As the sun sets on a wild journey for one Haudenschild, another is beginning to bloom.
Sheldon Haudenschild has emerged from the shadow of his famous father, Jac, who is affectionately known as “The Wild Child” for his fearless style of racing winged sprint cars.
This is Jac Haudenschild’s final season following a stellar Hall of Fame career that has spanned more than four decades. Meanwhile, his son is in the thick of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championship battle midway through the campaign.
“Its’s been some of the best memories for me,” the younger Haudenschild said referencing the opportunity to race with his father. “Two years now we’ve been on the front of the four-wide at the Kings Royal. Not a lot of families get to do something with the best people and series in the world. For me that’s super special. We’ve had some good races these last couple of years.
“I think we’re in the fight (for the World of Outlaws championship) this year and many more years to come. I’m in this for the long haul and I think my team is. That’s my goal is many championship and race wins. Without a doubt we just have to keep putting the work in. There’s no reason I can’t be one of the best in the world to ever do this sport and that’s what I keep working toward.”
This year marks the fifth straight season Haudenschild has been a full-time World of Outlaws competitor. He placed seventh in the standings during each of his first three seasons before posting a career-best fourth last year. Haudenschild has also increased his number of top-five finishes each year and has recorded multiple victories during each of the last four seasons, including a career-best seven triumphs in 2020.
However, the journey has been anything but easy since Haudenschild elected to follow in his father’s footsteps approximately a dozen years ago.
“We went go-kart racing at first,” he said. “It was pretty boring honestly. I had dirt bikes before I rode go-karts. We started racing the dirt bikes when I was 4 years old. I raced them all the way until I was 16. I got pretty serious with it. I got to a point where we had to decide what way we wanted to go.
“I raced a lot. When I was racing my dad was also racing. I had to go racing with my friends and find rides to the track. I didn’t get to travel as much as I would have liked. We still got to race a bunch of good guys. I’ve raced a bunch of guys that are No. 1 in the world on dirt bikes. All those guys are my age. We’d go down to Florida every year and race those guys. I think the best I did was a fifth and a 10th at the biggest national events in the country.”
Haudenschild came to a fork in the road in 2009. He chose sprint cars over dirt bikes.
“It’s hard to make money on a dirt bike and your career isn’t very long,” he said. “The decision wasn’t that hard, but when you’re 16 and doing something you love and have to start fresh you have to think about it for a minute. I think we made the right decision. If I would have stayed in motocross, I wouldn’t have made a lot of money and would probably be retired by now.
“We just focused on it 100 percent. I went from racing dirt bikes every single weekend to going into a sprint car and I never raced my dirt bike again,” Haudenschild continued. “I raced 360s for my first full year, which was only 20-something races back then. After that we knew we couldn’t get stuck racing 360s. We got a 410 and raced wherever we could around Ohio to get laps in. I probably only raced 25 times each year my first five years. A lot of kids start racing these days get to race 60 to 70 times in their first year. I was racing 25 to 30 times my first five years.
“In 2014 or ’15 was the most racing I got to do consistently and in a consistent car. I did some racing before that and traveled and raced other people’s cars. I think the first year I did the All Stars was the first year I got to focus on trying to win races consistently.”
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