Schatz Caps off Two Nights at Knoxville with Win
If you're new here, thanks for coming by. You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Knoxville, IA - After finishing second on Friday night at Knoxville Raceway, Donny Schatz said that his team would find what was amiss on their car, even if it took them all night. Long after every other team had left the pit area on Friday night, his crew was still working into the wee hours of the morning, combing over every inch of his Armor All J&J to ensure he had an even faster car for Saturday night’s event. This hard work paid off to the tune of $10,000 as Schatz won his fourth Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature event of the season, edging Joey Saldana for the victory in the Mediacom Shootout at the famed Knoxville Raceway, which was taped for broadcast on SPEED.
Schatz and Saldana had the crowd on their feet, as they traded the lead officially three times, but exchanged the top spot several other times before hitting the start/finish line where the official leader of the race is scored.
Schatz has won three of the last four Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series events, and has won six of the last A-Feature events that he has competed in at Knoxville. He is the only driver that has finished in the Top-10 in all 16 World of Outlaws events this season.
“That was an awesome race,” said the two-time defending series champion. “That was worth the price of admission, even for me. That was fun racing with Joey (Saldana) like that. We got three and four-wide all over the race track, sliding, slipping and banging the cushion. I can’t say enough about it. I’m glad to be back in victory lane after last night.”
After a yellow flag before a full lap was completed, which led to a complete restart, the remainder of the race went all 25 laps non-stop, putting the drivers in traffic for the majority of the event. Schatz made a number of bold moves in traffic, including after taking the lead on the 23rd lap, as he thread the needle, splitting two lapped machines.
“You have to do that,” he noted of being aggressive in traffic. “We haven’t been on race tracks where we have been able to get into traffic like that. That is where I feel like the races should be won and lost. You had to pick your way through where you wanted to go and sometimes you had to go where you didn’t want to go. That’s what really makes this fun, is that nothing is ever predictable. My hat is off to these guys for the way they got the race track tonight.”
The race began with Saldana squeezing by Terry McCarl exiting the fourth turn to lead the first lap, after the pair along with Schatz went three-wide down the back straightaway. The move was for naught, as the caution came out leading to the complete restart. On the second start, Saldana again charged to the lead and quickly began to pull away in open race track.
By just the fourth lap of the race, Saldana was already in lapped traffic. At this time, Schatz moved into second and began to chase down Saldana.
Schatz nearly took the lead in traffic, as he tried a slide job on Saldana. He then got caught up by a lapped machine and lost momentum, allowing Saldana to pull away to about an eight car length advantage. After trying a couple of more sliders, Schatz was right on Saldana, and actually inched ahead of him on the back straightaway on the 12th lap, with Saldana charging back around him exiting the third and fourth turns to officially be scored the leader. The next lap saw Schatz take the lead in traffic. Saldana battled right back and on the 14th lap retook the lead.
He would open a slight lead before lapped traffic again would hamper him, allowing Schatz to close back in. With five laps to go, both of the leaders had to check up as they could not quite clear a couple of lapped machines that were battling for positions among themselves. On the 22nd lap, Schatz looked low off of turn four and nearly took the lead. He kept this charge going into turns one and two as he dove under Saldana and then split two lapped cars to take the lead. He would pull away at the end to pick up the 74th A-Feature win of his Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series career.
In the process, Schatz would extend his lead in the series championship standings, as he chases his third consecutive series title, with Jason Meyers in second and Saldana in third. He was quick to credit his crew for all of their hard work, led by crew chief Ricky Warner.
“I’m just as proud of those guys when we run seventh or eighth as I am when we win,” noted the North Dakota native. “These guys and I get along real good and we can go at each other to motivate each other like we need to. At the end of the day, we are all about getting this car parked where it’s at right now. It’s fun to be able to race with guys like that. We’re just glad to have great people that help us get there, like Armor All, ParkerStore and Chevy. It’s been a fun year so far.”
Saldana led a total of 21 laps en route to a runner-up finish in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI. He has 15 Top-10 finishes in 16 starts this season, with nine of those being Top-Fives. He began the night by turning the second fastest lap in time trials, with a stellar 52-car field in attendance.
“It was a good run for us,” said Saldana. “We were a little off on the car at the end and that is how I think he could get a run on me. I was really good, but when I got to lapped traffic I was off on my car a little bit and I got beat. You can’t make too many mistakes out here and I made one mistake and that cost me the race. At least we kept pace and made him work for it. I think we are catching up and hopefully we can win one of these.”
Saldana lost momentum a couple of times as he tried to clear traffic, which the leaders were in for most of the 25-lap contest. Being in the lead, he had to be a little more careful in traffic that Schatz, who had a clear view of where the leader was and where the lapped machines were.
“Lapped traffic was killing me,” explained the native of Brownsburg, Indiana. “When I got stuck, he would move around. He kind of knew that he could move down through the middle and bottom of (turns) one and two, when I did get stuck. A couple of times when those guys about turned over in front of me I was completely out of the gas and he got a run on me. I would get him back and get a good run on him. It was a good race. I just got bottled up with three or four guys racing each other.”
Terry McCarl started on the pole at Knoxville after winning the Crane Cams Dash. The native of nearby Altoona, Iowa finished third to score his sixth Top-Five finish of the 2008 campaign aboard the Big Game Treestands Eagle.
“We really had a good weekend,” said the six-time Knoxville Raceway track champion. “If we hadn’t had a mechanical failure last night, I think we would have had a shot at winning or definitely running up front. It’s good to come home and good to do here.”
Jason Meyers earned his series-best 13th Top-Five finish of the season coming from the 12th starting spot to run fourth in the GLR Investment KPC. He had an epic battle with Saldana in the second heat race, just missing out on a spot in the Crane Cams Dash.
“At the end of the night, everyone worked hard and we had a great race car,” said Meyers. “We were able to turn it around. You have to make it in the dash and that hurt us a lot tonight. We need a little bit better starting position. We have to get a better in our heat race, that’s all there is to it. We missed out and that will begin to hurt us if we don’t get that turned around. We’ll make some changes so we can get a little freer in the heat races and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
Craig Dollansky was fifth in the Auto Value Parts Stores Maxim, after beginning the night by setting fast time of the 52 cars that took to the half-mile. Danny Lasoski, the 2001 World of Outlaws champion finished sixth in the Guy Forbrook machine, with Chad Kemenah just behind him in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim. Steve Kinser was eighth in the Q Oil Maxim, with Jac Haudenschild in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim in ninth. Lucas Wolfe rounded out the Top-10 in the Allebach Racing Maxim.
Both nights of racing at Knoxville were taped for broadcast on SPEED, with the event from Friday night to air on Sunday, June 15, while Saturday night’s race can be seen on Saturday, June 21.
The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Sunday, June 8 at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois for an event that was postponed by rain last month.
Leave a Reply