PAIGE, Texas — Friday’s Texas Two-Step opener at Cotton Bowl Speedway felt all too similar to last year’s initial World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series run at the track.
In March 2021, Sheldon Haudenschild started seventh, drove to the lead on lap 25, and his score made him the first repeat winner of the season.
In March 2022, Haudenschild started seventh, grabbed the lead on lap 22 and became the first repeat winner of the campaign.
There were differences, however, and the Wooster, Ohio, gasser noted he thought this triumph was harder to come by. It required a more patient, methodical approach to carving his way forward and ultimately parking the Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing, NOS Energy Drink No. 17 in victory lane.
“I felt like more guys had this place figured out this year, at least as to what I was doing compared to last year,” Sheldon said after his 24th career World of Outlaws win. “It made this one a lot more wild, I mean Logan (Schuchart), Brad (Sweet)  and I had a really great battle. That yellow kind of came at a bad spot for me, but I ended up catching Cory (Eliason) and I knew the exit of turn two would be good to square him up.”
A bad spot indeed, the lap-eight caution for early leader James McFadden’s flat right rear-tire slowed Haudenschild’s momentum as he caught McFadden and Eliason in a three-way battle for the lead. Sheldon then found himself in a torrid battle with Schuchart and Sweet on the restart, but soon broke away and reeled in Eliason’s Rudeen Racing No. 26 with some lap traffic assistance.
Haudenschild caught Eliason on the 22nd circuit and promptly cut the #17 from top-to-bottom in turn two and rocketed right underneath the #26 down the backstretch. From there, it was basically over as Haudenschild built an impressive 2.578-second margin of victory over the final nine-lap stretch.
“This NOS Energy Drink No. 17 team is on it,” said Haudenschild praising his SJMR crew. “[Kyle] Ripper, Stephen [Hamm-Reilly], and Jakob [Weaver] are killing it. It’s been a little slow to get the season going, so I can’t wait to get racing more and see if we can win a little bit more too.”
After leading 13 laps throughout the middle portions, Eliason settled for a runner-up result aboard the Rudeen Racing No. 26. It’s his best finish in World of Outlaws competition since he won his second career race in September of 2018 at Calistoga, extending his victory lane dry spell to 78 races with the Series.
“He was definitely better later when we really needed it,” Eliason noted. “This track is tough already, but lap traffic adds another element to that. I knew if someone was there, they were probably going to get by me once I got caught in a bad spot. We’ve still got tomorrow night to come back stronger and get one spot better.”
For the fifth time in five races at Cotton Bowl Speedway, Brad Sweet was among the podium finishers.
“We just run really good here,” Sweet said. “You always want to win, but I think we just barely missed it on the car. I couldn’t hit the bottom quite well and I tried about 10 different ways, but I just couldn’t get it slowed down to get the car stuck. It felt a little one-dimensional stuck on the top like that. We’ll make a few better decisions and get a little better for tomorrow.”
Rounding out the top five were Schuchart and Donny Schatz, who started 13th.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps) – 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [7][$10,000]; 2. 26-Cory Eliason [1][$5,500]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [2][$3,200]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [4][$2,600]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz [13][$2,350]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [8][$2,150]; 7. 2-David Gravel [10][$2,100]; 8. 1A-Jacob Allen [6][$1,950]; 9. 5-Spencer Bayston [9][$1,900]; 10. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [12][$1,850]; 11. 41-Carson Macedo [16][$1,400]; 12. 24-Rico Abreu [18][$1,200]; 13. 83-James McFadden [3][$1,000]; 14. 8-Aaron Reutzel [5][$950]; 15. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [11][$900]; 16. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [19][$900]; 17. 2C-Wayne Johnson [24][$900]; 18. 21-Brian Brown [17][$900]; 19. 84-Scott Bogucki [15][$900]; 20. 11K-Kraig Kinser [14][$900]; 21. 24W-Garet Williamson [23][$900]; 22. 20G-Noah Gass [22][$900]; 23. 27-Carson McCarl [20][$900]; 24. 19AZ-Tanner Thorson [-][$900]. Lap Leaders: James McFadden 1-8, Cory Eliason 9-21, Sheldon Haudenschild 22-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 15-Donny Schatz[+8]
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