WEEDSPORT, N.Y. — Saturday night couldn’t have started much worse for Sheldon Haudenschild at Weedsport Speedway.
He’s proven to be one of the best qualifiers since climbing aboard the KCP Racing No. 18 this season, but Haudenschild timed in 16th of 21 cars in his flight. Overcoming a subpar qualifying effort at the elite level of sprint car racing is difficult to pull off, but Haudenschild is known to pull off uncommon feats from time to time.
That’s exactly what Haudenschild did on night one of the Empire State Challenge Weekend. The KCP Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 18 lined up all the way back in eighth for his Heat Race, and he ripped forward to second to put himself in the dash. After drawing a three, the Wooster, Ohio, native passed two cars in the dash to put himself on the pole of the 30-lap feature.
But it was Logan Schuchart getting the early advantage from outside the front row and setting up another hurdle for Haudenschild to overcome. Schuchart pulled ahead all the way to a nearly four-second advantage in the early stages. Haudenschild patiently chipped away as the race rolled into the second half and Schuchart began to struggle with lapped traffic.
The gap was erased with less than 10 laps to go, and the winning move came on the 26th circuit. Haudenschild ripped the cushion in Turns 1 and 2 to clear Schuchart and take the top spot. David Gravel took second and nearly challenged Haudenschild but couldn’t quite find the run he needed as Haudenschild took the checkered flag.
“I think Logan just got in a tough spot,” Haudenschild said. “Those lappers were hard to get around. He tried the middle line, but I just don’t think that was the ticket. You just had to commit and go up to the berm and try to get a little drive up there. Honestly, it helped into (Turn) 3 as well because you had enough wing speed to be able to enter in the middle and be to the outside of the lappers. Man, what a tricky race track. You’ve got to be so patient for a track like that. The bottom is so thin, the middle is so slick, and there’s virtually nothing on the top. Hats off to (Kyle) Ripper, Adam (Clark), and Dauson (Heitritter). We didn’t unload probably quite how we wanted to and didn’t qualify very well. We just kept fighting all night.”
Haudenschild and the KCP crew are up to seven World of Outlaws victories in 2026, trailing only Michael “Buddy” Kofoid (nine) and David Gravel (eight). With his first win at Weedsport, he becomes the eighth different driver to visit Victory Lane with The Greatest Show on Dirt at the “Empire State” oval. Haudenschild also moved ahead of Kofoid to take the runner-up spot in the standings.
Gravel finished second. He’s still yet to miss the top two through seven tries at Weedsport since joining forces with Big Game Motorsports.
Schuchart rounded out the podium after pacing the first 25 laps. He and Shark Racing have now reeled off 12 consecutive top 10 finishes.
Donny Schatz and Carson Macedo completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[3]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz[4]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 6. 17-Spencer Bayston[13]; 7. 1-Nate Dussel[11]; 8. 17B-Bill Balog[8]; 9. 7S-Chris Windom[10]; 10. 83-Michael Kofoid[5]; 11. 01-Danny Varin[14]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson[17]; 13. 27-Emerson Axsom[18]; 14. 10C-Paulie Colagiovanni[15]; 15. 21-Alex Therrien[16]; 16. 51-Ashton Torgerson[25]; 17. 99L-Larry Wight[24]; 18. 98-Ricky Peterson[23]; 19. 7NY-Matt Farnham[21]; 20. 79-Jordan Thomas[22]; 21. 2C-Cole Macedo[19]; 22. 28M-Conner Morrell[12]; 23. (DNF) 7C-Dylan Swiernik[9]; 24. (DNF) 28-Jordan Poirier[20]; 25. (DNF) 45-Cory Eliason[6]
