Column: Oklahoma & Texas Await The World Of Outlaws Sprint Car Series This Weekend

Column By: BRIAN WALKER / WORLD OF OUTLAWS – LAWTON, OK – There’s no slowing down for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

After an exciting weekend on Indiana’s bullrings, The Greatest Show on Dirt is heading south for a weekend at Lawton (OK) Speedway on Friday, April 16 and Devil’s Bowl (TX) Speedway on Saturday, April 17.

Let’s catch you up on the storylines to follow entering this weekend:

BIGGER PAYDAY: On Saturday at Devil’s Bowl, the World of Outlaws will race for $20,000-to-win, the highest-payday of the season to this point. It’s the first of back-to-back weekends with more money on the line as the NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars battle for $25,000-to-win at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 24.

In total, 12 events this season offer a more than $20,000 grand prize. That group is highlighted by a pair of $175,000-to-win King’s Royals at Eldora, the 60th Knoxville Nationals paying $150,000-to-win, the National Open at Williams Grove worth $75,000-to-win, and the $50,000-to-win Jackson Nationals, among many more high-paying shows.

ADVERSITY HITS: After entering last weekend all on career-best streaks, Brad Sweet, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Logan Schuchart each left Indiana with their streaks snapped. Sweet’s run of nine-straight podium finishes? Gone. Haudenschild’s stretch of eight-straight top fives? Toast. Schuchart’s perfect 11-for-11 span of top tens? No more.

Even David Gravel found his own slice of adversity at Kokomo when he clipped an infield tire running second and ended up with a 12th-place finish. Those four, who sit 1-2-3-4 in the championship standings with 70 races remaining will look to get back on track

MACEDO’S MOMENTUM: Much like basketball, it’s been a game of runs for Carson Macedo on the World of Outlaws trail in 2021. He started with a four-race spurt of 5th, 6th, 1st, 3rd to obtain the championship lead for the first time in his career. Then, a four-race swing through the south was full of struggles with runs of 21st, 7th, 13th, 11th.

Now, he’s on a five-race streak of top tens and he’s back in contention tied for fourth in the standings. Since going to Missouri, the Jason Johnson Racing #41 has results of 5th, 5th, 8th, 6th, 1st. He enters Lawton and Devil’s Bowl fresh off a thrilling second win of the season at Tri-State Speedway.

THE RISE OF THE #9: You can’t help but wonder where James McFadden would fall in the championship standings if he had been here from the start. Due to the birth of his first child, he stayed down under and misses the first six races of the season. Since arriving in the United States in March, he’s been on fire and the results prove it.

The Alice Springs, NT, AUS native has a worst finish of 11th and average finish of 5.7 through his first seven starts in 2021. Last weekend especially, the Kasey Kahne Racing #9 found a rhythm on Indiana bullrings as he won for the first time this year at Kokomo and ran a close second at Tri-State. He’ll head to Lawton and Devil’s Bowl with a chip on his shoulder following that last-lap loss in Haubstadt.

SCHATZ’S STRUGGLES: For the first time since 2002, Donny Schatz has finished outside the top-ten in five consecutive World of Outlaws races. That’s a stretch of 1,357 races for the 10x Series champion.

Over the last five races, the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing #15 has finished 11th a lap down at Lake Ozark, suffered a DNF while leading at I-55, ran 11th again at I-55, accepted another DNF on Lap 2 at Kokomo, and finished 16th-from-21st at Tri-State. A win this weekend at Lawton and Devil’s Bowl would get the monkey off his back with his first win of the season.

BACK ON HOME TURF: For Wayne Johnson of Oklahoma City, OK and Aaron Reutzel of Clute, TX, this is their final chance of the season to race in their home states.

Johnson, who drives the Two-C Racing #2C, owns several regional victories at Lawton Speedway and ran 14th with the World of Outlaws one year ago. He’s chasing his first top-ten of the season since he ran ninth at Magnolia (MS).

Reutzel, pilot of the Roth Motorsports #83, has an ASCS National 360 Sprint Car win to his credit at Devil’s Bowl in 2017. Outside of his one DNF at Magnolia, Reutzel has been top-ten in every single feature this year and currently sits sixth in the standings.

PAST RESULTS: Lawton and Devil’s Bowl are two of eight tracks that were on the inaugural World of Outlaws schedule in 1978 and still host races today in 2021. No full-time Outlaws have won at Lawton with the Series thanks to Daryn Pittman’s emotional home-state triumph last year.

At Devil’s Bowl, Schatz, Sweet and Schuchart are the only full-timers with winning experience on the half-mile against the World of Outlaws.