Pittman Win Opening Night of Williams Grove Summer Nationals
Mechanicsburg, PA — Daryn Pittman was a little worried heading into the Cleveland Brothers Summer Nationals at the famed Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night, after missing the main event the last time the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series visited the half-mile in May. He made up for that in a big way on Friday night, making a thrilling pass on two-time defending series champion Donny Schatz with just three laps remaining to pick up the win.
Pittman was running third with just five laps remaining and charged past Chad Kemenah, before using a late restart to his advantage to overtake Schatz in dramatic fashion, as he boldly put a slide job on the leader in the second turn to inch his ahead. Pittman would hold off Schatz over the last two laps to pick up his second win in the last three races.
“My hat is off to my crew,” said Pittman, who won the Summer Nationals in 2006. “They did a great job. Maxim built us a new race car and got me in a seat that I feel more comfortable in and more confident in because I know it’s safer. The car felt awesome from the time we unloaded it. We’ve been good for about three years now here and came here in the spring and struggled and missed the show. It feels good to come in here and rebound. It was a great effort by the whole team.”
Pittman lined up sixth in the Titan Garages Maxim and gained two spots on the opening laps, powering his way past 20-time series champion Steve Kinser and also Brian Leppo who won with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series at Williams Grove last season. He then patiently worked on Jeff Shepard, taking the third spot from him on the 11th lap. He then was able to reel in Chad Kemenah and used the late restart to make a bid for the win. After sliding Schatz in the second turn, the pair drifted up to the wall, with Schatz getting on the brakes for a split second and then doing his best to fight back.
“I knew it was my only shot,” commented Pittman when asked about the slide job. “You know that Donny (Schatz) doesn’t make mistakes, especially when he is out front. I saw that he went to the top on the prior restart when I was running third. I thought if he opened the door, my only shot would be to get a good run on him off four and be even with him at the (restart) cone and put a slider on him. We were both fast in (turns) three and four and both running the same line. When you run that line, it’s hard to pass. We’re just going for wins now and if we mess up going for wins, that’s just the way it is.”
The race took four starts to get a single lap in the books, as there were two yellow flag periods, followed by a red flag. Jeff Shepard led from the pole on two of the starts, with Kemenah leading on the other two. Kemenah led the most important start, which was the fourth one and would pace the field for the first 18 laps. Pittman stayed focused on each of the starts on a very hot and muggy night.
“I kept getting such good starts and I was afraid that the one that finally went green was not going to be a good one for me,” explained Pittman, who is a native of Owasso, Oklahoma. “We started sixth and I think I could get to fourth by turn one almost every time. I really figured someone was going to try to block me and keep me from what I was doing. When it finally went green, we were in the spot we thought we could get to and we just worked out way up from there.”
The win for Pittman was his 27th with the World of Outlaws in his career, which placed him in a tie with Craig Dollansky for 14th on the all-time win list. While he is closing in on the Top-10 in the championship standings, he and his team are focused on winning as many races as they can in the second half of the season.
“It us such tough company out here and wins are hard to come by,” Pittman said. “We proved that with how long it took us to get our first one. We have the confidence that we can win and have to stay on top of our game to get wins. I’m lot more optimistic about the rest of the season after the last few weeks than I was about two or three weeks ago.”
Schatz took the lead from Kemenah on the low side as the pair approached traffic on the 19th lap as they exited the second turn. Kemenah instantly fought back, though Schatz was able to quickly pull away. With three laps remaining, Schatz had a comfortable lead as Pittman and Kemenah battled for the second spot, with the final caution flag of the night flying on the 22nd lap.
“We were decent tonight, but we obviously didn’t have the car to win the race,” said Schatz. “I just wasn’t getting the forward drive that I needed. Tomorrow is a new day and we learned some things tonight that worked and we tried some things that hurt us. It is what it is and tomorrow is a fresh night and I know that we’ll be all right tomorrow.”
Kemenah led the first 18 laps of the event and picked up his third third-place finish of the season as he continues to close in on his first win of the season aboard the Kantor Oil Company Maxim. For Kemenah, it was the first Top-Five finish of his career at the storied half-mile.
“I am tickled to death,” said Kemenah. “I wanted to win, but we led some laps and ran strong. I think we had too soft of a tire on there, because it is pretty bald. I am standing here on the front straightaway at Williams Grove and that is pretty hard to believe. We had a really good race car and we are learning about racing here.”
Steve Kinser finished fourth aboard the Q Oil Maxim, after having some trouble in time trials. He lined up eighth in the fourth heat and was able to race his way to a second-place finish to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash where he was fifth, which lined him up in the third row for the 25-lap A-Feature.
Jason Meyers lined up 14th for the A-Feature, though actually came from the 16th spot, after being called for jumping the initial start to finish fifth in the GLR Investments KPC.
Jeff Shepard who started on the pole finished sixth aboard the Zemco Speed Equipment Maxim, with Brian Leppo in the Swope Salvage & Recycling JEI behind him. Craig Dollansky powered his way from the 20th starting spot to finish eighth in the Auto Value Parts Stores Maxim, with Alan Krimes in the Conestoga Valley Garage Maxim in ninth and Keith Kauffman in the Middleswarth Chips J&J was 10th.
After Pittman got around Schatz, he charged back on the next lap in the second turn on the high side of the track, bouncing off the wall and allowing Pittman to pull away down the back straightaway. On the last lap, he powered his way into the fourth turn upstairs looking to get a run on Pittman heading down the front stretch and came up just 0.203 second short.
“I definitely ran into it,” Schatz said of his encounter with the turn two wall. “There was not much cushion left and I definitely wanted to get the win. I pushed it for everything it had and it wasn’t quite enough.”
Schatz will look to defend his Summer Nationals title on Saturday night in the 30-lap finale which will see the winner pocket $20,000. Driving the Armor All J&J for Tony Stewart Racing, Schatz is excited to have five more laps on Saturday night to make something happen.
“The race track got pretty slick in the feature tonight,” noted the North Dakota native. “I didn’t expect it to go away that much. I was probably a little too cautious. Tomorrow you know it will get slick, because it will be hotter out and we raced on it tonight. We have a deal for it and we just have to get it in there.”
Kemenah had a very fast car in open race track, as he turned the fastest lap of the 25-lap contest on the opening circuit. While in open track he opened a number of comfortable leads on Schatz, though each time the pair approached traffic that gave the runner-up a chance to close in on him.
“I didn’t want to see the restarts,” Kemenah noted. “I needed it to go green with how bad my tires were. We wanted to win, and we led a lot of laps and we showed everyone that we can go around Williams Grove Speedway.”
For Kemenah, who is in his first full season driving for the Hard 8 Racing team, the podium finish was his 19th Top-10 finish of the season as he closes in on the seventh spot in championship standings. He also finished third on Sunday night in the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway and has 10 Top-10 finishes in the last 11 World of Outlaws events.
“My hat is off to my crew again tonight,” said the native of Findlay, Ohio. “Adam (Brough) came out here about a month ago, after it was just me and my nephew (A.J. Havens) out here. We seem to really be hitting our stride. I have never really been that good here and we tried a lot of different things. We all sat down along with my father-in-law (Bob Hampshire) and put our heads together and came up with some stuff between us.”
The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Saturday night with the finale of the Cleveland Brothers Summer Nationals at Williams Grove Speedway, which will see the winner take home $20,000.
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