BRANDON - Sheldon Haudenschild earned the $100,000 top prize for winning the inaugural Huset’s High Bank Nationals with a last-lap pass Saturday night at Huset’s Speedway.
The triumph for the Wooster, Ohio driver garnered the biggest payout in South Dakota sports history.
“Oh man, I don’t even know what to say,” an emotional Haudenschild said. “(Crew chief Kyle) Ripper is the man. This would not be possible without Ripper. Man, he’s been there from the start for me and man I’m thankful for him for sure. I’m thankful for this team. They’ve trusted me for five years now and made moves that I’ve wanted to make and I’m thankful for that for sure.
“This week wasn’t an easy week for us. We just kept getting, you know, behind. That was make or break in our qualifier today; had a really good car all week and passed a bunch of cars. You get up to that top seven and that’s when it gets hard to pass these guys. At the end of the day I think it helped us race this track. These guys have been up front all week and haven’t passed 30 cars this week. At the end of the day it’s probably a blessing in disguise to be able to learn the track and how to get around people.”
Haudenschild earned the Hard Charger Award each of the previous two nights when he maneuvered from 23rd to seventh on Thursday and from 25th to seventh on Friday. A qualifier win on Saturday locked Haudenschild into King of the Hill, which he placed seventh in to start quite a bit further up the grid for the 40-lap main event.
King of the Hill winner Carson Macedo (Lemoore, Calif.) led the first 34 laps before James McFadden (Alice Springs, NT, Australia) drove from third into the lead by using the top groove in turns one and two on Lap 35. McFadden and runner-up Michael ‘Buddy’ Kofoid (Penngrove, Calif.) were side by side for the lead multiple times during the ensuing laps, fighting for the bottom as rubber began to develop.
Haudenschild closed on both before using a power move on the cushion in turns one and two to pass both Kofoid and McFadden. He stayed on the top in turns three and four and held onto the lead to win by 0.671 seconds.
McFadden finished second for the second time in the three-race event, with Kofoid rounding out the podium.
David Gravel (Watertown, Conn.) was fourth and Macedo fifth.’
McFadden, Logan Schuchart (Hanover, Penn.) and Hunter Schuerenberg (Sikeston, Mo.) joined Haudenschild as qualifier winners. Rico Abreu (St. Helena, Calif.) won the B Main.
Brooke Tatnell (San Souci, NSW, Australia) finished 18th in the A feature in the DeWall Racing No. 16. Earlier, he was third in his qualifier.
Kaleb Johnson (Sioux Falls) was eighth in the B feature after placing sixth in his qualifier and Matt Wasmund (Jackson) was 18th in the B feature and 10th in his qualifier.
The next event at Huset’s is the USAC Nationals featuring the USAC National Sprint Cars and the USAC National Midget Series July 8-10.