HURON — The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series is set to make its second visit to Dakota State Fair Speedway on Saturday with the All American Shootout presented by American Bank & Trust/American Trust Insurance.
The nation’s top sprint car drivers will take to the 3/8-mile oval at 6:30 p.m. For hot laps, with qualifying scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. A public fireworks display presented by the Huron Noon Lions Club will follow the racing program.
“It’s always neat to go back to a place you haven’t been in a couple years,” said Shane Stewart of Bixby, Okla., who finished second in the 30-lap feature race during the World of Outlaws inaugural visit to the Huron oval. “Leading into the Fourth of July is always a big racing time.
“With the fireworks show they’ll be having after the race, that should bring even more excitement to the event,” he said. “I know I’m looking forward to it, and I know we’ll watch the fireworks with our little daughter, as will a number of the drivers who have their kids with them at the track.”
Stewart is currently one of the hottest drivers on the series at the moment. He moved to fourth in the season standings with back-to-back victories at West Liberty Raceway in Iowa  and Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“With how well we are running right now, I can’t wait to get to the race track every night. We recently brought on Lee Stauffer as crew chief and he has brought a lot of confidence to the team,” Stewart said. “We have always known we have the equipment to run out here and compete for wins, and now it seems like everything is falling into place and fitting together.”
Stewart likes his chances of adding to his season total of four wins during Saturday’s stop at DSFS.
“We ran well last time we were at Huron and have a good baseline for the track. We started a few rows back and were able to work our way forward, so if we can start a little closer to the front this time, I think we’ll have a shot at it,” he said. “That is a very racy track, and it takes good horsepower, as well, which we certainly have.”
When the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series made its first stop at the Huron oval, eight-time series champion Donny Schatz of Fargo, N.D., emerged with the victory. He is the current leader in the 2017 standings with 5,498 points.

Schatz has a season-best 11 victories thus far and has finished in the top five during 30 outings.
Including Schatz and Stewart, a total of 15 drivers are competing in the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series on a full-time basis this season.
Brad Sweet of Grass Valley, Calif., sits just
50   points behind Schatz in the season standings, while David Gravel of Watertown, Conn., his third just 26 points back.
Sweet and Gravel are the only drivers with more top-10 finishes this season than Schatz. They both have inked 35 finishes inside the top 10.
Sweet currently has four wins, while Gravel has found his way to Victory Lane on nine occasions.
Stewart is 308 points behind the leader in fourth place, while Daryn Pittman of Owasso, Okla., rounds out the top five with 5,166 points.
Jason Sides of Bartlett, Tenn., who sits just inside the top 10 in the standings, is also looking forward to a return visit to the Huron oval.
“Huron is a big track and it’s nice and racy. We’ve run well there the couple times we were up there,” said Sides, who was eighth during the 2015 event at DSFS. “It’s a long way up there, when you are driving the rig, but it’s a pretty cool view with the big silos behind the track. We don’t get out that way much anymore, so we are looking forward to racing there, especially leading into the Fourth of July.”
Sides, who is still searching for his first win of the season, has a total of five finishes inside the top five and 15 top-10 finishes. He is hoping a return to the bigger track will payoff for him.
“We don’t have that many big tracks left, so it’s good to get to go to a few of them like Huron,” Sides said. “We seem to do better on those types of tracks for some reason. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad things, but we seem to like the bigger tracks a little better.”
Other drivers inside the top 10 in the standings are Jason Johnson of Eunice, La., (sixth); rookie Sheldon Haudenschild of Wooster, Iowa, (seventh); Logan Schuchart of Hanover, Pa., (eighth); Sides (ninth) and Kraig Kinser of Bloomington, Ind., (10th).
Joining the sprint cars for Saturday’s program will be the WISSOTA Midwest modifieds, which compete at DSFS on a regular basis.
Advance tickets for the All American Shootout presented by American Bank & Trust/American Trust Insurance can be purchased at www.slspromotions.ticketforce.com or by calling 815-344-2023.
Fans can also save $5 on general admission tickets when purchased at participating NAPA Auto Parts stores.
Check the Plainsman for more on the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series race on Saturday during the coming days.