By T.J. Buffenbarger
(July 14, 2023) — Thursday night was the culmination of a long journey for Logan Schuchart to end up victorious in one of the majors in sprint car racing. It seems fitting after multiple second place finishes at the biggest races in our sport that Shark Racing found victory lane at a race with the highest winner’s purse in the sport’s history at $1,002,023.
Much like Shark Racing’s journey, the two-day journey to victory at Eldora was not easy. The roller coaster ride began back in May when Schuchart won the first night of #letsracetwo at Eldora Speedway with the car they intended on racing the Eldora Million with. That car was destroyed one night later in a crash on the second day of the event.
After taking delivery of a car with similar measurements to the one they destroyed at Eldora, the team ran that car for a pair of races in Pennsylvania before bringing it to Eldora with a tried and true engine they felt would be the best for the event with four races on it.
Schuchart was clearly fast on Wednesday from the first lap at speed during practice. Watching sprint cars my entire life it takes quite a bit to turn my head, and Schuchart’s first circuit in his hot lap session did exactly that.
That was followed by setting fast time in his group, winning his heat race, but went backwards three spots in his preliminary feature.
Things were going well for Shark Racing and Schuchart again on Thursday by winning his heat race and drawing the pole position for the Eldora Million. They were firmly in control of the race at the halfway break. Then in a bizarre twist of fate the car fell off the jack while the team was working on it during the open red.
Somehow without sustaining any damage Schuchart pushed off, briefly had a flare up of fuel on fire that was large enough to catch the attention of the broadcast crew and officials but quickly was extinguished.
Chaos took place behind Schuchart when Aaron Reutzel slid sideways in front of the field and collected multiple cars including Spencer Bayston and Kyle Larson, who were moving forward during the first portion of the event.
The remaining 30 laps were a showcase of the hard work Schuchart and his race team have put in. From barely being able to get down the road to having a car capable of lapping the field that both second and third place finishers Carson Macedo and Brad Sweet called the best car on track. This would have ben unfathomable 10 years ago when Shark Racing appeared on the tour barely getting from race to race, living out of their trailer, and surviving on series tow money to try and gain experience and perhaps an opportunity to improve their team.
Schuchart himself has put in work on his driving and himself. Regarded by many as one of the fittest drivers on the tour, Schuchart never wavered once with his focus over the 50 lap distance on Thursday.
The storybook ending with Schuchart’s grandfather Bobby Allen, who was one of the original outlaws and widely regarded as one who did more with less throughout his career, greeting him in victory lane after this long journey seems fitting.
It’s still hard to wrap my head around Bobby Allen’s race team winning over $1,000,000 in a sprint car race. In a day and age where we see so many young drivers come in with some degree of speed and good equipment, it was a win for a lot of little teams that don’t have those resources and grind out their existence in the sport trying to improve and hope someone notices to improve their situation.
Other Notes
• Jacob Allen’s performance at Eldora over the weekend will be overshadowed by his Shark Racing teammate winning the Eldora Million, but after struggling for a good portion of the 2023 season Allen also had speed all weekend.
At one point during the program Schuchart and Allen occupied the top two spots in practice, which Allen parlayed into a solid sixth place finish at the Million.
• One thing that did not play into the outcome as much as other winged sprint car races was slower traffic. The front runners got through the slower cars with relative ease throughout the 50 laps race.
“A lot of them lapped cars were running like middle of the bottom and we were just all hammering the fence,” said Macedo after his second-place finish. “I felt like the lappers didn’t really play that much of a part in the race. Logan had to peel off maybe once or twice, but I don’t think I ever had to peel off for a lapper, I was just running the fence.”
Third place finisher Brad Sweet agreed with Macedo based on the fast cars starting up front in Thursday’s finale.
“The best cars started up front, so you knew that like if Logan got up front or one of one of the guys got there it was always going be hard to chase them down,” said Sweet. “The best car won and the second best was second, I think that’s why the pace was so fast up front. You saw the best cars in the front of the field and it was going always be hard for guys to go up there pass them”
• C.J. Leary was not on the pre-entry list for the Eldora Million with Hayward Motorsports. The USAC National Sprint Car Series veteran who has been doing more winged sprint car racing over the past several seasons chalked it up to an administrative error (aka they forgot to pre-enter).
Leary’s seventh place finish in Wednesday’s preliminary feature set him to eventually run third in the B-Main, ahead of veteran drivers Lachlan McHugh, Daryn Pittman, and Kyle Reinhardt who have significantly more winged sprint car laps than Leary.
Leary parlayed that into a solid 12th place finish out of 83 entries.
• Several drivers were in the right place to benefit from one of the longest heat races I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime at the Eldora Million and transfer to the A-Main.
The 33 minute heat race saw several cars including Sheldon Haudenschild stacked up in a crash that eliminated them from contention and multiple cautions that eventually saw Brent Marks, who was one of the favorites to win the Million after his back-to-back major event wins last year at Eldora, run out of fuel with several other drivers.
Justin Whittall capitalized on the opportunity to secure the final transfer spot while Carl Bowser, who was spending the Million in the McCandless Ford entry for the first time, was the first non-transfer eventually leading to a 12th place finish in the B-Main.
• Cole Duncan was the highest finishing driver in points of the local Ohio contingent ending up 16th after an 8th place finish in his main event on Friday. After struggling with the All Star Circuit of Champions at Sharon combined with a recent run of bad luck at Eldora over the past couple of seasons that resulted in a lack of laps, Duncan had thoughts of not coming to the Million. Duncan has one engine they use for the big races they feel is strong enough to qualify well, and they strategically space those races out to keep that engine fresh, which often results in fewer trips to Eldora.
The lure of the top prize at the Million was enough of a draw for Duncan to bring his family team up to Eldora and performance admirably just missing out on a font row heat race position in Saturday’s finale.
Duncan continued that momentum earning a transfer spot in heat race four, but unfortunately Duncan got into the wall on the initial start, ending his run at the Million with his car suffering significant damage.
• Chase Randall was impressive early in the night during his debut at Eldora Speedway with a good showing in practice and 15th quick in his group for qualifying before getting caught up in a crash in his heat race. Randall’s team was able to make repairs but were not able to fine tune the car for the B-Main which resulted in a 10th place finish Wednesday and 15th place finish in the B-Main on Saturday.
Randall plans on leaving Eldora after Thursday’s program to return to Knoxville where he is currently leading the 360 sprint car point standings.
• The Million Dollar prize was enough to bring Daryn Pittman and Shane Stewart out of inactivity (I refuse to use retirement for both drivers yet as they keep finding reasons to jump in the drivers seat occasionally).
Stewart was in prime position Wednesday, but during the pace laps before the feature Stewart lost brakes. Stewart’s race team was unable to make repairs, dropping him to 36th in points going into Saturday.
Pittman finished six spots ahead of Stewart in points in 30th.
Pittman was able to transfer through the B-Main on Thursday into the Million feature and finished 18th while Stewart was unable to climb through the field far enough to make the feature event.
• One unique aspect of how the Eldora Million was how the starts and restarts were officiated. Eldora Speedway designated five officials to watch the starts and call them back when a majority agreed there was a jump or the field was not in proper alignment.
• Danny Smith was the only driver that competed at the Mopar Million and the Eldora Million. Ironically Smith ended both Millions in the 15th finishing position with the difference being in 2003 he made the feature while in 2023 Smith ended up in the same spot in the C-Main. Bernie Stuebgen from Indy Race Parts, Tony Stewart Racing, and Seeling Motorsports also fielded cars in the Mopar Million and Eldora Million.
• Drivers from 17 states, four Australian provinces, and two Canadian provinces participated in the Eldora Million.