DARKE COUNTY, Ohio — History was set to be made with whoever won the one million dollars at Eldora Speedway in Ohio this week.
The way Thursday night panned out for Logan Schuchart, the race couldn't have gone any better.
The Hanover native started the historic evening by winning his heat, getting the luck of the draw and picking the pole position, before completely dominating the feature.
He did get a little pressure from Carson Macedo but held him off and led the pack from start to finish—from the green to the checkered, all to cash in the one million dollar prize.
"There [were] a lot of nights where I sat, laying there thinking, 'Should I do something else? I don’t know if I’m good enough for this,'" recalled Schuchart. "I'll admit, this man (Bobby Allen) right here next to me told me about a month ago, goes, 'Yeah, well you're going to win the million,' and man he was right."
Schuchart's name was then etched into the richest payday in sprint car history, and it doesn't come as a surprise that he and Shark Racing nabbed the win.
This marked his fifth win at that track, after winning a World of Outlaws race earlier this season.
However, being able to double back and win the next night is a difficult feat to achieve, especially with the best drivers in the world coming together to compete.
On Saturday night, all eyes were on who would win the 40th Kings Royal.
There wasn’t a lot of passing in the heats, and that placed 13 of the fastest qualifiers in the B-Main, with only four moving on to the feature.
Five of the top 10 in Outlaw points did not qualify for the feature, including the million-dollar man, Logan Schuchart, and his teammate Jacob Allen.
Lance Dewease made his first career Kings Royal A-Main but pulled off for brake failure driving the No. 39M.
Yes, the Macri Motorsports No. 39M.
On that note, we may have seen a taste of this last year, when Anthony Macri didn't finish the final night of the 2022 Pa. Speedweek.
A year later, Macri decided to step away from his family team, and while he's received calls from other owners, he has not confirmed his direction yet.
This begs the question—will he make amends with the family team, race for another team, or step away from racing altogether? There is still a lot that has yet to be answered in the coming weeks, especially with the massive amount of money on the line.
King Brent Marks, the 39th, looked for back-to-back crowns.
He gained eight spots in the feature, before the open red with 15 laps left. Marks then changed up his lines and worked his way around David Gravel, but Donny Schatz was just too quick to track down.
The 10-time Outlaw champ led all 40 laps to win the 40th Kings Royal, making it his sixth career crown, which is one away from tying the record.
On the local scene at Lincoln Speedway, from ninth to the lead, Freddie Rahmer got a two-for-one deal; he passed both Cameron Smith and Glendon Forsythe and ensured the No. 8 picked up his eighth win at Lincoln this season.
Logan Rumsey took advantage of making up so much ground on a late restart and was able to make it to Matt Findley’s tail to send it around. Even a little bobble off the wall doesn’t bother him. Rumsey got his nose in front, right at the line, for his second feature win.
Bill Brown Jr. took a little bump in turns one and two, but still managed to take the lead on the final lap in the Classic Cars feature.
Over to Port Royal, Logan Wagner got a run on Steve Buckwalter and drove down low as Deven Borden came in hot around the top, causing Wagner to pull away from the field.
Trent Brenneman captured the limited late model feature as Kenny Heffner won the 305 feature.
It's another big week as the Outlaws race at BAPS Motor Speedway on Wednesday for the first time in 31 years. The team then heads to Williams Grove for the Summer Nationals on Friday and Saturday.