PLYMOUTH, Wis. — Sheldon Haudenschild suited up and got behind the wheel with a heavy heart Saturday night.
He and his wife Zan sadly lost their beloved dog Pella in the morning after giving her a full and fun life over the years. Haudenschild fought through a flood of emotion to come and do his job with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series at Plymouth Dirt Track. And he not only showed up; he won one for Pella.
A record crowd jammed into the Wisconsin track, and the best Sprint Car drivers in the world gave the fans a treat. Early on it was David Gravel and Michael “Buddy” Kofoid trading blows for the top spot. The two winningest drivers on tour this year went back and forth with sliders, crossovers, and lane swaps in a dramatic duel.
But disaster struck for Gravel late as he clipped a rut in Turn 4 while finishing a slide job and sent the Big Game Motorsports No. 2 hard into the wall. The impact caused severe rear-end damage and ended his night early.
The resulting caution set up a seven-lap shootout to the finish, and it was Haudenschild’s time to shine. After slipping back as far as eighth early in the race, he’d scratched and clawed his way up to second as the KCP Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 18 came to life. The Wooster, Ohio, native glued his car to the bottom and motored by Kofoid with five laps to go. Kofoid had no answer as Haudenschild cruised to an emotional victory.
“Man, what an up and down race that was for me,” Haudenschild said. “I went from fourth to seventh pretty quick, and I was just struggling to keep it up there at the beginning of the race. Hats off to (Kyle) Ripper and Adam (Clark) and Dauson (Heitritter). What a day, man. I lost my dog this morning right here in the driveway of the track. It’s been a tough day.
“I feel like we’ve been really close to winning these races. The 83 and 2 are just really good right now. I kind of knew when I got back to him that my car was definitely good enough, and I could move around. I think Buddy was floating the top a little bit, and I kind of tried that. Yeah, I was just able to move around. Ripper did a really good job with this car.”
Haudenschild snapped a 21-race winless drought with Saturday’s score as he picked up his second victory of the season and the 48th of his career with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He’s the fourth different winner through four visits to Plymouth for the World of Outlaws. Plymouth became the 29th different track where Haudenschild has went to victory lane with the series and third in the state of Wisconsin.
Kofoid came home second for his 11th podium of the season in the Roth Motorsports No. 83.
Garet Williamson rounded out the podium in the Fischer Motorsports No. 23 to notch his best finish of the season and extend his current streak of top 10s to four.
Cole Macedo and Carson Macedo completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[3]; 3. 23-Garet Williamson[5]; 4. 2C-Cole Macedo[7]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo[16]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart[14]; 7. 51B-Joe B Miller[2]; 8. 85J-Logan Julien[13]; 9. 7S-Chris Windom[15]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz[6]; 11. 19-Joel Myers Jr[21]; 12. 17-Spencer Bayston[20]; 13. 6-Kasey Jedrzejek[8]; 14. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 15. 51-Ashton Torgerson[23]; 16. 16C-Skylar Gee[18]; 17. 92-Zach Daum[11]; 18. 28M-Conner Morrell[10]; 19. 15K-Creed Kemenah[22]; 20. 8-Will Gerrits[19]; 21. (DNF) 2-David Gravel[1]; 22. (DNF) 7A-Will Armitage[17]; 23. (DNF) 17B-Bill Balog[12]; 24. (DNF) 25T-Travis Arenz[24]
