ATTICA, Ohio — Logan Schuchart was looking for a bounce-back race and found it Saturday night at Attica Raceway Park.
The 32-year-old from Hanover, Pa., came to the Ohio oval with a DNF, a 12th-place finish and a 13th-place finish in the last three World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series events.
But he and the Shark Racing team were determined to turn their results around, and did exactly that, winning a back-and-forth battle with Ohio’s own Sheldon Haudenschild in the 35-lap main event to claim his first win at the third-mile.
“I’m hoping that what we did tonight gave us an eye-opener of what we need to do better, but we just never figured it out all weekend up there,” Schuchart said, referencing his last two results in Canada at Ohsweken Speedway. “First time I’ve really felt slow all year, but we bounced back with a win, and that’s the best thing we can do.”
Schuchart’s first Attica victory marked his second win of the season with The Greatest Show on Dirt after triumphing in April at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park. It also counts as his 44th series victory, which breaks the tie between he and Haudenschild for 19th on the all-time wins list.
Though Schuchart triumphed in the end, Haudenschild was the driver to beat early. Haudenschild, of Wooster, Ohio, jumped to the lead from the outside pole and led the first nine circuits as Schuchart and Skylar Gee followed.
Schuchart converted on his first pass attempt for the lead on a Lap 10 restart, taking the high line through Turns 1–2 and driving around the outside of Haudenschild as he stayed down low through the corners.
The next restart on Lap 18 brought more excitement as Haudenschild again took the bottom lane through Turns 1–2, and this time made it stick, driving past Schuchart and sliding up in front of him out of Turn 2 to take the lead back.
“Once we had the lead, I thought we could take off on the top, and I thought it would make it really tough for Sheldon to get a run, but he did a really good job at getting the jump there, getting beside me on the frontstretch and then getting to the bottom quicker than I could entering Turn 1,” Schuchart said. “That was kind of the difference maker on that restart.”
Then came the pivotal restart in their battle on Lap 25. Schuchart again gained speed on the top lane through Turns 1–2 and rode the momentum down the backstretch. When Haudenschild switched lanes from the bottom out of Turn 2 to the top side going into Turn 3, Schuchart dove to the bottom and threw a slidejob across the nose of the NOS Energy Drink No. 17 and took the lead once again out of Turn 4.
“When I was able to run off his right-rear in Turns 1–2 on one of those last restarts and kinda get with him down the backstretch, I knew that as long as he went high, I would be able to slide him,” Schuchart said. “Or I was hoping that if he went low, I could run around the top.”
“Just got that one restart on him and thought I could enter Turn 3 a little higher than I did the couple previous times and maybe get off 4 a little bit faster,” Haudenschild said. “Just left the door open for him a little bit for him to get a slide job in and get going.”
The red flag was displayed on the next lap, briefly halting the action while Darin Naida’s No. 7n was towed back to the pits. With only 10 laps left, this made for a single-file restart.
Try as he did, Haudenschild was unable to catch Schuchart in the closing laps and settled for a runner-up finish for the second time in World of Outlaws competition at Attica.
“I knew it was gonna be tough single-file,” he said. “I tried to rip around Turns 1 and 2, on the first single-file start and didn’t make up any ground off of 2, so I kind of aborted that. Really, I got through 3 and 4 pretty good and held with him. But running with him and passing him after a single-file is pretty tough.”
Crossing the finish line third was Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award contender Skylar Gee. In doing so, the Leduc, Alberta native secured his first career podium finish with the World of Outlaws.
“We knew we were capable of doing this,” Gee said. “It just seems like this first quarter of the season, if it could go wrong for us, it has. Truck and trailer issues, motor issues, the list goes on. It’s nothing to feel sorry for us about, we’ve just gotta keep working through it.”
Donny Schatz earned his first Simpson Racing Products Quick Time Award of the season in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
Seth Schneider won the 305 sprint car feature.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[4]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 3. 99-Skylar Gee[1]; 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[6]; 5. 28M-Conner Morrell[5]; 6. 2-David Gravel[7]; 7. 17B-Bill Balog[19]; 8. 101-Kalib Henry[23]; 9. 83-Michael Kofoid[10]; 10. 7S-Chris Windom[8]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[12]; 12. 23-Garet Williamson[13]; 13. 6-Zach Hampton[14]; 14. 33W-Cap Henry[9]; 15. 3J-Trey Jacobs[15]; 16. 15-Donny Schatz[3]; 17. 09-Craig Mintz[17]; 18. 41-Carson Macedo[16]; 19. 19-TJ Michael[20]; 20. 2C-Cole Macedo[11]; 21. 7N-Darin Naida[21]; 22. 29-Zeth Sabo[18]; 23. 17GP-Tim Shaffer[24]; 24. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek[22]
