KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As night two of competition at Outlaw Days in Kansas City, Missouri, concluded, Kansas City Outlaws head coach J.W. Hart had a bone to pick with the officials.

“Whose ass do I have to whoop about that last score?” he called down the back hallways of the T-Mobile Center.

Hart, known for his stern demeanor, was jovial in referring to Koltin Hevalow’s 7.66-second buckoff on Choctaw Bingo, which was initially ruled a qualified ride.

While it was agonizing, to be sure, the Outlaws were 0.34 seconds away from a perfect 5-for-5 showing on home soil, defeating in-state rivals the Missouri Thunder 349.5-259.25. The game airs Aug. 6 at noon ET on CBS as the Game of the Week.

Hart and assistant coach Guilherme Marchi had bet their riders that if they went 5-for-5, they would eat ghost peppers.

Hart went as far as thanking Hevalow for his buckoff in the locker room following the win.

But on a more serious note, Hart gave an impassioned speech to his team, which is now 2-0 on home soil.

“Guys, I cannot be more fucking proud of you,” Hart said. “That’s what we want, that’s what we desire, and that’s what we expect. That’s what our fans expect, that’s what our owners expect, that’s what your coaches expect, is drive, is fire. If that don’t get your motor running to do even better tomorrow – we won yesterday by the skin of our teeth. We won today by going away. We can do this. You guys can do it. I promise you. We didn’t draft you, we didn’t trade for you, we didn’t pick you, we didn’t train you, we didn’t do anything thinking any less of you than that’s the performance that we’re supposed to have every week. I love you guys.”

That performance began with Wingson Henrique da Silva – the team’s MVP so far, going 3-for-4 in the team’s first four games – riding Boomerang for 84.25 points.

After Felipe Furlan took the lead for the Thunder, Cassio Dias got it back for the Outlaws with 89 points on War Daddy.

Luke Parkinson then bucked off for the Thunder before Marcus Mast stretched the lead even further with 88.5 points on Roc Solid.

The ride was a relief for Mast, who’d been 0-for-2 in Teams competition heading into this game. Last year, he’d been the heart and soul of the Outlaws, finishing third in the league MVP race.

“I’ve been kind of struggling the last while, honestly,” Mast said. “I had a good bull yesterday. I didn’t capitalize on it, but today I had a good bull that came from good friends of ours where I go get on practice bulls, and I knew it’s just a good bull. I’d never been on him. I’d seen him a couple times. I knew he was good, should fit me good. I just had to do everything I could to capitalize on the situation.

“It always feels good, especially here, at the hometown event. Obviously, I know I can ride bulls just as good as anybody at this level, so it was just a matter of time on when I get it done again.”

It’s been a mental battle for him to get back into the swing of things after a brutal wreck at the end of June. He was hung up and dragged around the arena, getting stepped on and his throat slit open, and was out for four weeks.

“As bad as it sounds, it wasn’t horrible. Could’ve been a lot worse,” Mast said. “But it’s still one of those deals. When you’re in a car accident, you’re going to hesitate getting back in that car. You’ve just got to overcome it and keep on moving forward.”

Mast has indeed been moving forward, and his ride on Friday night felt like there was far more weight to it than just clinching a regular-season game win. Before the ride, TV cameras found his wife watching nervously in the stands. Mast stood on the chutes, laser-focused, Marchi speaking into his ear.

“He brings a different energy to the team that we haven’t had before,” Mast said of Marchi. “He’s another one of those guys that really believes in me and just backs up what J.W. believes in.”

Following the ride, the crowd in T-Mobile Center erupted like their team had just won the championship.

That doesn’t happen until Las Vegas on Oct. 20-22, but even Mast got in on the hype, screaming for his teammates from a platform above the chutes, head and shoulders above the rest of the riders.

“I just like to be there for my teammates and support them the best I could,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got ten guys here, so we’ve only got five guys riding. Luckily enough, I was able to be one of the guys riding today, and everybody wants to have a hand in it. So if there’s other guys that want to pull ropes and be right up close to them, I’ll let them have their hand at it and whatever else they can do, and I’ll try and keep on cheering the team on and supporting them with my words.”

That support worked. Andrew Alvidrez closed the gap a bit for the Thunder, but Leonardo Castro Ferreira rode Yellowknife for 87.75 points to put the game away for good – and get anointed with a giant Outlaws chain by Hart during his postgame speech.

Even though Hevalow couldn’t close out the perfect game, the win still felt incredibly special.

“We got the win yesterday, but we got the win by the skin of our teeth yesterday, and we dominated it today,” Mast said. “We showed up and did today what we’ve been planning on doing all season long. Now, we’ve just got to keep on doing that.”

The Outlaws (2-2, 2-0 Outlaw Days) will get that chance when they take on the Oklahoma Freedom (3-1, 2-0 Outlaw Days) on Saturday (10 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network).

Should the Outlaws, now No. 5 in the season standings, earn the event win, it would be the first in franchise history.

“All the work we’ve been putting in, day in and day out, leading up to the Teams season starting is finally showing,” Mast concluded.

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media