There are not too many tracks on the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series schedule that two-time defending series champion Donny Schatz has not won at. One those places just happened to be Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas, where the World of Outlaws competed in the Boot Hill Showdown this weekend. When the dust settled in the finale of the event on Saturday night, Schatz found himself in the winner’s circle at the state-of-the-art 3/8-mile, to earn his seventh A-Feature win of the season, with the cameras from SPEED capturing all of the action before a standing room only, sellout crowd.
Schatz took the lead from Daryn Pittman on the 27th lap on the high side of the second turn, after Pittman was held up by a lapped machine. Schatz nearly took the lead the lap before as he went to the high side of turn four.
The North Dakota native lined up sixth for the 30-lap event and picked up two spots on the opening lap, getting around Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Joey Saldana. He powered his way around Shane Stewart on the third lap to move into third, next setting his sights on Craig Dollansky, who he would overtake on the next lap.
“It was fun tonight,” said Schatz, after climbing from the Armor All J&J. “I can’t say enough about this whole team. These guys definitely had the Armor All shine tonight. I didn’t know what it would be like when it took rubber. When he slowed down on the bottom and I was running second, I had nothing to lose. I just tried smoking around the top and just barely had enough tire to do it. There was plenty of race track left up there. It was pretty challenging, but we got it done.”
During his career with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, Schatz has won at 46 different tracks, including three in the state of Kansas. He has 77 career A-Feature wins, including a series-best seven this season and is just four triumphs short of breaking into the Top-Five on the all-time win list. He picked up $10,000 for his win on Saturday night.
“It always means something to come to a place you have never won at and win,” he noted. “I have really never felt that good racing here. I have qualified well several times and have the track record. To come out and win tonight after not having that great of a race car last night feels good. We found it in time for the feature tonight.”
Schatz nearly took the lead from Pittman on the 10th lap as the pair was entering lapped traffic. He was even with the leader and had a run on him when the caution flag came out, putting him in second for the restart. Pittman pulled away on the ensuing restart, but the caution flag would fly again on the 16th lap, bunching the field up and giving Schatz a couple of more chances to battle for the lead.
“It was my job to figure out how I was going to pass him,” explained Schatz. “I knew I wasn’t going to pass him on the bottom in the rubber and I had not choice. I had everything to gain and nothing to lose. I come here to win and if I can’t win, I’ll go down trying.”
While most of the leaders including Schatz did not have much left on their right rear tire, he was more focused on doing whatever it took to give himself a shot at winning the race than worrying about his tire. He remains the only driver that has finished in the Top-10 in every World of Outlaws event this season.
“There was a couple of laps at the end when I slid it in and didn’t grab the corner much,” Schatz shared. “I knew I had used my tires up. When I rode it in high, I smoked it in there pretty hard and probably used more tire up there than any other time. It worked and got the job done.”
Pittman led 26 laps on the night en route to the runner-up finish in the Titan Garages Maxim. He had a couple of healthy advantages over the course of the 30-lap contest, one that was negated by a caution and another that shrank when he was held up by a lapped machine. For Pittman, the second-place performance matched his season-best finish.
“I could sit here and complain about finishing second, but I won’t do that,” said Pittman. “My hat is off to those guys. When you are leading in rubber and there is a question of another line, second-place is the spot to be. I’m disappointed, but my crew told me that I did nothing wrong and we just got beat.”
While he would have liked nothing more than to have won at Dodge City Raceway Park for the second consecutive season, Pittman was pleased with his finish on Saturday night, after a rash of bad luck that his team has endured during the early portion of the 2008 campaign.
“Our car was good and we know that our car was good enough to win,” he said. “That’s a big encouragement because we have been struggling. We think we have found some stuff and can hopefully get this thing going in the right direction. Hopefully we can get better from here. It’s a Top-Five finish and that is hard to complain about.”
Joey Saldana backed up his win on Friday night in the opener of the Boot Hill Showdown with a strong third-place run on Saturday night. The native of Brownsburg, Indiana started third in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI and fell back to sixth on the opening lap, before dropping another position on the fourth circuit. He then steadily worked his way back to the front.
First, he got around Chad Kemenah on the fifth lap, before working his way past Steve Kinser and Shane Stewart. He was back up to third by just the 10th lap, and would try several times to run down Pittman.
“The start really hurt us,” explained Saldana, who won on Friday night at Dodge City. “We were back to about seventh. I think we were a little tight getting into the rubber and wore our tire out. I was running the top and got to third, but then was just too tight to run up there. I think (Donny) Schatz moved up there because of that. You could make some speed up there. That’s the way it goes and we got a good solid finish. It was a good run for us and we didn’t fall out.”
Craig Dollansky earned his seventh consecutive Top-Five finish as he was fourth in the Auto Value Parts Stores Maxim on Saturday night. The Minnesota native started fourth and moved into third on the opening lap, before taking the runner-up spot from Shane Stewart just two laps later. He ran second for a couple of laps before Schatz got around him.
“I felt best when we were running the top and were second to Daryn (Pittman),” said Dollansky. “I felt comfortable there and thought we may have had a car good enough to win the race. When the rubber came in, Donny (Schatz) got underneath me and I knew that the rubber was there. I dropped down into the rubber groove and that is where I ran to finish the race off.”
Steve Kinser finished fifth in the Q Oil Maxim, after being fastest in time trials for the second consecutive night. The 20-time series champion lined up eighth and picked up three spots on the opening lap.
Shane Stewart finished sixth in the Roth Motorsports KCP, with Jac Haudenschild in seventh aboard the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim. Jason Meyers was eighth in the GLR Investments KPC, while Sam Hafertepe Jr. was ninth in the G.H. Plumbing J&J. Kraig Kinser rounded out the Top-10 in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim.
Chad Kemenah was running seventh in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim before a mechanical problem ended his night just past the halfway mark of the race. He and his team had to change an engine during the Crane Cams Dash, thus forcing him to miss that event, in which he was scheduled to start second. He started 10th in the A-Feature and gained several spots early in the race.
The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Friday, June 28 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota for the first round of the Gerdau Ameristeel Northern Tour.
