It is "Bike Week" in Daytona Beach and for the last two years that has brought the World Of Outlaws Sprint Cars back to Florida for a quick second appearance before the long grind of their season takes them across the country.
And their Sunday night, March 1st appearance at Volusia Speedway Park gave Sheldon Haudenschild the opportunity to shake off some early season stumbles when they last appeared here as he dominated the field, leading from start to finish in the twenty five lap feature race and never being challenged for the top spot.
Thirty one drivers signed in to race on Sunday night including all the drivers that routinely run the WoO series along with some Pennsylvania stars that made the early season pull down to Florida. Heavy rain on Friday night had thoroughly saturated the track and when I walked it during the afternoon, it looked untouched from when they finished up after the Late Models a couple of weeks ago. They put just a sprinkling of water on it late in the afternoon and then rolled it in and the track turned out to be blinding fast while still remaining smooth.
Time trials was a speed fest with driver after driver lowering the quick mark with David Gravel, the twenty second driver to take time, settling the standard with a near track record 12.673 and if you are familiar with Volusia, you know that is a mighty fast time for the size of that track.
The WoO program would consist of three heats, a dash and B Feature and the twenty five lap main. Six drivers would move up out of the three heats, with everyone else running the B Feature which would move up another six. All three heats were won from the front row, but that was not a surprise.
The redraw and then running of the Dash was key as with passing tough, track position was everything. Haudenschild redrew the outside pole and then beat Carson Macedo for the win in the dash which gave him the pole for the feature race.
Haudenschild got the jump on the green and led early over Macedo and Gravel. A flip by Kerry Madsen, while he was running fourth stopped the action with ten laps completed and then Haudenschild caught a big break, the kind you sometimes need to win no matter how fast you are.
On the restart, Macedo got the jump on Haud, squeezed past him in turn one and looked to be the new leader. However, fourth running Logan Schuchart spun before that lap was completed and Haud got a "do over."
But not only was it significant in that he got the top spot back, because it was a yellow after a yellow and no laps had been completed, under WoO rules the restart was single file and Haud didn't need Macedo beside him again. This time he didn't bobble and he moved back into the lead.
Gravel was on the move and by the halfway point had moved past Macedo for second with Ashton Torgerson and Tanner Holmes in the top five.
The final laps saw Gravel try to cut into Haud's lead but Sheldon played the slower traffic just right and didn't allow Gravel to close up on him. He crossed the finish line comfortably in front in winning his first feature of 2026. Late rushes by Buddy Kofoid, up from twelfth and Daison Pursley saw them complete the top five. Only two drivers failed to finish the race while Daryn Pittman, scheduled to start sixteenth, scratched out of the event.
Running with the Outlaws were the local Factory Stocks and twenty Factory Stock drivers signed in to race. They were split into two heats and a twenty lap main event and their feature was actually very good.
For much of the contest, it was a side by side battle for the top spot. Early on, Willy Cuddy took the lead from the outside pole while Mike Tovet and Dustin Turnage Sr battled for second. There were three yellows in the first six laps which kept the field bunched and while Cuddy continued to lead, Tovet and Turnage Sr went back and forth for second.
Finally, on lap seven Turnage Sr secured second and he pulled in to challenge Cuddy for the lead. For a number of laps, they put on an entertaining battle with Cuddy riding the cushion while Turnage Sr tried lap after lap to get under him for the lead, even as yellows slowed the action. Once the green flew again, they went right back after it with each other.
Lap thirteen saw Turnage Sr finally edge under Cuddy for the lead and after that, he pulled away slightly and with no more slow downs, drove on for the win. Tovet settled for third with Justin Reynolds and Bud Chancey completing the top five. The heavy track that pulled hard took its toll on the Factory Stocks with only about half the field finishing as overheating engines and worse struck several of the competitors.
I was surprised that track officials chose to run the Factory Stock feature first and as the number of yellows began to rise, the Sprint Car fans on hand probably started to get a bit anxious. However, the overall time was quite early so they didn't grumble and mutter too much. Just as the final checkered flag waved at 10:06 pm for the WoO feature, announcer Johnny Gibson alerted us that the rocket launch from The Cape could be seen and as we looked to the Southeast over the grandstands, there it was in full view! What a spectacular conclusion to the evening! I had known but forgot that there was a launch scheduled for Sunday night but thanks to Johnny, we all got to see it.
I was very surprised to see just how many spectators were on hand Sunday. I seem to remember watching last year's race on tv and not seeing very many people in the stands but Sunday night's crowd would rival any that were on hand for last month's Speed Weeks races. It also seemed the concession planning was a bit underwhelming as there weren't nearly as many stations open on Sunday and the lines for food and drink were long, long, long.
