JACKSON, Minn. – Logan Schuchart let out his best Ric Flair impression in victory lane on Sunday at Jackson Motorplex, where he mastered the final three quarters of the 43rd annual AGCO Jackson Nationals to earn the $50,000 top prize.
“Hell yeah, man,” he exclaimed. “$50,000. Woooooooo!”
Schuchart was just as entertaining in the arena as the ‘Nature Boy’ while putting it on his opponents, winning the highest-paying World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series feature so far this season by more than four seconds and lapping half of the field.
The victory was his second straight at the crown jewel event and it made Schuchart one of five different winners during six nights of The Showdown.
Schuchart took the lead on the start of the 35-lap race, but a caution on the opening lap set up a complete restart. David Gravel capitalized by darting from third into the lead after hitting the bottom in turns one and two and executing a slide job on Schuchart in turns three and four.
Gravel led the first seven laps before the second-and-final caution came out on lap eight when Donny Schatz, who was running fifth, stopped on the track with mechanical issues. Gravel chose the inside lane for the double-file restart, but didn’t launch into the lead when the green flag was waved.
Gravel and Schuchart stayed side by side throughout three quarters of the lap before Gravel slid across the track in turns three and four. Schuchart turned underneath the slide job and narrowly led the lap.
That was as close as anyone got to Schuchart during the remainder of the race as he pulled away in traffic.
“You never know how long you should push,” he said. “This is probably the best track we’ve had all week and it was during the day. The other night I started to be a little conservative to conserve tires and then Kerry (Madsen) blew right by me.”
The aggressive approach on Sunday worked, as Gravel finished 4.454 seconds behind Schuchart.
“He was good in lapped traffic,” Gravel said. “I wish I had a better restart. It kind of stumbled and he got a run on me. He had the dominant car in traffic. I wish I had that chance to try to control the race in the lead.
“If we got to do it again we’d probably do a couple of things different. It’s a little disappointing, but nothing to hang our heads about. It’s definitely a positive day.”
World of Outlaws points leader Brad Sweet passed Kerry Madsen, who won both preliminary nights, on lap 19 to round out the podium.
“I think we were a little too tight to make the moves we wanted to in traffic,” Sweet said. “That was a great race track. There were multiple lanes. Logan had the best car. I feel we were close to David.”
Madsen finished fourth and Carson Macedo was fifth.
James McFadden, Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild each won a qualifier. Schuchart was the King of the Hill winner, which netted a $500 bonus from Todd’s Beer Cave and the pole position for the A-main. Madsen finished second in the King of the Hill to score a $250 prize from Todd’s Beer Cave.
Reutzel, who won the inaugural BillionAuto.com Huset’s 50 on Tuesday at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., had an opportunity to win a $100,000 bonus if he also captured the AGCO Jackson Nationals finale. Reutzel finished 15th in the A-main on Sunday.
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