Haudenschild Wins Jason Johnson Classic; Gravel Makes Track Record at Arrowhead

David Gravel, Sheldon Haudenschild and Giovanni Scelzi in Victory Lane after competing in the Jason Johnson Classic at Arrowhead Speedway (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

COLCORD, Okla. — Saturday night saw the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series travel to Oklahoma for the sixth annual Jason Johnson Classic at Arrowhead Speedway.

This was the first time that the World of Outlaws has raced at Arrowhead, so when the cars took to the track for Hot Laps, they were touching the dirt for the first time.

As this was the first ever time setting foot at Arrowhead, this meant that there was no track record. During qualifying, a new track record was made three times, as three different drivers made quick time. But the final driver, who made the new track record and got the night’s quick time, was none other than David Gravel with a 10.902 second lap.

The first Heat race of the night started with Gravel and Anthony Macri on the front row. Gravel held onto his first-place position, but Buddy Kofoid ended up taking second. The same thing occurred in Heat 2, except Giovanni Scelzi and Logan Schuchart managed to keep their starting spots. The third Heat also followed in the footsteps of the prior two, with Sheldon Haudenschild and Rico Abreu starting and finishing in the top two.

The fourth and final Heat Race of the night started off with Carson Macedo and Brian Brown on the front row. During the race, Jace Park drove straight into the wall due to an extremely high cushion. At the end of the race, unlike the previous three, Macedo and Brown swapped spots and finished second and first, respectively.

The Dash was up next and Brown and “Hot Sauce,” G. Scelzi, started as the top two. “Hot Sauce” took over the number one spot from Brown, earning him the pole position for the night’s main event, while Haudenschild came up from third to take over second.

The last event before the 30 lap A-Main was the Last Chance Showdown. Landon Crawley and Austin McCarl led the field to the track. Although 13 cars were scheduled to race, only 12 participated as Park decided to go home after hitting the wall during his Heat Race. As the race got underway, Tanner Holmes flipped multiple times in Turns 3 and 4, taking three flags down. Once Holmes was safely in the pits, the race went back underway and the starting two held their positions for the duration of the race.

Sheldon Haudenschild and David Gravel competing in the Jason Johnson Classic at Arrowhead Speedway (Photo: Trent Gower | World Racing Group)

Before the feature race began, the field honored the late Jason Johnson by organizing the “missing man formation” for their four-wide salute, as well as having Johnson’s father drive his 2016 Knoxville Nationals winning car in front of the 24-car field. After the beautiful tribute to Johnson was over, the cars returned to their normal two-by-two formation and sped to the green flag.

Gravel slid to the inside of Schuchart and successfully passed him on Lap 2. The next lap, Haudenschild followed the slide job motto and passed “Hot Sauce”, but Scelzi was able to take the position back as they came out of Turn 2 on Lap 4.

Two laps later, Garet Williamson clipped the wall as he raced down the frontstretch. This caused him to bounce back out into the field and hit the oncoming car of James McFadden. McFadden drove away but had front nose wing damage while Williamson stayed stopped. It was at this point in the race when it was determined that, due to the track conditions, all of the restarts would be single file.

On Lap 7, Gravel battled with Brown and passed him on the low side as they entered Turn 1. Two laps after that, Haudenschild was gaining on Scelzi with each passing turn. Brown got passed again on Lap 10, this time by Jacob Allen who had made his way up to fourth from tenth. It was at this time that Scelzi finally hit lapped traffic.

Laps 12-14 saw Gravel consistently gaining on the drivers in front of him. Scelzi and Haudenschild knew it and started going at it for four laps, trying to maintain their positions.

After an intense side-by-side battle and hard racing action, Haudenschild passed Scelzi for the lead on Lap 18. A lap later, Gravel was passed by Allen who had his sights set on Scelzi in second. This would not go Allen’s way as Scelzi’s right rear clipped Allen’s left front, causing Allen to spin out and quell all chances of winning the night’s race.

As the safety crews worked with Allen, it was determined that McFadden’s nose wing was unsafe to be racing with as it was hanging by only one bolt. Via one-way radio, McFadden was told to go and fix it or not race anymore. McFadden chose the former. It was also determined at this time that right rear tires were beginning to become a problem for the drivers. Some had better tire wear than others, but you could definitely see that the tires were not wearing normally.

The last two laps of the race were action-packed with Gravel saving his energy and power for a potential last gasp attempt. As he exited Turn 2, Haudenschild drifted up the track, allowing the space between him and Gravel to close. Gravel tried everything in the book to get by Haudenschild, but Haudenschild held him off to win the feature race. Gravel came in second and Scelzi in third.

“I knew I was running [Turns] 1 and 2 too carefully,” said Haudenschild of his win. “But all I was looking for was to see if I saw an orange car. It’s always good beating him [Gravel] and I feel better after these last few races.”