(July 21, 2023) — Logan Schuchart seemingly came out of nowhere to win Friday’s opener of the Summer Nationals at Williams Grove Speedway for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
Schuchart was able to take advantage of Brad Sweet packing his right rear wheel coming to the white flag while leading the feature. Schuchart made up a significant amount of distance as Sweet was looking to hold on at the finish and steal the victory by a nose.
The victory was Schuchart’s first World of Outlaws feature victory at Williams Grove Speedway coming near his hometown in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
Afterwards, Schuchart seemed as surprised as the large crowd on hand at Williams Grove that he was able to catch Sweet for the win.
“Man, I really didn’t think I had a shot either,” said a surprised Schuchart in victory lane. “I just ran the top the whole race kind of run the same line as Brad. When we did get to some lap cars they were in both lines. It took me way too long to get by them and Brad just got way out. (Sweet) was running a consistent race. I knew he felt pretty good and I felt like our car was going come in later.”
With the race winding down Schuchart made a decision to make some adjustments to the car and his driving style in a last-ditch effort to catch Sweet.
I glanced up at about lap 20 and I just thought ‘I’m going to move the wing back’ and try to move around the racetrack to see if I can find anything/ I was able to get past Kasey (Kahne) and just kind of slowly start moving in on Brad and then really gained on the last couple laps there. I knew he was probably going to try to be conservative like the bottom felt like kind of a replay from Cedar Lake the other week and when he moved down, I thought I’m just going to run the top with my wing trunked like I thought I’m just going have to try and keep the car as loose as possible. Try and spring off you know the exit and try and get down the straightaway good and that’s what we’re able to do.”
Sweet indicated after the race he was lucky to hang on to finish the final lap after dominating the first 29 circuits of the 30-lap feature.
When I was coming to the white off turn four I hit the cushion. Not really that hard but somehow packed the wheel for mud and just you I just couldn’t honestly barely made it around the last lap,” said Sweet of the harrowing last lap. “I tried to just go to the bottom there. I didn’t think I should go to the outside. I just couldn’t see, and it was shaking so bad. I just couldn’t get any traction coming to the line. I just knew I was in trouble if anyone was close, but tried to limp it around and just wasn’t good enough.”
Even though he was coming off a $1,002,013 victory at Eldora Speedway just a week ago, Schuchart was thrilled to win a World of Outlaws feature in his backyard.
“Obviously we’ve had an awesome couple of weeks but man this one hits close to my heart this is really cool to win in front of our PA fans. If you’d have told me 10 years ago it’s going to take me 10 years to win an outlaw race and in my home state or at least one of our home tracks I’d have been pretty disappointed so I can’t thank all the fans enough you know always a bunch of support you know after the race here no matter we run 15th or whatever but feels really good to get this end car in victory lane for these guys.”
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Friday, July 21, 2023
Qualifying
1. 41-Carson Macedo, 17.056[6]
2. 24-Rico Abreu, 17.129[10]
3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 17.430[11]
4. 11-Cory Eliason, 17.438[9]
5. 49-Brad Sweet, 17.450[27]
6. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 17.496[35]
7. 19-Brent Marks, 17.505[17]
8. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 17.536[19]
9. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr, 17.589[37]
10. 8-Freddie Rahmer, 17.590[15]
11. 48-Danny Dietrich, 17.597[1]
12. 13-Justin Peck, 17.597[8]
13. 23-Devon Borden, 17.611[16]
14. 2-David Gravel, 17.613[29]
15. 44-Dylan Norris, 17.620[4]
16. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 17.647[33]
17. 15-Donny Schatz, 17.648[12]
18. 5-Spencer Bayston, 17.651[36]
19. 12-Billy Dietrich, 17.677[20]
20. 17B-Steve Buckwalter, 17.680[3]
21. 6-Bill Rose, 17.711[13]
22. 83-James McFadden, 17.740[18]
23. 1A-Jacob Allen, 17.778[14]
24. 69K-Lance Dewease, 17.805[22]
25. 9-Kasey Kahne, 17.836[26]
26. 2D-Chase Dietz, 17.846[31]
27. 67-Justin Whittall, 17.894[23]
28. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 17.949[28]
29. 16A-Aaron Bollinger, 17.953[5]
30. 11T-TJ Stutts, 17.982[30]
31. 35-Austin Bishop, 17.989[25]
32. 20G-Noah Gass, 18.095[7]
33. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 18.110[32]
34. 39T-Cameron Smith, 18.196[2]
35. 5E-Brandon Rahmer, 18.233[24]
36. 99M-Kyle Moody, 18.244[21]
37. 7S-Robbie Price, 18.345[34]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 41-Carson Macedo[1]
2. 49-Brad Sweet[2]
3. 23-Devon Borden[4]
4. 15-Donny Schatz[5]
5. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[3]
6. 9-Kasey Kahne[7]
7. 16A-Aaron Bollinger[8]
8. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[9]
9. 7S-Robbie Price[10]
10. 6-Bill Rose[6]
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]
2. 24-Rico Abreu[1]
3. 2-David Gravel[4]
4. 8-Freddie Rahmer[3]
5. 83-James McFadden[6]
6. 5-Spencer Bayston[5]
7. 2D-Chase Dietz[7]
8. 11T-TJ Stutts[8]
9. 39T-Cameron Smith[9]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]
2. 19-Brent Marks[2]
3. 44-Dylan Norris[4]
4. 48-Danny Dietrich[3]
5. 1A-Jacob Allen[6]
6. 67-Justin Whittall[7]
7. 5E-Brandon Rahmer[9]
8. 12-Billy Dietrich[5]
9. 35-Austin Bishop[8]
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 11-Cory Eliason[1]
2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]
3. 13-Justin Peck[3]
4. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[2]
5. 69K-Lance Dewease[6]
6. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[5]
7. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]
8. 20G-Noah Gass[8]
9. 99M-Kyle Moody[9]
Toyota Dash (6 Laps)
1. 49-Brad Sweet[2]
2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]
3. 41-Carson Macedo[4]
4. 24-Rico Abreu[6]
5. 11-Cory Eliason[3]
6. 19-Brent Marks[8]
7. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[5]
8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[7]
MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps)
1. 5-Spencer Bayston[1]
2. 12-Billy Dietrich[2]
3. 67-Justin Whittall[4]
4. 9-Kasey Kahne[3]
5. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[5]
6. 2D-Chase Dietz[7]
7. 11T-TJ Stutts[11]
8. 16A-Aaron Bollinger[6]
9. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[9]
10. 5E-Brandon Rahmer[8]
11. 7S-Robbie Price[13]
12. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[10]
13. 20G-Noah Gass[12]
14. 99M-Kyle Moody[16]
15. 35-Austin Bishop[15]
16. 6-Bill Rose[17]
DNS: 39T-Cameron Smith
NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps)
1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]
2. 49-Brad Sweet[1]
3. 24-Rico Abreu[4]
4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[7]
5. 41-Carson Macedo[3]
6. 19-Brent Marks[6]
7. 48-Danny Dietrich[15]
8. 11-Cory Eliason[5]
9. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]
10. 8-Freddie Rahmer[14]
11. 2-David Gravel[10]
12. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[17]
13. 69K-Lance Dewease[20]
14. 23-Devon Borden[9]
15. 15-Donny Schatz[13]
16. 5-Spencer Bayston[21]
17. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[16]
18. 44-Dylan Norris[11]
19. 83-James McFadden[18]
20. 67-Justin Whittall[23]
21. 13-Justin Peck[12]
22. 11T-TJ Stutts[25]
23. 9-Kasey Kahne[24]
24. 1A-Jacob Allen[19]
25. 99M-Kyle Moody[26]
26. 12-Billy Dietrich[22]