From Kyle McFadden | FloRacing
Grinding his way to Sprint Car racing's mountaintop, Logan Schuchart prevailed as the Eldora Million winner at Eldora Speedway.
Logan Schuchart personifies the spirit of the Eldora Million. A decade ago, the Hanover, Pa., native and his family team were the prototypical weekly racer, driven by aspirations to one day strike it big on the grandest of stages in Sprint Car racing.
On Thursday at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, the Shark Racing driver arrived on the biggest stage of them all as the winner of the Eldora Million and its coveted $1,002,023 top prize. When Tony Stewart, Eldora Speedway and FloRacing announced the race last December, serving everyman dirt racers like Schuchart trying to make a good living was the overarching reason.
Through the euphoria that overflowed from winning the richest event in Sprint Car racing history came Schuchart’s testimony of just how far he and the family team — owned by his Hall of Fame grandfather, Bobby Allen — have come.
“This team has come such a long way and I know I say it time and time again, but I hope any kid or person in general can know what I’m feeling right now, to win a race like this,” Schuchart said. “If anybody ever tells you you can’t do anything, I know you hear that a lot. There’s lots of nights I sat there thinking, should I do something else? I don’t know if I’m good enough for this. I ran second in every major event and what if I never win one of these big races?
“I ask God every night before I start this race, watch over myself and my competitors, keep everybody safe, just help me to drive to the best of my ability. The man upstairs sure did that tonight.”
Before this week, Schuchart had finished second in all three of Sprint Car racing’s traditional Crown Jewels the past four years: the 2021 Williams Grove National Open, 2019 Kings Royal and ’19 Knoxville Nationals.
Last year, he even finished third in the Knoxville Nationals and fourth in the Kings Royal. Case in point, Schuchart’s been too close all these years, ever since he became a World of Outlaws traveler in 2014, to not eventually bust through in a Crown Jewel event. The Eldora Million so happened to be the event where everything fell Schuchart’s fell way.
After coming two markers shy of top points earner Carson Macedo following Wednesday’s prelims, Schuchart toughed out the victory in Thursday’s second heat race. The heat victory, though a sizable one over Rico Abreu, was anything but easy because of a broken power steering pump line. Schuchart’s odds to win the Eldora Million then increased all the more when he drew the pole position for the 50-lap main event.
From there, Schuchart controlled his destiny and never faced a true challenge from someone behind, not even runner-up Macedo or Brad Sweet.
“The No. 1S just did a really good job. I felt they could pace,” Macedo said. “The pace up there was really fast. We were running really hard laps every lap. It seemed like he had a really good balance and did a really great job. Hats off to the; congratulations.
“My team did an incredible job. Phillip Dietz, Clyde Knipp and Nate Repetz delivered. Made really great changes. I thought we were pretty good after the break. Me and Brad got to battling super hard there and I feel like that led Logan get away more.”
Schuchart’s only real scare of the race happened during a caution period following a crash that wiped out Aaron Reutzel, Kyle Larson, Lachlan McHugh, Giovanni Scelzi and Spencer Bayston.
One of Schuchart’s brake rotors lit up inside the wheel well so brightly Sweet the No. 1S car had caught fire.
"It looked like he kind of flamed up for a second under that caution,” Sweet said. “I thought, ‘Oh that might change the outcome of the race.’ But hats off to them. They showed up and came out and executed.
“Honestly, I think Logan had the best car. I thought he was probably the best car all weekend. I knew of he got in front, he’d be hard to pass.”
Schuchart ended up winning the race by 2.706 seconds, a comfortable margin that was never really in question down the stretch. When Schuchart got to victory lane, his crew, needless to say, joined in on the celebration. No Shark Racing team member was prouder than Allen, though, the 69-year-old whose grandson delivered a victory that no other driver in the history of Sprint Car racing can say they’ve won.
“If this man wasn’t around, I would have never been introduced and got in a race car to begin with,” Schuchart said of Allen. “The amount of love our family has of bond and passion for this sport, I couldn’t ask for a better man to guide me. I got all my family here, this is an amazing moment.
“It’s an awesome race car. We’ve been struggling a little bit at points this year. I’ll admit, this man right here next to me (Allen) when told me about a month ago, ‘I don’t know about the season Im going to have. I don’t feel real confident in what we’re doing.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, well you’re going to win the Million.’ And, man he was right.”
2023 Eldora Million Results
1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 2. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[4]; 4. 2-David Gravel[5]; 5. 24-Rico Abreu[9]; 6. 21-Brian Brown[8]; 7. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[20]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz[11]; 9. 13-Justin Peck[7]; 10. 83-James McFadden[16]; 11. 19-Brent Marks[19]; 12. 19L-CJ Leary[21]; 13. 11-Cory Eliason[15]; 14. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[18]; 15. 1A-Jacob Allen[10]; 16. 67-Justin Whittall[13]; 17. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[24]; 18. 55P-Daryn Pittman[23]; 19. 8-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 20. 57-Kyle Larson[6]; 21. 5-Spencer Bayston[17]; 22. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[12]; 23. 25-Lachlan McHugh[22]; 24. 22-Cole Duncan[14]
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Photo's: Eldora Speedway