BEAVER DAM, Wis. – In a nonstop 40-lap feature Saturday night at Beaver Dam Raceway, Sheldon Haudenschild raced to his fourth World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win of the year.
Haudenschild sliced past Gio Scelzi in traffic on lap 20 of the JB Memorial at the third-mile dirt oval and never gave up control of the race after that, going on to a 2.109-second margin of victory.
It marked the 18th victory of Haudenschild’s World of Outlaws sprint car career.
“That was so much fun,” an elated Haudenschild said with a smile. “A green-to-checkered run is just what we needed. I think a restart would’ve changed the whole course of this one. Getting through lapped traffic is the most fun aspect of sprint car racing.
“It pays off running second, third, fourth and watching what those guys are doing,” Haudenschild added. “I was staying patient behind Gio and Carson [Macedo] just waiting for the right time. I felt like we were quicker, but I just had to wait on traffic to make my move.
“We had a great track tonight and I could really make some moves.”
Saturday night’s feature was completed in a tidy nine minutes, 24.525 seconds and capped off a program that saw hot laps, qualifying, heat races, the DIRTvision Fast Pass Dash, the Last Chance Showdown and the A-Feature all completed without a single caution flag all night long.
Scelzi tipped after the race that he simply couldn’t keep pace with Haudenschild as the lead duo fought through traffic in the second half of the race.
“The better driver won this race for sure,” admitted Scelzi, who led the first 19 laps. “Sheldon just runs so hard the entire time. I tried to run it as hard as I could, but the lappers were everywhere and I got too top dependent. Those laps clicked by so quick, I didn’t realize how far along we actually were.
“All in all, though, this isn’t too bad for my first ever race here [at Beaver Dam].”
David Gravel filled out the podium, followed by two-time defending series champion Brad Sweet and Carson Macedo.
James McFadden, Aaron Reutzel, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart and Brock Zearfoss closed the top 10.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season continues Monday night at Huset’s Speedway, with the opening night of the Huset’s 50 doubleheader.
The results:
Slick Woody’s Qualifying: 1. 2-David Gravel, 11.273; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 11.349; 3. 41-Carson Macedo, 11.39; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 11.404; 5. 9-James McFadden, 11.414; 6. 83-Aaron Reutzel, 11.44; 7. 49-Brad Sweet, 11.474; 8. 1A-Jacob Allen, 11.506; 9. 2C-Wayne Johnson, 11.537; 10. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 11.545; 11. 15-Donny Schatz, 11.555; 12. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 11.609; 13. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, 11.637; 14. 7S-Jason Sides, 11.655; 15. 49J-Josh Schneiderman, 11.656; 16. 19-Brent Marks, 11.66; 17. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 11.706; 18. 14R-Sean Rayhall, 11.709; 19. 39-Jake Blackhurst, 11.798; 20. 2W-Scotty Neitzel, 11.805; 21. 5J-Jeremy Schultz, 11.847; 22. 23-Russel Borland, 11.97; 23. 12W-Josh Walter, 12.083; 24. 77-Wayne Modjeski, 12.166; 25. 4K-Kris Spitz, 12.316; 26. 20R-Robbie Pribnow, 12.564; 27. 18S-Bryce Schmitt, 12.673.
Drydene Heat #1 (10 laps, top six transfer): 1. 2-David Gravel [1]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [2]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [3]; 4. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]; 5. 19-Brent Marks [6]; 6. 65-Jordan Goldesberry [5] / 7. 39-Jake Blackhurst [7]; 8. 23-Russel Borland [8]; 9. 4K-Kris Spitz [9].
Drydene Heat #2 (10 laps, top six transfer): 1. 9-James McFadden [2]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [6]; 5. 12W-Josh Walter [8]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [3] / 7. 7S-Jason Sides [5]; 8. 2W-Scotty Neitzel [7]; 9. 20R-Robbie Pribnow [9].
Drydene Heat #3 (10 laps, top six transfer): 1. 41-Carson Macedo [1]; 2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [4]; 3. 83-Aaron Reutzel [2]; 4. 2C-Wayne Johnson [3]; 5. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [5]; 6. 5J-Jeremy Schultz [7] / 7. 14R-Sean Rayhall [6]; 8. 77-Wayne Modjeski [8]; 9. 18S-Bryce Schmitt [9].
DIRTvision Fast Pass Dash (8 laps): 1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [1]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo [2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [4]; 4. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [6]; 5. 2-David Gravel [5]; 6. 9-James McFadden [3].
Last Chance Showdown (12 laps, top six transfer): 1. 39-Jake Blackhurst [3][-]; 2. 7S-Jason Sides [1][-]; 3. 14R-Sean Rayhall [2][-]; 4. 23-Russel Borland [4][-]; 5. 2W-Scotty Neitzel [5][-]; 6. 4K-Kris Spitz [7][-] / 7. 20R-Robbie Pribnow [8][$300]; 8. 77-Wayne Modjeski [6][$250]; 9. 18S-Bryce Schmitt [9][$225].
NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 laps): 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [3][$10,000]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [1][$6,000]; 3. 2-David Gravel [5][$3,500]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet [7][$2,800]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo [2][$2,500]; 6. 9-James McFadden [6][$2,300]; 7. 83-Aaron Reutzel [9][$2,200]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [8][$2,100]; 9. 1S-Logan Schuchart [11][$2,050]; 10. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [4][$2,000]; 11. 19-Brent Marks [13][$1,600]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [10][$1,400]; 13. 39-Jake Blackhurst [18][$1,200]; 14. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [15][$1,100]; 15. 1A-Jacob Allen [16][$1,050]; 16. 23-Russel Borland [21][$1,000]; 17. 2W-Scotty Neitzel [22][$1,000]; 18. 7S-Jason Sides [19][$1,000]; 19. 14R-Sean Rayhall [20][$1,000]; 20. 2C-Wayne Johnson [12][$1,000]; 21. 5J-Jeremy Schultz [17][$1,000]; 22. 12W-Josh Walter [14][$1,000]; 23. 4K-Kris Spitz [23][$1,000]; 24. 65-Jordan Goldesberry [24][$1,000].
Lap Leaders: Gio Scelzi 1-19, Sheldon Haudenschild 20-40.
KSE Hard Charger: 39-Jake Blackhurst [+5]