Sometimes, when a driver leads every lap of a race, people will write that he ‘dominated’ or ‘whooped’ the field.
I’m guilty of it and I know others are too.
But on Saturday night at the NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series’ Ironman 55 at Federated Auto Parts Raceway, Sheldon Haudenschild quite literally ‘whooped’ the rest of the 24-car field.
Sheldon Haudenschild Whoops Field, wins Ironman 55
Haudenschild crossed the line 10.3 seconds in front of Donny Schatz and lapped every car up to the top five finishers.
“We all owe him an applause right now, because that was a ‘whoopin, right there” Schatz said on the Dirt Vision broadcast after the race. “I’ll commend that.”
Schatz even thought he was racing Dayrn Pittman in the Roth Motorsports No. 83 car for the lead.
They were double-digits behind Haudenschild the whole time, racing for second.
“I couldn’t see him,” Schatz said. “I just told [Pittman] that I thought I had actually won. I thought [Haudenschild] had pulled off for fuel or something.”
It seems bizarre, but that’s the type of stuff that happens in the Outlaws’ 55-lap affair, the longest race of the season by lap distance.
After winning the Dash, Haudenschild started on the pole of the endurance race next to Schatz.
He fell back to third early on but made his way around Tim Shaffer as well as the No. 15 to take the lead on lap 11.
Haudenschild didn’t look back. He went on to lap 2018 Ironman 55 champ Logan Schuchart as well as World of Outlaws points leader Brad Sweet by the race’s halfway point.
He even passed his dad, Jac, a pair of times.
“I was out there racing, so I didn’t get to watch all of it,” Jac said. “He lapped me a couple of times, I figured he must be going pretty good.”
Haudenschild’s performance even caught the attention of NASCAR rising star, Kyle Larson.
Nice job @Haudenschild_17. That was the biggest ass whooping I’ve ever seen put on the @WorldofOutlaws. Wow
— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) August 4, 2019
The victory for the No. 17 team is the second of the year after they took the win a month ago at Cedar Lake.
Though, while Haudenschild was up front dominating, and Schatz followed behind in second, points leader Brad Sweet did something to just barely preserve his top spot in the standings.
Sweet earned the KSE Hard Charger award in the race, going from P17 to P8 in the main event.
The result helped Sweet keep a slim, two-point lead in the points standings going into Knoxville Nationals week.
The Outlaws will be heading to the state of Iowa right away as the annual Capitani Classic is on Sunday afternoon. Official Outlaws racing action won’t start, however, until Wednesday during the first of four days at the Knoxville Nationals.
| World of Outlaws Sprint Car Standings | |||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind |
| 1 | Brad Sweet | 6414 | |
| 2 | Donny Schatz | 6412 | -8 |
| 3 | David Gravel | 6296 | -106 |
| 4 | Daryn Pittman | 6166 | -232 |
| 5 | Logan Schuchart | 6100 | -296 |
| 6 | Shane Stewart | 5634 | -434 |
| 7 | Carson Macedo | 5632 | -460 |
| 8 | Ian Madsen | 5838 | -556 |
| 9 | Sheldon Haudenschild | 5732 | -694 |
| 10 | Brent Marks | 5608 | -784 |
Click here for full series points standings.
To see all of our Month of Money coverage leading up to next week’s Knoxville Nationals, click here.
Haudenschild Whoops Field
