earlier in the program, he won his Heat Race, won the Honest Abe Roofing Dash, and led the first 13 laps of the race unchallenged before the incident occurred. Two-time Series champion Blake Hahn chased him throughout the first half of the race but could not muster the speed to make the pass.
His speed was evident that night, and he’s taking it with him the rest of the season.
“Winning is never easy, obviously,” Gossel said. “You’re gonna have some hiccups and heartaches down the road, but knowing that we have the speed and the equipment it takes to run out front and be competitive is kind of the biggest takeaway from everything.”
Despite the early exit, Gossel has already begun to see where his next steps for improvement will be.
“Lap traffic, I think, is always gonna be my struggle learning so early — where to be and how to get around them,” Gossel said. “I think my biggest takeaway will just be figuring out how to learn all that stuff — getting by lap traffic and watching, observing the track conditions as the race goes on, and cleaning up my mistakes a little bit.”
Three weeks earlier at Dodge City Raceway Park, Gossel posted his best career finish with the Series — a runner-up to five-time champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. The Texas racer dominated, leading all 25 laps unchallenged, but Gossel never let him get out of sight, once again showing his ability to compete with the best in only his second full-time season racing Sprint Cars on dirt.
“Considering where we were last year to this year already, this early in the season, is just incredible,” Gossel said. “We’ve changed a lot of things over the off-season, and it’s paying dividends. That car is only eight races old and probably one of the best cars I’ve ever had.”
At the turn of the decade, Gossel was more focused on racing pavement Sprint Cars, making only scattered appearances on dirt. But it’s performances like he’s given in his sophomore full-time dirt season that show how far he’s come in a short time.
“From where I started out, I never thought I would be running this competitively and running upfront so early,” Gossel said. “I’ve only been on the national stage for a year now, and it normally takes guys a couple years to really pick up their pace and start running out front. Considering now, we’ve been doing it a year and a half maybe, is truly incredible.”
Gossel continues the search for his first Feature win with the American Sprint Car Series in the next race weekend — this Friday–Saturday, June 27–28, at Tulsa Speedway in Tulsa, OK.
Admission for the event will be sold at the track on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
