Matt Weaver
David Gravel, Big Game Motorsports No. 2
Brock Zearfoss, Zearfoss Racing No. 3Z
Logan Schuchart, Shark Racing No. 1S
Gio Scelzi, KCP Racing No. 18
Sheldon Haudenschild, Stenhouse Jr Marshall Racing No. 17
Landon Crawley, Sides Motorsports No. 7S
Bill Rose, Bill Rose Racing No. 6
Donny Schatz, Tony Stewart Racing No. 15
Noah Gass, Ran No Gass LLC
Bill Balog, B2 Motorsports No. 17B
Carson Macedo, Jason Johnson Racing No. 41
Buddy Kofoid, Roth Motorsports No. 83
World of Outlaws, the next generation, participated in media day on Friday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway media center and each were looking ahead to returning in November with a chance to accomplish whatever individual goals they might have.
The Returning Veterans
GRAVEL
For Gravel, after three consecutive championship runner-ups to the elsewhere occupied Brad Sweet, it’s a P1 season or bust in a lot of ways. There are even expectations that Gravel, without Sweet in the mix, should win over 20 races this season.
“Our sport is ultra-competitive,” Gravel said. “I won 18 races in (2017) with CJB (Motorsports) and Donny won more than me.
“For whatever reason, it seems harder to win right now. I don’t know how many second place finishes I had last year but it was like 12 to 18 but it was over 10 and they could have easily been wins. A lot of them weren’t bad seconds. I wasn’t leading a lot of laps and ran second. It was moving forward to finish second. 20 wins is definitely awesome but if I win 12 races, get to 100, and win the championship, I’ll take that over 20 wins.”
As a point of reference, no one has won more than 16 times from 2019 onwards, so even asking 20 of Gravel and Big Game in this competitive climate is still asking a lot even if he becomes the championship favorite.
That’s especially true since High Limit Racing places no restrictions for the number of times the likes of Sweet, Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu can run World of Outlaws races.
Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild, Logan Schuchart and Donny Schatz can all have arguments made for why they could be better in 2024 and elevate themselves into that mix with Gravel.
MACEDO
Macedo and JJR led the league in wins back in 2022, Schuchart took the battle to Sweet during an abbreviated 2020, Haudenschild has as high a ceiling as ever and Schatz is the greatest of these modern times.
That isn’t to say each of them should win the championship, because there can be only one, but the standards have to be set high for each organization.
“We update our goals every year and we share them on our group text and list out what our goals are,” Macedo said. “I would expect our goals to be just to be as consistent as we can be to win as many races as we can, put our best foot forward, and having it printed out in the hauler and in our texts makes us all accountable.
“I’m coming in with the same mindset and mentality, to give 100 percent, and however the cards fall, that’s what it will be.”
SCHUCHART
Logan Schuchart won a million dollars at Eldora but still feels like he had a subpar season. His logic tracks because he won just six times in World of Outlaws sanctioned races and finished fifth in the championship.
It’s the 25 top-5s and 45 top-10s in 70 starts that is most telling about where his Shark Racing program needs to improve. Their bad nights were really bad.
“We were more consistent with qualifying last year,” he said. “Seems like we’re better on half miles, the big race tracks, and we’ve been known for that in the past few years. We’ve won on short tracks and quarter miles but we’ve worked as a team this off-season and to figure out how to maximize everyone’s role.
“We had a great year in 2020, but I feel like I’m so much better, our team is better so there is no reason we can’t continue to improve. We have to take those DNFs out of the equation. Our bad nights need to be 8th to 10th place finishes because that’s what we’ve seen Brad, but also David and Carson do. Their bad nights were not 15th and 16th like ours were.”
HAUDENSCHILD
This is the seventh season that Haudenschild has raced on the Greatest Show on Dirt with what is now Stenhouse Marshall and having averaged around six or so wins over that tenure only leads to one acceptable outcome.
“Our main goal is to become a championship contender,” Haudenschild said. “I think, we fully believe we can be, and that’s step one and executing from there. It’s about putting the work in.”
Haudenschild said a championship will come down to averaging a fifth-place finish on the tour.
“You have to win races at the end of the day too,” he said. “We have that number that I think we’re capable of it’s just being consistent.”
What is that number?
“I truly believe we can win 20 races,” Haudenschild said. “I think it’s doable and I’m not going to say it’s easy but once you get rolling and hit on something, it takes a life on its own. The most we’ve won is nine and 20 is a big jump, but I think with the way this year is, that’s doable but I want to get to that 12-15 mark and I do think that’s doable.”
The Youngsters
On one hand, Buddy Kofoid is a rookie and the odds on favorite to win rookie of the year honors with Roth Enterprises, and Gio Scelzi is the most recent rookie of the year, but cases could be made that they could become championship threats too.
BUDDY
Kofoid is a two-time USAC national midget champion and one of the most decorated young drivers across multiple disciplines.
“You have to finish all the races, stay out of trouble, but run up front and be in position through heats, qualifying and the dash,” Kofoid said. “I got to run USAC for three years and it taught me how to put together a full season.
“It taught me when to push, and the things you have to do when you are points racing, so those three years were pretty crucial and paid off the past couple of years.”
SCELZI
Scelzi came on really strong in the second half of last season and was routinely a challenger for podiums. It’s just a matter of doing that for a full season.
“Growing as a team and figuring out our engine package is huge,” Scelzi said. “Brian Morrison is building our stuff and it takes time. We have eight engines and they all run differently. No matter how similar you build them, they are all going to have a different feel.”
He also pointed to tenure.
“You look at Brad and Donny, these are teams that have been together for 5-15 years. The newer teams and younger guys, it’s hard to build something like that in a short period of time.
“Now, every team in World of Outlaws and beyond, we all have the best stuff, new cars, best engines, the whole nine yards so having that relationship with your crew chief is how you get to winning 10 races a year from running top-10 every night.”
CRAWLEY
Landon Crawley got the call from Jason Sides over the holidays to drive the No. 7S and he still doesn’t entirely believe it.
“It’s been a little bit overwhelming,” Crawley said. “It came as a surprise. I ran a race for J in September and had no expectation of running the Outlaws or anything. So when it fell into place, and set in, I realized this is going to be my life now, running 100 races. It’s a shock and still overwhelming for sure.”
GLITZ, GLAMOR AND CONTENT
Bill Rose, the old school shock surprise entrant into the World of Outlaws platinum agreement this year didn’t mince words when articulating how he felt about doing photo shoots and interviews.
“I hate this crap,” he said.
It isn’t personal but he just likes to race and this isn’t making anything go faster at the shop.
On the other hand, Gravel has embraced social media entirely. He hosts the David Gravel Show on YouTube during the off-season, hosting numerous luminaries from the Sprint Car world from Thanksgiving to New Years.
He’s added a LED video screen to his merchandise trailer.
“I’m over 30 years old already, which is crazy,” Gravel said. “Social media and media, you have to be involved in, especially being a younger guy, you are stupid not to be involved in it. Growing your brand is important. Look at what Rico is doing. He is doing it on an extreme level and building a big brand for himself.
“It is part of our sport to sustain success and stay around for a long time. We are not going to be in the best shape our whole lives and not be wanted as a sprint car driver for our whole lives. You have to make your 15-to-20-year career the best it can be because you don’t know when it is going to end, and when you are not going to be wanted anymore.”
Rose, meanwhile, is 58 years old but he’s got an open mind.
“All this social media stuff,” ROse said with a laugh. “I am just not that guy but I’m getting better. I know this is a big part of racing, and the world now, the internet and social media, and it’s how you bring sponsors. Hey, we’re here.”
And we all appreciate him being here too!
Best moment
The most interesting moment of the day was when Gio Scelzi, after his press conferenced ended, actually took a seat in the media center and asked Schatz a question.
“Oh boy,” Schatz said.
“No, no, it’s a serious question,” Scelzi said. “Did you ever have a different mindset when you defended a championship the next year compared to this year where you’re trying to get back to that level?”
It was a legitimate media center worthy query.
“I don’t think you win a championship, Gio, with that mindset because when you get in a car, there’s no such thing as defending anything,” Schatz said. “This is Sprint Car racing and when it’s time to go, you have to go as hard as you can within the parameters.
“And what I mean, there are nights where you’re running third or second, and you make a great lap but you’re half over the cushion and you’re this far away from wearing it out, which could be a DNF, so your mind is telling you, ‘I can win this, I can win this’ but to win a championship, you have to take the second or third. Some nights it will be 10th.
“Some nights, it might even be 20th and a lap down but you finish the race. To me, that’s the mindset. It’s never a defend mode. It’s about controlling your aggression, when you have to push, but having a controlled push.
“If you are ever out of control, you risk putting yourself in a bad place. It’s been so long since I’ve won a championship so maybe I can’t remember but if you like stats, look at the guy that won the last five, he hasn’t won the most races. He’s just consistent. An eight place on one night won him the championship.
“I never look at it as a defense, and I hope you find this out someday. When you roll into that first race after you win a championship, and I hope you do and I bet you will, you look at it and say it’s all gravy from here.”
He says winning a second championship is an added pleasure. The first championship is the hardest.
“Remember the first night you won,” he asked. “Pretty cool wasn’t it?”
Schatz said he admired Scelzi and that he has high aspirations for all the young drivers even if he criticizes them a lot.
“But someone has to,” he said with a smile.
Schatz had just recounted a story about his interactions with World of Outlaws founder Ted Johnson and how no one chewed him out more than Johnson but no one praised him louder either.
“He was that voice that I needed when I was younger and I hope that I can be that voice for these kids too,” Schatz said.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
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