Schatz Takes Win At Site of His First World of Outlaws Victory

COTTAGE GROVE, Or — Donny Schatz only gets to race at Cottage Grove Speedway in Oregon once a year, but it’s always an event that he looks forward to. After all, he earned his first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature win at the track in 1998. Since that race, he has added 82 more A-Feature victories, including on Tuesday night at the high-banked ¼-mile, as he took home the $10,000 top prize.

The two-time defending Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion took the lead from Jason Meyers on the 28th lap and then held off Craig Dollansky down the stretch to earn his 13 A-Feature win of the season.

“It was a good night,” said Schatz. “We went out in the middle of qualifying and were able to get a good lap. We got rolling in the heat race. We had to play a little bit of catch-up because we didn’t know what the track was going to do. They worked on it a few times and they did a great job.”

The race took two starts to get going, after a caution on the initial green flag. Both times, Lucas Wolfe who started on the pole led the field into turn one using the low side of the track, with Meyers charging around him exiting the second turn to take the lead. Wolfe fought back and powered his way around Meyers off the fourth turn to officially be credited with leading the first lap, with Meyers again taking the lead on the high side of turn two.

By just the fourth lap, the leaders were in traffic, with Schatz looking to the high side of turns three and four as he looked for a way around Meyers. The next lap Meyers cleared some of the lapped car to pull away, before a red flag on the fifth lap halted the field.

Meyers used another strong restart to maintain his lead, when the caution flag flew on the seventh lap. Then next drop of the green saw him jump to a few car length lead. As the halfway point of the 40-lap contest neared, Meyer retained his lead over Schatz.

A caution for Daryn Pittman who had trouble while running third on the 18th lap, led to a fuel stop. On the ensuing restart, Schatz kept pace with Meyers and began to pressure him for the lead.

“I was actually running a little bit lower from the start of the race,” Schatz noted. “I thought we would be in a good position to be leading a little bit earlier. We got to lapped traffic and he (Meyers) just didn’t keep coming down enough and we got down there before he did. That’s where we were able to get underneath him off (turns) three and four and get a run on him.”

Schatz dove under Meyers exiting the fourth turn on the 28th lap to take the lead. As he fought back, Meyers slipped out of the low groove and up the track, getting into the wall, which ended his night.

Schatz aboard the Armor All J&J led Craig Dollansky on the restart, and held off the veteran driver to pick up his second win of the season on a ¼-mile track, as he chases his consecutive series title.

“It was hard to get off that bottom,” shared the winner. “I kept trying to squeeze out a little bit when I was behind a lapped car and I couldn’t do it, so I got back in line. The guys behind me were all over me and I was all over the guys ahead of me, but we couldn’t really pass, but that’s the way it goes.”

Craig Dollansky lined up fifth and fell back to seventh on the opening lap, before working his way back to the front aboard the Snap-on Tools Maxim. He has three consecutive Top-Five finished at Cottage Grove.

“It was a good run on a track like this that was tough to pass on,” said Dollansky. “You could make a few passes early on and once the rubber came in that made it more difficult. To start where we did and to finish second was a good performance for this Larry Woodward team.”

Jared Ridge finished third on Tuesday night to earn his best career finish with the World of Outlaws. The Washington native started eighth and picked up three spots on the opening lap. He had a late battle with Roger Crockett for the third spot, trading the lead several times with the fellow native of the Pacific Northwest, before taking third for the final time with just two laps to go.

“I am very happy with how tonight went,” said Ridge. “It’s almost a dream come true and the time of my life. We now get to go to Chico (Silver Dollar Speedway) and if we keep doing well, we can keep going south and running with these guys. I love running with them.”

Dollansky was able to stay with Schatz on all of the late restarts and closed to within a couple car lengths of him as the laps wound down and the leaders encountered heavy lapped traffic. For Dollansky, the runner-up performance was his 30th Top-Five performance of the season.

“A couple of times Donny (Schatz) slid and it opened the door a little bit, but not quite enough where we could get in there and make a pass without getting into him,” explained the second-place finisher. “You are worried about your tire wear and are not sure how much tire you have left and you have to get to the end of the race as well. I tried to take a few shots there at the end, but had to also make sure we had enough tire to make it to the end of the race.”

Dollansky has 12 Top-10 finishes in the last 14 World of Outlaws events and head into the 55th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions this weekend with momentum on his side. He has won seven times this season and is solidly in the third spot in points.

“We’ve been running strong lately,” said the native of Elk River, Minnesota. “We had some bad luck and some things out of our control at Skagit (Speedway). Other than that, we are up there most nights. We’ll head into the Gold Cup prepared and see what we can do.”

Ridge, who was competing for the first time in his career in a World of Outlaws A-Feature event on Tuesday night, was one of a few drivers that were able to take advantage of heavy lapped traffic on the high-baked ¼-mile aboard the Mystique Metals & Engineering JEI.

“Traffic was very important for me,” he noted. “Everyone was on the bottom groove and the lapped cars slowed those guys up, because they were all running the same groove. It definitely helped me out and allowed me to close up on the guys ahead of me.”

Ridge, who began racing sprint cars in 2005, spent most of last season on the road working as a crew member for Joey Saldana’s Kasey Kahne Racing team. He has had a very strong 2008 campaign, picking up 12 Top-Five finishes.

“I would owe about 50 percent of this to Joey (Saldana) and those guys and all the hard work that I did,” explained the Washington native. “They taught me so much and I don’t think I would be here without them. They were so good about teaching me stuff. I have a whole lot more confidence driving now that I had before.”

After having his streak of consecutive Top-10 finishes broken on Labor Day at Grays Harbor Raceway, Schatz and his team quickly rebounded, with the 55th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions just around the corner at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California.

“We’ve always been pretty confident,” said the current series point leader. “We have been testing some stuff and playing around. We have been on some race tracks that really weren’t to our liking and our favor. That’s just the way that racing is. We’ve been good there in the past, and were going their gangbusters. We’re going there to try to win that thing. This car is rolling around pretty and we’re excited.”

Roger Crockett picked up his second Top-Five finish in the last four days with the World of Outlaws aboard the Omlid & Swinney Fire Protection KPC.

Danny Lasoski, the 2001 World of Outlaws champion finished fifth at Cottage Grove in the Doyle’s Harley-Davidson Eagle. Lucas Wolfe, who won the Crane Cams Dash to earn his first pole of the season, was sixth in the Allebach Racing Maxim.

Chad Kemenah, who began the night by turning the fastest lap in time trials, was seventh in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim, with Monday night’s winner Kraig Kinser just behind him in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Jac Haudenschild was ninth in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim, with Paul McMahan rounding out the Top-10 aboard the Casey’s General Store Maxim.

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action September 4-6 in the 55th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California.

Tony Stewart Racings Kraig Kinser Continues Gold Rush Tour

INDIANAPOLIS (TSR) –After a week of travel that led the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series teams from Montana to Alberta, Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Kraig Kinser is looking forward to the annual northwest swing, which includes races at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., Grays Harbor Raceway Park (GHRP) in Elma, Wash., and Cottage Grove (Ore.) Speedway.

Kinser, who is continuing his first full season on the WoO tour since 2005, has a special place in his memory bank for the northwest, since it was at Cottage Grove Speedway where he scored his first career WoO victory. That historic night came on Aug. 31, 2004, when Kinser beat his father, Steve, to the finish line and captured the first of his seven career WoO triumphs.

On Friday night, Kinser will be making his debut at Skagit Speedway, a 3/10-mile dirt oval. He’ll be driving the TSR No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/JD Byrider Maxim that he raced to a season-best third-place finish on Aug. 17 at Nodak Speedway in Minot, N.D. It will be the first of two single-night programs at the track, with Saturday’s winner receiving a $25,000 prize.

The Labor Day weekend action will continue Monday night for Kinser and the TSR team at GHRP in Elma. Kinser has made four career WoO starts at the track, with his best finish being fifth on Aug. 28, 2004, just three nights before his first victory at Cottage Grove. In 2005, he scored a pair of sixth-place finishes at the high-banked 3/8-mile oval.

Tuesday night’s return to Cottage Grove highlights the four race slate for Kinser, who is aiming to gain consistency as Outlaws continue their Gold Rush Tour. The high-banked quarter-mile track resembles many of the Indiana bullrings where Kinser learned his craft behind the wheel of a Sprint car.

The 2004 Kevin Gobrecht WoO Rookie of the Year winner remains 14th in the WoO Sprint Series Championship standings entering this week’s racing action. He has made 41 series starts thus far in 2008, having earned three top-five finishes and 10 top-10s.

Race fans unable to attend this week’s events can catch all of the action from Skagit Speedway, Grays Harbor Raceway Park and Cottage Grove Speedway on DIRTVision.com. Fans can listen live as Johnny Gibson, “Voice of the Outlaws,” calls the action as he does at all WoO Sprint Series events on the DIRTVision.com cybercast, as well as on the DIRT Radio Network. Go to www.DIRTVision.com for more information on all the site features, including updated results from each night of racing, as well as a chat room to interact with other race fans.

For both Friday and Saturday’s events at Skagit Speedway, pit gates will open at 3 p.m. PDT and the grandstands will open at 5 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m. The official track Web site is www.skagitspeedway.com. For ticket information, call (360) 724-3567 during weekday business hours.

On Monday, the pit gates at Grays Harbor Raceway Park will open at 2:30 p.m. PDT with the grandstands opening at 3:30 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For ticket information, visit the official track Web site at www.graysharborraceway.net.

For Tuesday’s program at Cottage Grove Speedway, the pit gates will open at Noon PDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Time Trials are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For ticket information, call (541) 942-7561, or visit the official track Web site at www.cottagegrovespeedway.com.

Quotes from Kraig Kinser, driver of the No. 20 TSR/Bass Pro Shops/Maxim:

The annual trip to the Northwest is always a good time for the teams. Are you looking forward to getting back to Washington?

“I am definitely ready to race in the Northwest. When you leave Knoxville, you feel a little relieved because there is so much pressure on everything for the week there. These past couple of weeks, we’ve really been traveling a bunch, going from Iowa to North Dakota to Wyoming and back to North Dakota, and then from Montana to Edmonton and now to Washington.

“This week, we get a chance to relax and refocus before four races in five nights. It’s good for everyone to have a little break. I know the TSR guys are working really hard and we all want to have some success for the people at Bass Pro, Chevy and JD Byrider. We’ve had some good nights this year and a couple more here in Washington would certainly give us some momentum heading to California next week.”

Next Tuesday you get to return to Cottage Grove, where you won your first Outlaws race. What do your remember about that night?

“It’s one of those nights that you’ll always remember. It was my rookie year and, kind of like this year, we had some good nights and some that you’d like to forget. We came off a top-five in Elma, so we were on an upswing. I started sixth and a couple guys crashed in front of me early. I almost got caught up with Jonathan Allard, but I was able to steer clear and keep going. After the restart, I got by Dad (Steve Kinser) and then tried to catch (Craig) Dollansky, who was leading. He was setting a pretty good pace and then he started slowing down and we passed him for the lead. He stopped shortly after with a flat tire and my mind started worrying about if we had enough tire. As it turned out, we did and it was smooth sailing from there.

“Having Dad finish second was pretty cool. He said something about him beating his Dad one night in victory lane. It’s a night I’ll always remember.”