Logan Schuchart ended the 2020 season with a career-high 35 top-five finishes in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season.
He did that with 18 less races than the Outlaws in each of the two years prior and 28 less than the 2018 season saw.
By all accounts, the Jackson Nationals championship, runner-up finish in the points standings, and multitude of finishes near the front compiled into the best season the Pennsylvania native had had to date.
In 2021, he wants to take that to a new level.
“You always want to improve on the year before,” Schuchart said. “We want to be consistent and improve on last year and give Brad (Sweet) a run for his money.”
That’s a big goal.
Dating back to 2002, only five drivers have captured a World of Outlaws Sprint Car series championship. It’s an objectively high bar to make, especially for a homegrown team like Shark Racing.
Although, the team has shown over the years, that any bar they seem to set can be topped.
“It’ shown that we’re getting better really,” Schuchart said of his latest season and runner-up points finish. “It shows that you’ve got to improve from the year before and every year that we’ve been out on the outlaw tour – every year that we’ve kind of been out sprint car racing really – we’ve gotten better.”
Not only did Schuchart improve, but his teammate Jacob Allen got his first career World of Outlaws win at Dodge City.
Allen also recorded a career high amount of top-10’s as well as accumulating another record mark in laps led with 79.
The improvements in both of the team’s cars are showing.
“It just shows that everything is coming together,” Schuchart said. “Everybody is doing a great job with what they’re doing. The race car’s running well. The engine’s running well. Our team is really working well together and we’re able to put most of the package together.”
Both teams will see the return of all of their crew members in 2021 – Ron Helmick and Ben Witman return to the No. 1S and Tyler Garber and Brendan Collum are back wrenching the No. 1A.
Throw that together with the return of sponsors Drydene & DRF Racing Oil and NGK Spark Plugs as well as the addition of C&D Rigging, JVI Groip, and Taggart’s Powersports and there’s a lot of reasons to think the team is capable of stepping things up once again.
“It makes you confident,” Schuchart said. “Confidence is key in racing and in a lot of things you do, but if you can have confidence it will show on the track. The success our team has helps that.”
A big part of that success will start with the first events of the season this weekend at Volusia Speedway Park.
The series will embark on three-straight days of racing, concluding on Sunday, and a strong start to the season could help jumpstart a magical run.
A year ago, Schuchart rattled off three-straight top-five finishes the Florida race track including a win on Night 3.
After the pause during the pandemic, the No. 1S followed it up with six more races where his worst finish was sixth.
A few weeks later, he became the 2020 Jackson Nationals champion.
“We set goals every year and at the beginning of the year, one of those goals is to win a crown jewel race,” Schuchart said. “They’ve done a great job at the Jackson Motorplex to make that event become one of the crown jewels.”
Those crown jewel wins can be huge for teams, especially in a year where the purse will be normal.
Schuchart has a good reason to be optimistic about them, too.
He put together podium runs at the Williams Grove National Open and the Nationals replacement Capitani Classic event at Knoxville along with his Jackson title.
If he and his team are able to replicate that success this season, don’t be surprised to see them hoisting the big trophy after the World Finals in Charlotte.
