COLUMBUS, Miss. — Sheldon Haudenschild became the fifth World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series winner in as many races this season as the series made its long-awaited return to Mississippi Friday night at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
Uncharacteristically, patience made the difference for Haudenschild on this night as he waited out lapped traffic and track conditions before stealing the point from Logan Schuchart en route to his 15th career victory.
“I’m just so happy to win a race here this early in the season, you know I don’t think we won until like July last year,” Haudenschild noted. “That’s a big goal of mine, winning early and building some momentum. It’s always cool to get a win at a track that the Outlaws haven’t been to before too. Ripper, Nikolas, Drew, they’ve got this NOS Energy Drink No. 17 dialed in right now. I’m glad the fans made it out. This is a beautiful race track and I think it put on a really great show.”
Rolling from the outside pole of the 30-lapper, Haudenschild’s biggest challenge was alongside him in the form of Schuchart, who was the fast qualifier, won his heat and the dash.
Schuchart was as dominant as anyone in clean air, but traffic proved to be his Achilles heel on this night. He caught fortunate breaks with three stoppages. However, the final restart, and more importantly, final run through traffic played the most pivotal role.
Restarting with 16 to go, Schuchart drove away to a near two-second advantage over Haudenschild before traffic slowed him with 10 laps remaining. That’s when the fun began.
At one point, a heart-stopping four-car battle for the lead ensued with Schuchart and Haudenschild along with Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet.
One failed slide job attempt on a lapper set Haudenschild up for a successful run on lap 25 to clear for the lead. Schuchart came swinging back with his own slider, but Haudenschild pinned the throttle and threaded the needle around the outside to make it stick.
The duo continued to wage war in the waning laps with Haudenschild only covering Schuchart by 0.054 seconds with three to go. It was still anyone’s race until the checkered flag waved with a mere 0.286-second victory.
“We got to the lappers like twice and the caution would come out every time,” Haudenschild said. “I was just chilling, keeping calm in second, trying not to get passed and see where my car was at. He was really good in open track, I didn’t have much for him. We hit traffic though and the rubber kind of came in while we were in the middle of that. It got really tricky. He tried those sliders on a few lappers and I was getting runs off that. If I wouldn’t have got under him off turn four, I don’t think he would’ve messed up again.”
After leading the opening 24 laps, Schuchart settled for runner-up honors while regaining the point lead.
“Freakin’ guy beat me in golf this week, and now on the race track,” Schuchart joked. “It’s just hard to tell when you’re out front leading in traffic by yourself. It’s hard to gauge how hard you need to push, especially when the track is like this, really wide and not a ton of grip. I pushed the limit too hard with Parker (Price-Miller) and let Sheldon get by me. I had that chance to get him back in turns three and four, but underestimated his entry and couldn’t make it work. Hopefully we can come back here and park it in victory lane.”
Rounding out the podium was Brad Sweet with a 12th-to-third bid in the Kasey Kahne Racing.
“The goal is to be up here standing on the frontstretch every night, and we’re doing that,” Sweet said. “The real adversity and grind of an 80+ race Outlaw tour is sometimes you’re starting up front, but other times like tonight you’re digging yourself out of a hole. I felt like we could’ve contended for the win there, but by the time we got up here the track got top dominant I think and I used up my tires to get this far. It was fun watching Sheldon and Logan be aggressive there, and Donny and I had another fun battle too.”
Schatz and Kasey Kahne, who started 23rd, rounded out the top five.
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, Magnolia Motor Speedway, Columbus, Miss., March 12, 2021
Slick Woody’s Qualifying – 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 12.065; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 12.155; 3. 26-Cory Eliason, 12.181; 4. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.201; 5. 2C-Wayne Johnson, 12.369; 6. 41-Carson Macedo, 12.408; 7. 5-Brent Marks, 12.417; 8. 21-Brian Brown, 12.424; 9. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 12.488; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen, 12.49; 11. 15H-Sam Hafertepe, 12.492; 12. 83-Aaron Reutzel, 12.54; 13. 9-Kasey Kahne, 12.542; 14. 73-Scotty Thiel, 12.551; 15. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 12.569; 16. 19-Parker Price-Miller, 12.599; 17. 2-David Gravel, 12.695; 18. 7S-Jason Sides, 12.707; 19. 22-Connor Leoffler, 12.753; 20. 49-Brad Sweet, 12.771; 21. W20-Greg Wilson, 12.818; 22. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 12.922; 23. 18-Gio Scelzi, 12.927; 24. 11-Ian Madsen, 12.935; 25. 13-Chase Howard, 12.944; 26. 33M-Mason Daniel, 13.032; 27. 47-Eric Riggins, 13.063; 28. 24-Garet Williamson, 13.097; 29. 28-Scott Bogucki, 13.25; 30. 20G-Noah Gass, 13.285; 31. 8M-TJ Michael, 13.377; 32. 44-Chris Martin, 13.54; 33. 4-Danny Smith, 14.001; 34. 44H-Derek Hagar, NT
DRYDENE Heat #1 (10 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer – 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1]; 2. 2-David Gravel [5]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [3]; 4. 2C-Wayne Johnson [2]; 5. 28-Scott Bogucki [8]; 6. 9-Kasey Kahne [4]; 7. W20-Greg Wilson [6]; 8. 13-Chase Howard [7]; 9. 4-Danny Smith [9]
DRYDENE Heat #2 (10 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer – 1. 41-Carson Macedo [2]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [1]; 3. 7S-Jason Sides [5]; 4. 73-Scotty Thiel [4]; 5. 1A-Jacob Allen [3]; 6. 11K-Kraig Kinser [6]; 7. 33M-Mason Daniel [7]; 8. 20G-Noah Gass [8]; 9. 44H-Derek Hagar [9]
DRYDENE Heat #3 (10 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer – 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [3]; 2. 5-Brent Marks [2]; 3. 18-Gio Scelzi [6]; 4. 26-Cory Eliason [1]; 5. 47-Eric Riggins [7]; 6. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [4]; 7. 22-Connor Leoffler [5]; 8. 8M-TJ Michael [8]
DRYDENE Heat #4 (10 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer – 1. 15-Donny Schatz [1]; 2. 83-Aaron Reutzel [3]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [5]; 4. 21-Brian Brown [2]; 5. 11-Ian Madsen [6]; 6. 19-Parker Price-Miller [4]; 7. 24-Garet Williamson [7]; 8. 44-Chris Martin [8]
DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash (8 Laps) – 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [5]; 3. 83-Aaron Reutzel [3]; 4. 2-David Gravel [7]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo [2]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz [8]; 7. 5-Brent Marks [4]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [6]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser [3][-]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson [5][-]; 3. 9-Kasey Kahne [1][-]; 4. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [2][-]; 5. 22-Connor Leoffler [7][$300]; 6. 19-Parker Price-Miller [4][$250]; 7. 4-Danny Smith [13][$225]; 8. 33M-Mason Daniel [6][$200]; 9. 44-Chris Martin [12][$200]; 10. 24-Garet Williamson [8][$200]; 11. 13-Chase Howard [9][$200]; 12. 8M-TJ Michael [11][$200]; 13. 20G-Noah Gass [10][$200]; 14. 44H-Derek Hagar [14][$200]
NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps) – 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [2][$10,000]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1][$6,000]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [12][$3,500]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [6][$2,800]; 5. 9-Kasey Kahne [23][$2,500]; 6. 2-David Gravel [4][$2,300]; 7. 18-Gio Scelzi [11][$2,200]; 8. 26-Cory Eliason [15][$2,100]; 9. 2C-Wayne Johnson [13][$2,050]; 10. 11-Ian Madsen [20][$2,000]; 11. 11K-Kraig Kinser [21][$1,600]; 12. 1A-Jacob Allen [18][$1,400]; 13. 7S-Jason Sides [10][$1,200]; 14. 21-Brian Brown [16][$1,100]; 15. 5-Brent Marks [7][$1,050]; 16. 19-Parker Price-Miller [25][$]; 17. W20-Greg Wilson [22][$1,000]; 18. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [24][$1,000]; 19. 47-Eric Riggins [19][$1,000]; 20. 83-Aaron Reutzel [3][$1,000]; 21. 41-Carson Macedo [5][$1,000]; 22. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [8][$1,000]; 23. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [9][$1,000]; 24. 73-Scotty Thiel [14][$1,000]; 25. 28-Scott Bogucki [17][$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Logan Schuchart 1-24, Sheldon Haudenschild 25-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 9-Kasey Kahne[+18]