Schatz opens World of Outlaws Season with a strong run
Barberville, FL — Craig Dollansky had just two month to prepare for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series 2008 season. After joining Larry Woodward Racing to pilot the No.2 in early December, he and his new team worked countless hours in the shop, meticulously getting ready for their first season together.
All of the hard work paid off on Friday night, as he led wire-to-wire to claim the first of three nights of action for the series as part of the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park.
“It’s great to get the first win of the year at Volusia,” said Dollansky, driver of the Auto Value Maxim “It’s a great way to kick off the season. I am very happy for the race team. I had a great race car. We set fast time and had a good starting position and capitalized on that.”
Dollansky started second in the 30-lap contest and took the lead at the drop of the green flag, while battling Daryn Pittman. Also on the opening circuit, two-time defending Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz charged around Pittman and Joey Saldana to move into second in his Tony Stewart Racing machine.
Dollansky maintained his lead in the early going and was setting a blistering pace, entering lapped traffic on just the fourth lap on the spacious half-mile. This allowed Schatz to close back in, as he looked low exiting the third and fourth turns a couple of times.
A red flag period on the seventh lap bunched the field up, but a strong restart by Dollansky gave him a comfortable advantage. The leaders were just about to enter lapped traffic again on the 11 go-around when the caution flew. Another strong restart for Dollansky was negated when the caution flew two laps later. After an open red flag period on the 16th lap, Dollansky used an open to track to pull away as the laps wound down.
Schatz caught him with less than 10 laps to go and looked high off the fourth turn on the 23rd lap for the lead. For the next couple of laps he shadowed Dollansky, before the latter pulled away to win by nearly two seconds in the 30-lap event.
Donny Schatz finished in the Top-Five for the fourth consecutive night this week at Volusia. He came home second, after a strong run from the eighth starting spot to finish second in the fourth heat race earned him a spot in the Crane Cams Dash, where he finished fourth to line up on the second row for the 30-lap A-Feature.
“I’m glad to get started halfway decent,” said Schatz, driver of the Armor All J&J. “Anything can happen and we know that. We have two more nights and we’ll come back tomorrow with our game face on.”
Terry McCarl lined up 15th on Friday night and charged to a third-place finish. He used a strong restart on the 16th lap to power around Saldana and Chad Layton to move into third. He methodically passed cars early in the race as he worked his way into the Top-Five at the halfway point of the race. He earned the Penske Power Position Award for his podium finish.
“We have been testing some things the last few days and it worked out,” said McCarl, driver of the Big Game Treestands Eagle. “When you test things and it doesn’t work out, you are disappointed. The guys had the car great tonight. We had a yellow there and I thought we may have had a shot at those guys. We came from 15th and I am proud of a Top-Three.”
In both of his wins this week with the All Star Circuit of Champions, Schatz used long green flag runs to his advantage, slicing his way through traffic. He was hoping on Friday night to have a similar situation, but with a number of cautions and red flags, the field had open track ahead of them for most of the event.
“I guarantee it would have helped me,” said the North Dakota native of a longer green flag run. “That’s the way we race. We need them to go green. When you have all of those yellows, it bunches everyone up. Without them you get in lapped traffic and can race. We barely hit it and that is where races are won and lost on the big tracks.”
Tony Stewart Racings #20 car, driven by Kraig Kinser, finished 20th in the A Main.
The second of three nights of racing at Volusia Speedway Park as part of the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals awaits the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series on Saturday night.
• ON THE WEB: The Official Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Web site is at http://www.worldofoutlaws.com/sprint. Among the features are updated driver biographies with individual statistics and pictures, race-by-race statistics, detailed track information and race coverage, series news and team press releases. Also, links to the 2008 Official Rulebook can be found at the bottom of the home page.
• UP NEXT: The second night of the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park on Saturday, February 10, which will again pay $10,000-to win.
• UPCOMING EVENTS: The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series heads to Pike County Speedway on Saturday, February 16, followed by a trip to the West Coast for a pair of events at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California on February 22 and 23.
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