The mega week is also drawing semi-retired stars like Daryn Pittman into the mix. The Kings Royal week is one of a select number of events in which Pittman, who recently pulled away from full-time racing to focus on the business side of motorsports, will compete this year for Kevin and Jordan Swindell. Pittman won the Kings Royal in 2008 and currently owns a streak of 15 consecutive feature starts — second only to Donny Schatz’s 24 in a row.
“I can only run about one weekend a month, so we put together a plan for some of the races we want to do; some of Pennsylvania Speedweek, the Kings Royals, both the 360 and 410 Knoxville Nationals, although we don’t have a 360 engine right now,” he said. “As drivers we are grateful for everyone at Eldora taking a gamble on making up for the show they lost last year due to COVID-19.”
World of Outlaws driver Logan Schuchart will enter as a contender following his spectacular performance at the high-banked oval during the 2019 Kings Royal. Schuchart charged from 12th to the lead by lap 11. He then led the ensuing 15 laps before being passed by Sweet.
Schuchart ended the race with a career-best runner-up result. He also hustled from 21st to second during the most recent World of Outlaws race at Eldora Speedway in May.
“We’ve run good at Eldora in the past and I’m just hoping we have a good chance at taking one of them, if not maybe both of them,” he said. “There are a lot of good guys that will show up and you know that. You just try to be the best you can be and let it all play out. I feel confident in our car that we have fast engines with Michael Newman and fast cars.
“When you can be confident in sprint car racing, or really in any sport, it’s a lot of it. If we can be confident the results will hopefully come. When you go back to a track where you don’t feel good about it, you hang your head as you’re walking through the gates and can’t wait to get out of there or if you’re throwing something at it to make it work, your results probably aren’t going to be very good. When we show up to Eldora, we feel confident we have a good shot at winning.
“We hit on something a few years ago,” Schuchart added. “Our finishes have been really good. It seems we can race from the back. We just have to qualify better; although the Kings Royal is a different format and it’s almost good to not qualify very well. That’s something we struggle with and for our own sake we need to figure out why we’re so good at the end of the night but not as much at the beginning.”
Schuchart notes that the intensity certainly ramps up during the Kings Royal and it will likely be peaking with two $175,000-to-win races during a three-day period.
“I just think it’s awesome that Eldora Speedway, the World of Outlaws and everyone involved is trying to make up for something that wasn’t anyone’s fault,” he said. “The world threw us a curveball last year. I hope it can be as big as we hope it is and they get all the fans there.
“You have two nights that are points races, but it almost feels like you’re not racing for anything. If you won on Wednesday and Friday, but didn’t have good nights on Thursday and Saturday that’d kind of suck just knowing what kind of money could have been won with all the cars there. You want to come out on top. You want your name in the history book at these races. I want to be the best race car driver I can be and put my name in those history books.”
Sweet doesn’t see a clear-cut choice to capitalize on the unique week at Eldora Speedway.
“There are a lot of good guys right now,” he said. “There’s not a clear favorite going into the Kings Royal. There are eight guys that can potentially win that race. I think we have to be on our game just like anybody else. I wouldn’t say we’re the clear favorite and I wouldn’t say we’re out of the hunt. If the track gets a certain way, they have been better. If the track is a certain way and we have position, I’d give us a shot. We’ve been able to step up in those moments. Hopefully this year we can step up and compete for one, if not two of them.”
With six figures on the line twice within roughly a 48-hour span and so much talent in the winged sprint car division, the Kings Royal week is likely to produce two things: at least one extremely happy team and probably some hurt feelings along the way.