Meyers Wins Finale of Oil City Cup at Castrol Raceway
by Tony Veneziano
EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada — Jason Meyers was part of history on Saturday night in the finale of the Oil City Cup Presented by Boston Pizza, as he won a thrilling dual with two-time defending Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz and 20-time champion Steve Kinser, before a capacity crowd, to pick up his eighth A-Feature win of the season. The crowd was the largest in the history of Castrol Raceway, and they saw Meyers become the fourth driver in the same number of events with the World of Outlaws to win at the track.
Meyers used lapped traffic to his advantage, slipping by Kinser on the 15th lap and leading the remainder of the way to pick up the 26th A-Feature win of his Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series career. He had Kinser and Donny Schatz try everything they could to get around him in the waning laps of the race.
“This is awesome,” said Meyers. “A World of Outlaws win is great no matter when you get it or where you get it. These things are really hard to win and there are a lot of great race cars out here. To get number eight, which is more than we have ever won in a season, I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
Meyers started third aboard the GLR Investments KPC in the 35-lap contest and got around Schatz on the opening lap and began to quickly track down Kinser, who led from the drop of the green. By just the fourth lap, the leaders were all ready in traffic, with Kinser opening a slight lead. On the sixth circuit a lapped car nearly got into Kinser exiting the fourth turn, causing him to lose momentum and giving Meyers a chance to close in. Both drivers were then help up in traffic, allowing Schatz who was running third to close in on them.
The first yellow flag of the night flew on lap 13, giving the leader clean track to work with. Kinser used a strong restart to quickly jump to a slight lead, but Meyers gained ground on the next two laps, and dove under Kinser coming off the fourth turn on the 15th lap in traffic to take the lead.
From there, Meyers had to negotiate dense traffic as did Kinser, which allowed Schatz to close back in on both of them. Kinser looked under Meyers exiting the third turn on the 16th lap, but could not quite make the pass.
Meyers began to again pull away until a lapped machine nearly made contact with him in turns one and two after he slipped high up the track. He quickly regrouped and had had hands full with Schatz who had just used the high side of the track in turns three and four to get around Kinser for the runner-up spot, making a bid for the lead.
At this point of the race, Schatz was right on Meyers and looked high off the fourth turn with 12 laps to go for the lead, but got a little too high on the track and had to back off the throttle, allowing Meyers to slightly pull away. This was the opening that Kinser needed to slip back around Schatz to take second and he nearly took the lead as well diving low in turns three and four as he looked for a way around Meyers, coming up just inches short.
Schatz got back around Kinser on the 25th lap, as the pair continued to weave their way through traffic and keep pace with Meyers. After slipping high off turn four and losing some ground, Kinser charged back around Schatz on the 26th lap. The pair traded the second spot five times over the last 15 laps of the race.
As the laps wound down, Meyers was caught in traffic, allowing Kinser and Schatz again to close right back up on. After Schatz got back around Kinser on the 30th lap, the caution flag flew on the next lap, just as the leaders were about to get four-wide in traffic.
“It got real tough in traffic,” Meyers noted. “The first four or five I got to, I didn’t have a problem with. After that, once everyone found the rubber, it was hard to move around. I was just trying to not do anything stupid and both of those guys took a couple of shots at me and I had to be a little more aggressive with the lapped cars and get through them.”
One last restart was in order, with Meyers leading Schatz and Kinser with four laps around the state-of-the-art high-banked 3/8-mile awaiting the competitors. A smooth restart saw Meyers jump to about a four-car length lead over Schatz.
“Four good laps,” Meyers deadpanned, when asked what is plan was on the restart. “That is all that I needed. I had clean air and I was getting a little tight in the rubber, so I had to run four good laps and not make any mistakes. The team gave me a great race car tonight.”
The Top-Four were spread out on the first lap after the restart, with Schatz then closing in with three laps remaining. He looked low off the first and second turns on Meyers for the lead and the pair charged down the back straightaway side-by-side, with Meyers holding Schatz off. Meyers held on over the last two laps to pick up the $10,000 top prize and also earned himself the overall title for the two-night Oil City Cup, after finishing fourth on Friday night.
For Meyers, who has won in Australia a couple of times in his career, it was his first career victory in Canada. In four career starts at Castrol Raceway, he has finished in the Top-Five in every one of them.
“It was a great race track tonight in front of a capacity crowd,” said the native of Clovis, California. “It’s pretty cool to come up here to Canada, so far away from home and win a race.”
The win for Meyers was his 18th consecutive Top-Five finish as he continues to chase his first World of Outlaws title. He began the night with a Top-Five effort in time trials and finished second in the first heat to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash where he finished third.
“Everything seems to be clicking,” he explained. “It is chemistry and this team. This is a great team. It’s not any one thing. It’s a great team and a great engine and a great chassis. We have great sponsors that stand behind us as well. When all of those things are together, that makes us one tough race team. I’m just thankful to be part of it.”
Donny Schatz finished second in the finale of the Oil City Cup aboard the Armor All J&J to extend his streak of Top-10 finishes to 45 on the season. After qualifying 16th to begin the night, the North Dakota native turned in an impressive run in the first heat race, coming from the sixth starting spot to take the win after passing Meyers late in that 10-lap contest, which earned him a spot in the Crane Cams Dash.
Steve Kinser led the first 14 laps on Saturday night in the Q Oil Maxim, before trading the second spot several times with Schatz and nearly retaking the lead from Meyers on a number of occasions. The 20-time series champion wound up third to earn his 22nd Top-Five finish of the season.
Daryn Pittman finished a very solid fourth in the Titan Garages Maxim, with Joey Saldana rounding out the Top-Five in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI.
The remainder of the Top-10 was: Terry McCarl in sixth driving the Big Game Treestands Maxim, Craig Dollansky, who set fast time in time trials for the second consecutive night aboard the Snap-on Tools Maxim in seventh, Kerry Madsen in the TK Concrete Maxim in eighth, Chad Kemenah in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim in ninth and Jac Haudenschild, who won the opener of the Oil City Cup on Friday night, in 10th piloting the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim, to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award.
The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Friday, August 29 and Saturday, August 30 with two full nights of racing from Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington.
<Tags: Castrol Speedway, Oil City Cup