For Carson Macedo, the Night Before the Ironman 55 started more like a nightmare. Rolling through the garage after engine heat, Macedo suddenly stopped and bailed, moments later flames were visible from the cockpit of the 41. Safety crews quickly extinguished the flames and pushed the car back to the team’s pit, but damage had been done. The team, along with some extra hands, scrambled to replace anything they felt may have been damaged in the fire that was ultimately deemed to be a fuel issue. Macedo was quoted as saying “Everything seemed fine, and then it got hot.”.

The team missed hot laps due to the repair, but qualified 4th in their flight and finished 2nd in heat #4, qualifying him for the dash. He drew the pole for the dash and led the dash wire to wire. The stage was set for a dominating comeback performance. In the feature, the 41 was unstoppable. Defending champion David Gravel gave an early effort in the high line before falling to 4th place. Macedo’s biggest foe would be ten-time champion Donny Schatz with arguably his best run of the season. At times Schatz looked a bit better than Macedo but would ultimately finish 2nd. Buddy Kofoid rounded out the podium.

Find out tonight if Macedo can sweep the weekend and claim his first IronMan. If you can’t be there in person, you can see all the action on DirtVision.