In the second race of the 2022 World of Outlaws season, Sheldon Haudenschild has already given us a race of the year candidate.
The young gun took home the checkered flag, by just 0.044 seconds, in tonight’s feature race after battling in the final seconds against David Gravel and Brad Sweet.
The finish to tonight's World of Outlaws A-Main at Volusia, where Sheldon Haudenschild edged out David Gravel by .044 seconds. #WoOSprint
It's his 23rd career win with the series.
🎥 @dirtvisionpic.twitter.com/3n94i3Ah0K
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) February 12, 2022
“What a wild race,” Haudenschild told DirtVision. “I kind of just tried to play it cool there in the first half and see what David (Gravel) was doing. We had a really good race, man.”
The race looked to be Gravel’s to lose, and it was, but Gravel admitted during postrace interviews that he had ran the final 16 laps of the race with just three shocks on his car. One of them broke.
It left him with a disadvantage going into the corners.
Meanwhile, Haudenschild at one point thought the race was over, but still managed to pull out the win in the second night of the season.
“I thought I saw the white and then the checkered and (noticed) they were both still in front of me and gassing it up,” Haudenschild said on the broadcast. “Kind of a rookie mistake there… gotta go until you see the yellow lights.”
An amount of drivers commented on the less-than-ideal track conditions from Thursday night, and Volusia Speedway Park went to work through the evening and Friday morning.
Haudenschild credited the track crew on it – a track that delivered an objectively amazing race.
“The track crew did an amazing job. That track was perfect, tonight.”
The series will return to the track for one more night of racing to complete its time in Volusia, going live on Saturday night at the Florida track for Night 3. As always, fans that can’t make it to the track can catch the race live on DirtVision.
DIRTCar Nationals Night 2 Results
Volusia Speedway Park
1. Sheldon Haudenschild
2. David Gravel
3. Brad Sweet
4. Carson Macedo
5. Jacob Allen
6. James McFadden
7. Donny Schatz
8. Tyler Courtney
9. Cory Eliason
10. Aaron Reutzel
11. Brent Marks
12. Kyle Larson
13. Anthony Macri
14. Brock Zearfoss
15. Kerry Madsen
16. Kasey Kahne
17. Justin Peck
18. Spencer Bayston
19. Kraig Kinser
20. Brian Brown
21. Noah Gass
22. Jason Sides
23. Bill Rose
24. Alex Bowman
25. Logan Schuchart
26. Giovanni Scelzi
