RISING YOUNG GUNS
While Brad Sweet, at 35 years old, claimed his second World of Outlaws title in a row last year, several of the young guns spread their wings and showed their potential as championship contenders.
Leading that group is Logan Schuchart, 28, who finished second to Sweet in the championship standings last year. He and his Pennsylvania-based Shark Racing team are the feel good story of the series. They started their tenure on the World of Outlaws tour in 2014 with the goal of making features. Now, Schuchart is a contender to win every weekend and has added his name to the list of potential championship-caliber drivers.
Consistency will be key for Schuchart if he wants to challenge the likes of Sweet and 10-time WoO champion Donny Schatz for the 2021 title. A lack of consistency at times last year hurt his ability to give Sweet a better fight at the end of the season. However, he ended the 2020 season by winning the final race on the tour, giving he and his team momentum returning to the three season-opening races at Volusia Speedway Park, where he won last year.
“We had limited DNFs this year, which is very important in this series,” Schuchart said, “and my grandfather (and car owner Bobby Allen) at the top, just doing what he needed to do to make sure we were all doing our jobs and to look over us. I feel like our team is working really well together. We‘ve been out here [since 2014], using our experience to our advantage. I look
forward to 2021.”
Schuchart‘s teammate Jacob Allen, 26, had a breakout year in 2020, earning his first career World of Outlaws win — after 358 starts — and finishing a career-high eighth in points. He, too, will look to ride that confidence in this season.
In the last 20 races of the 2020 season, Sheldon Haudenschild, 27, was continuously the best driver on track. In those few months, he claimed the most wins — five of his career-high seven for the year — and, if not for two incidents of bad luck that took him out of the race, he would‘ve earned more points in that time span than Sweet.
With he and crew chief Kyle Ripper reunited last year, there was a clear resurgence in the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing stable. The duo turned their NOS Energy Drink No. 17 into a winning contender every race by the halfway point of the season and Haudenschild ended the season fourth in points. In his three previous seasons, he had only finished as high as seventh. To contend for the title this year, they looked to hit the ground running at Volusia Speedway Park — where Haudenschild earned his first series win — and eliminate small mistakes that lead to DNFs.
While the 2020 points show David Gravel, 28, finishing sixth in points, he could have been in contention for the championship if he didn‘t miss three races to run an ARCA and two NASCAR Truck Series events. This year, he intends to put himself in contention for the title by joining forces with Big Game Motorsports for the full 2021 tour.
Gravel has been a top competitor the last several years — winning with six different teams — most recently with Jason Johnson Racing in 2019 and 2020. In those two years with JJR, he collected 19 of his 58 career WoO wins. He‘s proven he can step into any car and make it go fast. His pairing with Tod Quiring‘s Big Game Motorsports could see him finally claim a World of Outlaws title.
With Gravel stepping out of the seat at Jason Johnson Racing, that opened the door for Carson Macedo, 24, to reunite with the team. He lost his ride at the end of 2020 when Kyle Larson Racing shutdown, but due to a prior positive experience with JJR he quickly found a new home.
When Jason Johnson died in 2018, Macedo was tapped to fill the seat for several events toward the end of the season. In his first-ever race behind the wheel of the No. 41 car, he won a prelim race at the 360 Knoxville Nationals. Macedo has a similar driving style to Johnson, according to team crew chief Philip Dietz, which helped the two instantly mesh.
They‘ll look for the same chemistry this year as JJR looks to back up its 2020 performance, which saw the team compete for the team championship until the last lap of the season before having to settle for second in team points.
“I feel like there‘s definitely the potential,” Macedo said. “The last couple of years I feel like I‘ve learned a lot at [Kyle Larson Racing] and bettered myself as a driver. I think Phil has gotten to work with David (Gravel) for the past couple of years and I think David is extremely good. One of the best on the Outlaw tour. He brings awesome experience to the table, as well. I think him and Phil have made the 41 operation even better over the last couple of years. I feel like we‘re both in a better spot than we were a few years ago when we worked together and I‘m excited to get the opportunity to show what we can do together.”