2023 was a banner year for Logan Schuchart

Whenever a list of perennial contenders for feature wins and championship contenders in Sprint Car racing is compiled, the name of Logan Schuchart has to be among those listed. And this past season further confirmed that as the Shark Racing driver from Hanover, Pennsylvania scored the most lucrative win ever for this type of motorsports. Further, he earned his fifth consecutive top-5 finish in the final World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series standings.

Schuchart has amassed a total of 40 career victories with the World of Outlaws over the 10 seasons in which he has competed with that tour. Six of those feature wins came in 2023.

On the Thursday prior to the running of the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway, Schuchart earned $1,000,000 for a victory on the Rossberg, Ohio track. Needless to say, it was a huge moment in the racing career of the 30-year-old pilot of the Shark Racing No. 1s ride.

“It’s hard to put that into words,” Schuchart remarked to InsideDirtRacing.com when asked about winning the Eldora Million for Winged Sprint Cars. “It was a great feeling of accomplishment winning a race like that. You kind of dream up winning a crown jewel race then they come out saying they’re going to pay a million dollars and it was all this build up that we had since PRI last December knowing that kind of money was going to be on the line on a night in the middle of July for a Sprint Car race. That was pretty wild knowing we were going to be a part of it.”

Schuchart believed his Shark Racing team would be among the top contenders in the race held at the Tony Stewart-owned facility. Still, there had been prior disappointments in the sport’s biggest events. Those disappointments melted away when he crossed the finish line ahead of the pack.

“We were going to a race track where we had success in the past so I felt like we had a good shot of running really well there,” Schuchart explained. “But I’ve been in positions of winning crown jewel races before and missed out by the slimmest of margins and that’s just how it goes sometimes. I felt like we were going to go there and do the best that we could and race to the best of our ability and put ourselves in a good spot and we were able to do so. Wednesday went very well, our qualifying night, we put ourselves in a good spot for Thursday. Each step kept falling into place and we led all 50 laps of the main event. The feeling of winning that race was pretty wild with that amount of money on the line.”

Being the only Sprint Car driver to have won $1,000,000 in a single race put Schuchart’s name among others in the motorsports world in places where dirt racing may not always get the top headlines.

“We had some success in the past winning World of Outlaws races but I felt, when it came to big races, in some ways we were sort of overlooked even though I feel like we run really well at a lot of the tracks that hold crown jewel events,” the driver stated. “I think the next time we go back to those races we may not be overlooked as quick. Nobody can take away that we won a million dollars or that we won the biggest winner’s share in Sprint Car history so I’m proud that my team has that title and we can ride that for a little bit. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to get right back work and try to chase World of Outlaws championships and chase crown jewels and try to win as many races as possible. We have a lot to accomplish and lot we’re going to keep striving to go after.”

Shark Racing is a bit of a unique team among the other top Sprint Car operations in that it is very much a family affair. The leader of the team is National Sprint Car Hall of Fame member Bobby Allen. His son, Jacob Allen, is one of the team’s drivers while his grandson, Schuchart, steers the other ride.

During the time this past season when Jacob Allen took a break from driving, Tanner Holmes stepped in to drive one of the organization’s two cars.

“It’s good, Jake and I have always been close,” Schuchart described. “Obviously as I grew up my grandpa has been my mentor. We’ve always been close and had racing. We kind of share that passion together and we still do. We’re very fortunate to do it and we’re a very family oriented team. I feel like everybody is really close knit between our crew members, Jake and I, my grandfather. Now we have Tanner racing in the 1T and his family is fitting in real nice.”

Jacob Allen returned the driver’s seat in the No. 1A at the end of the 2023 campaign.

“Everybody’s bonding real well and they’re a great group of people and it’s very nice to work with them,” Schuchart added regarding the family operation. “My mom and Summer(Small, girlfriend) work our T-shirt trailer and Jacob’s wife Hannah works his so it’s a lot of family all around. My cousin, Michael Newman, builds our engines. There’s a lot of support from everybody as far as family goes.”

Like every family, there may be some challenges but Schuchart points out that those are not too frequent.

“I think we work good together even though we’re going to have nights that are bad and things we disagree on and nights that don’t go our way. But all in all, especially as long as we have been together out here, we all work very well together. Everybody’s going to have troubles and things they don’t agree on and that kind of stuff but the relationships we all have with each other are very healthy and good.”

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