MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Carved from a cornfield near Rossburg, Ohio, and opened in 1954, Eldora Speedway has provided some of racing’s most dramatic moments.
But there’s quite possibly never been a four-day period of activity at the famed half-mile dirt track now owned by Tony Stewart that has produced as many storylines as what the Eldora Million and Kings Royal did July 12-15.
Five features were run during those four days with five different drivers visiting victory lane, including Logan Schuchart, who became the first sprint car driver to win $1 million in a single race, and Donny Schatz, who topped the Kings Royal for the sixth time.
Rico Abreu and Brad Sweet won preliminary night features on the first night of competition, each banking $12,000. Carson Macedo picked up a check for $20,000 for winning the Knight Before The Kings Royal on Night No. 3.
With the racing world focused on the Big E for the Eldora Million during night No. 2, Schuchart finally won the big race he’d been chasing for decades – and he did it in dominant fashion.
Followers of sprint car racing know the story of Schuchart, his grandfather and sprint car Hall of Famer Bobby Allen and their Shark Racing team, but it was a story unfamiliar to many of the casual fans who were locked in due to the intrigue of a driver enjoying a $1 million payday.
Schuchart’s No. 1s sprint car was dominant throughout the night as he led all 50 laps en route to a wild victory celebration with his grandfather, his uncle and teammate Jacob Allen and their family and crew.
It all played out to thunderous roars from the massive Thursday night crowd, which showed its appreciation for what Schuchart and his team accomplished.
When Shark Racing first hit the sprint car trail nearly a decade ago, it was with one trailer, two cars, two engines and literally without two nickels to rub together.
Putting earnings back into the team and picking up sponsorships here and there until Drydene came on board a few years back, Bobby Allen built Shark Racing into a formidable operation.
Schuchart owns 35 World of Outlaws victories but he had always come up short in the marquee races until winning what many called “the biggest night in sprint car racing history.”
The little team that could won the highest-paying sprint car race ever run.
“I don’t have words to explain it,” Schuchart said less than an hour after the life-changing victory. “We have come such a long way as a team from starting at the very bottom. Jacob and I had one engine for each car when we started and we built it from there.”
Bobby Allen, meanwhile, smiled and smiled a little bit more.
But there were still two nights of racing remaining in sprint car racing’s most lucrative week.
After Macedo claimed Friday’s first-place money, attention moved to the 40th running of the Kings Royal, which paid the sport’s first $50,000-to-win prize when it debuted in 1984.
While rain delayed the start, what Eldora general manager Jerry Gappens identified as “the largest crowd in Eldora Speedway history” waited patiently for the event, which is run under a unique format, to play out on a perfect summer evening.
With the six heat race winners slated to start in the first six positions for the $175,000-to-win, 40-lap feature, mixed strategies came in to play, with many drivers “sandbagging” on their qualifying runs in hopes of hitting the number it would take to start up front in a heat.
The gamble worked for some, including Schatz, who qualified 24th and David Gravel, who was 33rd. With the 36 quickest qualifiers inverted for the heats, starting up front in a heat was the key to starting up front in the main event.
Schatz and Gravel were among the six heat winners, but with Schatz winning the sixth heat he earned the pole.
While he struggled for speed in his Tony Stewart Racing No. 15 car through the first three days of competition, Schatz had plenty of it on an ultra-fast surface and led all 40 laps despite several stoppages along the way.
It was his sixth Kings Royal victory and his record 13th victory that paid $100,000 or more.
But while Schatz benefited from the format, others did not. Schuchart and Sweet were among those who failed to move forward in their heat or the B main and missed the Kings Royal finale.
The drivers weren’t the only ones taking home big money at Eldora, as Thursday night’s winner of the 50/50 drawing collected $101,081, while the jackpot on Saturday weighed in at $84,951.
It was truly a historic week – no one will dispute that.
This story appeared in the July 19, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
