Home Sweet Home: Solwold Wins at Skagit Speedway
Alger, WA — Jason Solwold first competed at Skagit Speedway in 1994 and since that time, has turned more laps at the high-banked three-tenths-mile that he can remember, racking up over 40 wins, along with three championships. He put all of this experience to good use on Saturday night as the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series made their annual stop at the track, which was delayed a day by rain, leading all 30 laps to pick up his second career A-Feature victory with the series in the opener of the N C Machinery Caterpillar Clash.
Solwold started second and charged past Kerry Madsen on the opening lap as the pair raced into turn two on the high side of the track. From there, the native of nearby Burlington, Washington would endure three cautions and two red flag periods along with excessively heavy lapped traffic en route to the $8,000 triumph.
“We had a great race car tonight,” said Solwold. “I’ve raced a lot of laps here and kind of know what this place will do. We just did our normal thing. We didn’t do anything special. Lapped traffic was a bit of a headache, but we made it through it and we’re happy to be here.”
For Solwold, the victory was his fifth of the season and first since returning from a back injury that kept him out of action for several weeks in June and July. It was also the first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory for his car owner Richard Saumere of Canada.
“My owners have been racing quite a while and have never won an Outlaws show and it feels really good to get on for them,” shared Solwold. “We have a great team here and I am looking forward to things to come.”
Solwold began the night by finishing second in the first heat race to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash, where he also finished second. Early in the 30-lap A-Feature he opened a sizeable lead which was negated on the fourth lap when the first caution of the night flew.
A strong restart propelled him to a comfortable lead again when the green flag flew, as he began to close in on lapped traffic. This gave Madsen and Jason Meyers a chance to close in on him. A lap-13 red flag gave Solwold an open track on the next restart.
Heavy lapped traffic again held up Solwold, with Madsen and Meyers right on him as the trio negotiated heavy traffic. Solwold had a couple of tense moments in lapped traffic, including narrowly missing a big accident involving Chad Hillier and Robbie Farr which occurred right in front of the leaders. He also nearly got caught up in an accident involving Travis Rutz.
“That was close and actually there was one more, I think over I turns three and four,” Solwold said with a sigh of relief. “We had a little luck on our side and we’ll take that. We’ll take the luck and take the victory and come back.”
Solwold used a strong restart aboard the Extreme Oilfield Technology Maxim with seven laps to go to jump to a comfortable lead over Madsen as the laps wound down. The leaders entered lapped traffic for the final time with three laps to go, giving Madsen one more shot at the leader, as he looked high off turns one and two and again in turns three and four.
“The restarts were good,” said Solwold in Victory Lane. “We had a great race car tonight. I’ve raced a lot of laps here and kind of know what this place will do. We just did our normal thing. We didn’t do anything special. Lapped traffic was a bit of a headache, but we made it through it and we’re happy to be here.”
Solwold now has two World of Outlaws A-Feature wins to go along with his two career preliminary feature triumphs. He’ll look to keep his momentum going on Sunday in the $25,000 finale.
“Tomorrow night you’ll have to start o the first couple of rows,” he explained. “Hopefully the track will be a little bit more racy It will be a lot different tomorrow.”
Kerry Madsen, the reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award winner, picked up a season-best second-place finish in the TK Concrete Maxim. He won the Crane Cams Dash to earn the pole for the 30-lap contest. A couple of times during the main event, he was able to gain ground on Solwold in traffic.
“We’re pretty happy with second,” said Madsen. “Every time we got to traffic, I thought I would have a shot, because you never knew what was going to happen and the caution would come out. Jason (Solwold) did a great job and he was quick in open track. I felt like I was better in lapped traffic.”
Madsen has 30 Top-10 finishes on the season as he closes in on his first win of the year. The runner-up finish on Saturday also helped him move back into the seventh spot in points, ahead of Chad Kemenah.
“I was just waiting for traffic and on that last lap I was saving the high line in one. I just couldn’t make it stick,” Madsen explained. “We’ll come back tomorrow night and see what we can do. I really want to thank Tony Vermeer and TK Concrete for giving us the opportunity to be out here this year. We’re having a great time.”
Jason Meyers finished third aboard the GLR Investments KPC to earn his 19th consecutive Top-Five finish. He started fourth and powered his way around Paul McMahan on the opening lap, after beginning the night by turning the fourth-fastest lap in time trials.
“These guys did a great job tonight, especially going out late to qualify and still getting a good time,” said Meyers. “We had a week off and these guys spent all week working hard to make these race cars better. The car was certainly good here tonight. I thank them for that. It was just kind of a narrow race track tonight. I have been here when this place was really really racy and it just didn’t widen out tonight. I’m sure they will work on it tonight and we’ll have a better race track tomorrow.”
Like Madsen, Meyers gained ground a couple of times on Solwold in traffic, only to have the caution fly. He tried everything he could to track down Solwold as the laps wound down. The California native used the low side of the track for a majority of the 30-lap contest.
“It’s hard to get a run on the guys up front when they have clean air,” he pointed out. “When you are in the middle of the pack, there is a great chance of getting bottled up. When you are up front, there is not much bottling up. I wanted to try the top in (turns) one and two pretty bad, but I just didn’t know what it would do and I just didn’t want to give up any spots. It was a good point night for us tonight.”
Roger Crockett picked up his second career Top-Five finish with the World of Outlaws on Saturday night. The native of Medford, Oregon found his way around Kraig Kinser and Paul McMahan on the opening lap.
“It was a very good night,” Crockett said, after climbing from his Omlid & Swinney Fire Protection Maxim “We had a great start, after lining up sixth. We got around a couple of guys right away and just kind of paced ourselves behind Jason. I think the track got pretty racy for the main event. They did what they could with it. I would have liked to have not see so many yellows, because our car was good in traffic and I think we may have bee able to get up there and battle those guys in traffic. On the same hand it keep you out of trouble and you don’t have to fight all of those guys. We’re happy with a fourth-place finish.”
Jonathan Allard wound up fifth in the K&N Filters Maxim, with Paul McMahan in the Casey’s General Store Maxim in sixth. Joey Saldana was seventh in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI. Jac Haudenschild was eighth in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim. Donny Schatz finished ninth in the Armor All J&J to extend his streak of Top-10 finishes this season to all 46 races. Kraig Kinser rounded out the Top-10 in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim.
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