INDIANAPOLIS — While still well within the prime of his career at 31 years old, Logan Schuchart’s tenure on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series circuit is among the longest of active racers.
Following Wednesday’s announcement that he’ll be back on the tour next season, it’ll be the Hanover, Pa.-native’s 12th campaign with the Greatest Show on Dirt aboard his family-owned Shark Racing No. 1s.
“It has gone by very quick,” Schuchart said. “It’s a long time. It’s crazy to think that I’m 31 years old. I’ve been out on the road for 12 years and how fast time flies, for sure. But I love doing what I’m doing. I love racing with the best of the best and racing at the level that we are.
“So, I feel like we can continue to get better, compete for wins and compete at the top. I’m just enjoying the ride. It’s going to be another season, but, just happy to live my dream and do what I do.”
Schuchart’s Outlaws career has been stellar — 42 feature wins (19th all-time) and a win in the Eldora Million at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway last season.
The No. 1s team scored a victory at Cedar Lake (Wis.) Speedway this year, however, endured a rough outing as Schuchart finished seventh in the standings.
According to Schuchart, the team was “close” throughout the season, however, qualifying struggles hampered the team at the beginning of the season.
“I think in the beginning of the year, we struggled with qualifying, which really put us in bad spots and limited our dash appearances,” Schuchart began.
“Then I’d say July, August area, we started qualifying a lot better. We kind of showed in our performances. We had some good runs there at the end of the year. That was definitely a huge point of emphasis, is getting ourselves qualifying better and just get on with the rule changes this offseason.
“Just try and take notes and see what we did wrong, what we could do better and hopefully improve from there and get our fifth through eighth-place car, what we felt like we had last year, get that up to fighting for podiums and wins.”
Elevating a race car from a top-eight car to a winning one is no easy task. Finding incremental positives for the car becomes a moving target that can swing one way or another.
In most cases, Schuchart believes, “It’s just as easy to tune yourself out, or probably a lot easier to tune yourself out than it is to tune yourself in the right direction.”
Entering next season, Schuchart’s team will look slightly different, however, the goal remains the same as they eye improvement next season.
“It’s kind of talking it over with your race team,” Schuchart said. “I had a great group of guys last year, Lonnie (Judy) and Brendan (Collum). Lonnie’s gonna stay home this year, so bringing in Kyle Pruitt, who’s had some experience. Not quite at this level, but I think he’s going to be great.
“He works very hard and has a lot of passion to win races and go after big events. I think we got a great team. Hopefully we’re making the right changes over the wintertime to make improvements and go after these wins, hopefully improving points and just be that much better.”
