Haudenschild Flies Away at “The Big E”

Sheldon Haudenschild competing with the World of Outlaws at Eldora Speedway (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

ROSSBURG, Ohio — The World of Outlaws Sprint car series headed to Eldora Speedway to take part in night one of the #LetsRaceTwo just two days after their last race.

Preliminaries and qualifying were run before the 30 lap A-Main Friday evening. During qualifying, David Gravel grabbed the quick time of the night with a 13.478-second lap around the half-mile track.

“When it gets like this you have to keep speed up in at least one end,” said Gravel. “It’s going to be real slick tonight and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Gravel definitely had a challenge, as he started on the front row beside Sheldon Haudenschild. Almost immediately, Haudenschild shot out to the lead ahead of Gravel and the other 22 cars. However, that was not the only challenge that Gravel had to face, as Carson Macedo took the low side to attempt to slide job Gravel for second.

On Lap 4, a battle started brewing for sixth place between Giovanni Scelzi and Landon Crawley. Two positions ahead of them, Cale Thomas and Donny Schatz battled it out for fourth. Schatz stayed on the high side and maintained the position, flying on the cushion.

Haudenschild also rode the high line and it was there where he encountered traffic. But due to his lane choice, he got around the traffic pretty well, flying around them without a second thought.

Nine laps in, Gravel caught up to the traffic as well and attempted to make his way through it. This proved to be a problem for Haudenschild as well because the traffic began to drift higher up the racetrack.

Scelzi gunned for Schatz and Schatz was after Thomas. This created a three-way battle for fourth through sixth place. Scelzi’s attempts were successful, and he passed Schatz and Thomas on the bottom. This put Schatz and Thomas back to quarreling with each other, resulting in the two of them nearly tangling as they came out of Turn 2.

Lap 14 saw Scelzi chase after Macedo. Scelzi went high and lost some momentum but kept the car in line to maintain his spot and continue his chase. Scelzi shot to the inside and claimed third from Macedo, but Macedo came back and returned the favor shortly after. 

Donny Schatz competing with the World of Outlaws at Eldora Speedway (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

During this time, Garet Williamson flipped over and landed upside-down in Turn 1, bringing out red flag conditions. The highlights of the field were Logan Schuchart surging up from 24th to eighth and Gravel’s right rear tire running low on air. This caused Gravel to hit the pits to get the tire changed, putting him at the tail-end of the field and potentially ending his plans to win the race. Skylar Gee’s left rear tire was flat as well, and he went in to get some new rubber along with Gravel.

On the restart, Scelzi raced after Haudenschild going into Turn 2. This did not work too well however, as Schatz slid up on Scelzi and took over second. Schatz started closing the distance between himself and Haudenschild.

Macedo, ever the fighter, started contending with Scelzi for third. Trying every trick in the book to get by the third-place holder, nothing seemed to be working. Up ahead, things looked bright for Schatz for a little while as Haudenschild tapped the wall. He did not let off the throttle at all though and kept right on going.

Schatz did not let that quell his strategy and kept right on with his attempts to get into first. Traffic became a factor once again for the leaders, proving to be a problem for Schatz, not Haudenschild. 

Scelzi started closing in on Schatz with two laps to go and took over second. Before he could really get his bearings together to start going after Haudenschild, the race had ended. Haudenschild, Scelzi, Schatz, Schuchart and Macedo made up the top five.

“I’ve been really good here in the past,” Haudenschild said. “But we’ve struggled in the past to finish a feature here. It feels good and [I] can’t ask for much more.”