Tag: Donny Schatz

Schatz takes Night 1 of the Gold Cup Race of Champions

[media-credit name=”Tony Stewart Racing” align=”alignright” width=”210″][/media-credit]CHICO, Calif. – Sept. 6, 2012 – Well, that just shook up the points.

A pair of drivers in contention for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series championship took a major hit on Thursday while a four-time champion survived a treacherous track on the opening night of the 59^th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway.

Donny Schatz slid by polesitter Kyle Larson exiting turn two on lap 20 en route to his eighth World of Outlaws victory of the season. The win, combined with some misfortune to a couple of fellow championship contenders, moved Schatz into the points lead for the first time in the last 21 races.

“It was fun,” he said. “(Larson) was really good on the top and we had a decent car on the bottom. It just was really tricky to run. It took me five or six laps to figure out how to drive it. It was a fun race and I’m glad to come out on the good side of it.”

Two drivers in search of that same title found bitter results.

Craig Dollansky, who entered the event with the points lead after 16 consecutive top-10 finishes, spun out after contact during a restart on lap 17. Dollansky, who had restarted eighth, headed to the work area to have everything checked out only to be left there. Since the race was past the halfway point, he didn’t get the guaranteed two minutes.

Dollansky later returned after a caution, but raced two laps down and finished 20^th. He is 12 points behind Schatz in the championship chase.

Sammy Swindell, who entered the event third in points, was set to capitalize on Dollansky’s bad luck. Swindell ran in the top three for most of the feature until a last-lap miscue stopped him on the frontstretch – only a handful of feet from crossing the finish line.

While Swindell was chasing down Larson in traffic for the runner-up position, Swindell dove to the bottom in the final turn. It appeared that he clipped the infield tire, which knocked his car up the track and into the frontstretch wall. He could only watch as all of the remaining cars on the lead lap drove by. Swindell was credited with an 18^th-place finish, which dropped him to 74 points behind Schatz in the championship battle.

In front of the tough luck was a great clash between Schatz and Larson, who traded slide jobs at least a half dozen times.

Larson led the first 10 laps before Schatz took the lead exiting turn four on lap 11. The duo slid each other in nearly every end of the track for two laps with Schatz having the advantage at the finish line before Larson held onto the lead on lap 13.

After the sixth – and final – caution of the race came on lap 20 when Kerry Madsen stopped on the frontstretch, Schatz got the opportunity he needed. On the lap after the restart, Larson got into the demanding cushion and Schatz slid off the bottom in turn two just in front of Larson.

Larson nearly jumped the cushion the ensuing two laps, which let Swindell close to within a couple of car lengths. Schatz entered traffic on lap 29, allowing Larson and Swindell to rapidly gain ground.

“I had to take about five laps just to settle down,” Larson said. “He got about a straightaway out there and then I just started trying to run the heck out of it. I caught him there coming to the white (flag) and got close coming to the line.”

As Schatz was dramatically slowed on the bottom, Larson powered to the cushion and Swindell to the very bottom of the inside groove. Schatz held off the late charges with Larson bouncing off the cushion and Swindell facing his own disaster.

“We just cruised around and watched and watched Sammy hit the tractor tire there at the end and stick it in the fence,” said Tim Kaeding, who finished third after avoiding Swindell’s damaged car. “He was about eight feet short. I’ve been there several times.”

Jason Sides placed fourth and Sean Becker was fifth. Bill Rose ended sixth and Steve Kinser earned the KSE Hard Charger Award after maneuvering from 22 ^nd to seventh. Shane Golobic finished eighth, 21^st starter Joey Saldana ninth and Lucas Wolfe rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell, 12.321; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.604; 3. 57-Kyle Larson, 12.618; 4. 27-Sean Becker, 12.623; 5. 88X-Brad Bumgarner, 12.702; 6. 83-Tim Kaeding, 12.729; 7. 3C-Cody Lamar, 12.842; 8. 7S-Jason Sides, 12.856; 9. 121-Shane Golobic, 12.913; 10. OO-Jason Statler, 12.925; 11. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 12.933; 12. 77-Shane Stewart, 12.938; 13. 19-Tyler Wolf, 12.941; 14. 4-Cody Darrah, 12.972; 15. 7-Craig Dollansky, 13.018; 16. 6-Bill Rose, 13.052; 17. 18H-Jac Haudenschild, 13.083; 18. 83JR-Kyle Hirst, 13.091; 19. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 13.111; 20. 22-Mason Moore, 13.122; 21. O-Jonathan Allard, 13.130; 22. O4-Kevin Sharrah, 13.144; 23. 9-Joey Saldana, 13.152; 24. 11-Steve Kinser, 13.182; 25. 25M-Bobby McMahan, 13.252; 26. 29-Kerry Madsen, 13.255; 27. 2-B.J. Martin, 13.255; 28. 11M-Peter Murphy, 13.263; 29. 92-Andy Forsburg, 13.300; 30. 36-Steve Tatterson, 13.377; 31. 53-Andy Gregg, 13.444; 32. 89-Rico Abreu, 13.505; 33. 7K-Kenny Allen, 13.513; 34. 63-Chad Kemenah, 13.536; 35. 25-Jason York, 13.543; 36. 21J-Richard Brace, 13.546; 37. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr., 13.596; 38. 26M-Sean McMahan, 13.753; 39. 18-Travis Jacobson, 13.754; 40. 33E-Evan Suggs, 13.786; 41. 88-Koen Shaw, 13.967; 42. 6UP-Danielle Simpson, 14.260; 43. 7Y-Clayton Snow, 14.346; 44. 28B-Adam Brenton, 14.597.

Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 19-Tyler Wolf [1]; 2. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 3. 88X-Brad Bumgarner [3]; 4. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [5]; 5. 121-Shane Golobic [2]; 6. O-Jonathan Allard [6]; 7. 25M-Bobby McMahan [7]; 8. 92-Andy Forsburg [8]; 9. 7K-Kenny Allen [9]; 10. 88-Koen Shaw [11]; 11. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr. [10].

Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 83-Tim Kaeding [3]; 2. 4-Cody Darrah [1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 4. 29-Kerry Madsen [7]; 5. 83JR-Kyle Hirst [5]; 6. O4-Kevin Sharrah [6]; 7. 6UP-Danielle Simpson [11]; 8. OO-Jason Statler [2]; 9. 26M-Sean McMahan [10]; 10. 63-Chad Kemenah [9]; 11. 36-Steve Tatterson [8].

Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 7-Craig Dollansky [1]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson [4]; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [2]; 4. 9-Joey Saldana [6]; 5. 3C-Cody Lamar [3]; 6. 53-Andy Gregg [8]; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5]; 8. 2-B.J. Martin [7]; 9. 18-Travis Jacobson [10]; 10. 25-Jason York [9]; 11. 7Y-Clayton Snow [11].

Heat 4 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 6-Bill Rose [1]; 2. 7S-Jason Sides [3]; 3. 27-Sean Becker [4]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [6]; 5. 77-Shane Stewart [2]; 6. 11M-Peter Murphy [7]; 7. 89-Rico Abreu [8]; 8. 33E-Evan Suggs [10]; 9. 21J-Richard Brace [9]; 10. 28B-Adam Brenton [11]; 11. 22-Mason Moore [5].

Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 57-Kyle Larson [2]; 2. 27-Sean Becker [1]; 3. 83-Tim Kaeding [5]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 6. 19-Tyler Wolf [7]; 7. 7-Craig Dollansky [9]; 8. 7S-Jason Sides [6]; 9. 4-Cody Darrah [8]; 10. 6-Bill Rose [10].

C-Main – (10 Laps – Top 2 finishers transfer to the B-feature) – 1. 33E-Evan Suggs [6] [-]; 2. 18-Travis Jacobson [5] [-]; 3. 25-Jason York [1] [$150]; 4. 88-Koen Shaw [7] [$125]; 5. 7Y-Clayton Snow [9] [$125]; 6. 28B-Adam Brenton [10] [$100]; 7. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr. [3] [$100]; 8. 6UP-Danielle Simpson [8] [$100]; 9. 21J-Richard Brace [2] [$100]; 10. 26M-Sean McMahan [4] [$100].

B-Main – (12 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2] [-]; 2. 22-Mason Moore [3] [-]; 3. O-Jonathan Allard [4] [-]; 4. 25M-Bobby McMahan [6] [-]; 5. OO-Jason Statler [1] [$200]; 6. 53-Andy Gregg [11] [$180]; 7. 63-Chad Kemenah [14] [$175]; 8. 89-Rico Abreu [12] [$160]; 9. 11M-Peter Murphy [8] [$150]; 10. 18-Travis Jacobson [16] [$150]; 11. 92-Andy Forsburg [9] [$150]; 12. 7K-Kenny Allen [13] [$150]; 13. 2-B.J. Martin [7] [$150]; 14. 33E-Evan Suggs [15] [$150]; 15. O4-Kevin Sharrah [5] [$150]; 16. 36-Steve Tatterson [10] [$150].

A-Main – (30 Laps) – 1. 15-Donny Schatz [5] [$8,000]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson [1] [$4,000]; 3. 83-Tim Kaeding [3] [$2,500]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [8] [$2,200]; 5. 27-Sean Becker [2] [$2,100]; 6. 6-Bill Rose [10] [$2,000]; 7. 11-Steve Kinser [22] [$1,800]; 8. 121-Shane Golobic [13] [$1,600]; 9. 9-Joey Saldana [21] [$1,500]; 10. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [14] [$1,300]; 11. 83JR-Kyle Hirst [17] [$1,200]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [18] [$1,100]; 13. 63-Chad Kemenah [25] [$400]; 14. 4-Cody Darrah [9] [$700]; 15. 25M-Bobby McMahan [23] [$600]; 16. 77-Shane Stewart [15] [$600]; 17. 3C-Cody Lamar [12] [$600]; 18. 1-Sammy Swindell [4] [$600]; 19. 19-Tyler Wolf [6] [$600]; 20. 7-Craig Dollansky [7] [$600]; 21. 29-Kerry Madsen [24] [$600]; 22. 22-Mason Moore [19] [$600]; 23. O-Jonathan Allard [20] [$600]; 24. 88X-Brad Bumgarner [11] [$600]; 25. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [16] [$600]. Lap Leaders: Kyle Larson 1-10, 13-19; Donny Schatz 11-12, 20-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 11-Steve Kinser [+15].

59^th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions Points (After Night 1)

1. Donny Schatz, 542; 2. Kyle Larson, 539; 3. Tim Kaeding, 532; 4. Sean Becker, 522; 5. Jason Sides, 521; 6. Bill Rose, 500; 7. Shane Golobic, 494; 8. Lucas Wolfe, 488; 9. Sammy Swindell, 479; 10. Cody Darrah, 473; 11. Steve Kinser, 471; 12. Cody Lamar, 466; 13. Joey Saldana, 465; 14. Kyle Hirst, 464; 15. Tyler Wolf, 462; 16. Shane Stewart, 460; 17. Kraig Kinser, 452; 18. Craig Dollansky, 450; 19. Brad Bumgarner, 448; 20. Bobby McMahan, 432; 21. Jac Haudenschild, 417; 22. Kerry Madsen, 415; 23. Jonathan Allard, 411; 24. Jason Statler, 411; 25. Mason Moore, 402; 26. Andy Gregg, 371; 27. Peter Murphy, 365; 28. Rico Abreu, 358; 29. Kevin Sharrah, 353; 30. Chad Kemenah, 349; 31. Andy Forsburg, 349; 32. B.J. Martin, 345; 33. Kenny Allen, 334; 34. Travis Jacobson, 330; 35. Steve Tatterson, 318; 36. Evan Suggs, 315; 37. Jason York, 285; 38. Koen Shaw, 269; 39. Pat Harvey Jr., 262; 40. Richard Brace, 262; 41. Danielle Simpson, 260; 42. Clayton Snow, 258; 43. Adam Brenton, 255; 44. Sean McMahan, 254.

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	T5	T10	QT
1	Donny Schatz	7835	0	8	27	47	2
2	Craig Dollansky	7823	-12	7	31	44	8
3	Sammy Swindell	7761	-74	11	25	38	12
4	Joey Saldana	7739	-96	5	20	43	9
5	Steve Kinser	7716	-119	3	24	41	0
6	Kraig Kinser	7497	-338	4	18	35	5
7	Cody Darrah	7317	-518	1	18	30	2
8	Kerry Madsen	7269	-566	5	12	31	1
9	Chad Kemenah	7177	-658	2	9	28	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	6877	-958	1	7	19	1
11	Bill Rose	6292	-1543	0	0	10	0
12	Jason Sides	4889	-2946	0	14	23	1
13	Jac Haudenschild	3024	-4811	0	2	7	0
14	Tim Kaeding	3007	-4828	3	7	14	0
15	Daryn Pittman	2537	-5298	0	6	13	1
16	Sam Hafertepe Jr.	2454	-5381	0	3	7	0
17	Danny Lasoski	2431	-5404	1	5	8	0
18	David Gravel	2385	-5450	0	7	9	4
19	Paul McMahan	2296	-5539	1	2	3	0
20	Stevie Smith	2276	-5559	0	3	11	1

September 7, 2012

World of Outlaws – Upset At Skagit!

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]Well Skagit is in the books. It was exciting. It was thrilling. In the end for one young man it was magical down right fairy tale if you want to be real honest about it. It is a rare thing that a local driver can come to the greatest show on dirt and beat the greatest drivers in the world. Very Very rare. But that is what happened in Skagit on Saturday Night. Travis Jacobson, a local sprint car driver, took on the best in the world and he beat them in their own show. He didn’t beat them by a hair. He didn’t beat them by fluke circumstances. He flat out ran them.

Travis Jacobson has established a successful career at Skagit Speedway. He’s won the last three 360 Nationals titles and earned the 360 track championship last season. Jacobson also captured the 410 track title in 2006. But the dream of beating the best had burned in him for a lifetime. “I’m just in awe,” he said wearing an ear-to-ear smile. “I grew up watching guys like Sammy Swindell and Steve Kinser. To be able to compete with those guys is more than a dream come true. Racing has been my passion since I could turn a car, so it’s very, very special to me.”

Passions run deep but until last night he had never won or even made it into the top 5 in World of Outlaws competition. All that changed in front of a sold out facility, his facility, his fans, his family. For Travis Jacobson taking the cross checkered flags of the Outlaws was a dream come true. He caught a big break on the initial green flag when pole sitter Kerry Madsen jumped the start and was penalized a row, putting Jacobson on the pole for the green flag. When the green flag fell, he never looked back. “That was definitely a big break,” he said. “I hadn’t had a chance to run behind anybody yet, so I don’t know how the dirty air would have affected us. It’s always better to be out front. I want to say I would have been able to do just as good, but you never know.”

4 time World of Outlaws Champion, Donny Schatz would come home second. Oddly enough, Schatz helped Jacobson to get started in sprint car competition with a first car. Fittingly enough he would challenge his young protege several times but couldn’t quite make the pass for the lead. “He made 35 great laps and I’m happy for him,” Schatz said after finishing second. “I threw everything I had at it and I had a great car, it was just a second-place car tonight.”

Coming home in third place was track record holder, and the fastest man in Skagit history and Quick Time setter for the night, Jason Sides. “I don’t think there was anybody that was going to catch him,” Sides said of Jacobson. “He was running his own race and out front. We’re racing kind of each other. Donny’s trying to catch him. I’m trying to catch Donny. It’s just one of those things where he’s got the open track and can kinda go where he needs to go.”

Kerry Madsen would come home 4th after winning the dash for the pole of the main, but jumping the start on the initial green flag. Madsen would take 2nd on the start but lose it when Donny Schatz drove around the outside off turn 4 midway through the race. Points leader Craig Dollansky would come home 5th and maintain the points lead over Schatz by 44 points. That is the largest points lead anyone has had all year. Schatz holds a very slight 1 point advantage over Sammy Swindell.

For the second night in a row, Jac Haudenschild gave his fans something to cheer for by coming home in the top 10. Haudenschild who is one of the old school guard of the World of Outlaws, demonstrated how he got there by starting 13th and finishing 7th. Haudenschild who spreads his season across various sprint car series will be with the tour through the West Coast Swing. His schedule after that has not been published.

The KSE Hard Charger of the race was California’s Tim Kaeding who started the race in the 17th spot and finished in the 10th spot.

Other notables in the race were Sammy Swindell who was running in the 3rd spot when he had a tire go down and restarted at the back of the field. Swindell would rally to finish 12th. Steve Kinser who was in a brand new car after a wild tumble on Friday night, struggled with the new piece all evening. But struggling for the King of the Outlaws means he finished 11th instead of the top 5 or 10. Kraig Kinser was fast and determined after being involved in the crash that took out he and his father the night before, but the night seemed destined from the beginning to be a struggle. Kraig who changed an engine after blowing a motor in the heat race, but holding on to win, would have that new motor let go in a big way early in the Feature.

Dreams and passion are powerful things when they burn inside a determined individual. They can lift you up out of the darkness and they can move the mountains out of the road. For Travis Jacobson, the mountains were huge they were standards of the sport that he loves. They were legends and icons who set the bar high for all those that will follow them. The odds were not in his favor. He knew that. But the thrill of competing against and with his heroes drove him to persevere. And as the saying goes the rest is history. Because in racing, regardless of genre or surface, one constant is always there, on any given day, on given track, anyone can win. Last night was Travis Jacobson’s night. Today is a new day, but the fire of speed burn brighter and hotter with him and where they will lead him only time will tell.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qualifying – 1. 7S-Jason Sides, 11.170; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 11.193; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell, 11.233; 4. 9-Joey Saldana, 11.295; 5. 18-Travis Jacobson, 11.340; 6. 63-Chad Kemenah, 11.399; 7. 4-Cody Darrah, 11.419; 8. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 11.422; 9. 29-Kerry Madsen, 11.437; 10. 7-Craig Dollansky, 11.453; 11. 6-Bill Rose, 11.481; 12. 18H-Jac Haudenschild, 11.492; 13. 57-Shane Stewart, 11.524; 14. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 11.544; 15. 4X-Toni Lutar, 11.554; 16. O-Jonathan Allard, 11.557; 17. 11-Steve Kinser, 11.564; 18. 83-Tim Kaeding, 11.661; 19. 88-Jesse Whitney, 11.705; 20. 39C-Travis Rilat, 11.730; 21. 7X-Kevin Smith, 11.757; 22. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 11.762; 23. 17J-Jayme Barnes, 11.763; 24. 44-Daniel Anderson, 11.783; 25. 55-Trey Starks, 11.858; 26. 33-Colton Heath, 11.915; 27. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson, 12.206; 28. 2W-Wheeler Boys, 12.345.

Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 7-Craig Dollansky [1]; 2. 9-Joey Saldana [3]; 3. 57-Shane Stewart [5]; 4. 4-Cody Darrah [2]; 5. 7S-Jason Sides [4]; 6. O-Jonathan Allard [6]; 7. 88-Jesse Whitney [7]; 8. 55-Trey Starks [9]; 9. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [8]; 10. 2W-Wheeler Boys [10].

Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 3. 18-Travis Jacobson [3]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [6]; 5. 39C-Travis Rilat [7]; 6. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [5]; 7. 33-Colton Heath [9]; 8. 6-Bill Rose [1]; 9. 17J-Jayme Barnes [8].

Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [2]; 2. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [1]; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 4. 63-Chad Kemenah [3]; 5. 83-Tim Kaeding [6]; 6. 4X-Toni Lutar [5]; 7. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [9]; 8. 7X-Kevin Smith [7]; 9. 44-Daniel Anderson [8].

Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [1]; 2. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2]; 3. 18-Travis Jacobson [4]; 4. 63-Chad Kemenah [3]; 5. 1-Sammy Swindell [6]; 6. 9-Joey Saldana [5]; 7. 7S-Jason Sides [8]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [7]; 9. 7-Craig Dollansky [9]; 10. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [10].

B-Main – (12 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 55-Trey Starks [7] [-]; 2. 7X-Kevin Smith [3] [-]; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [4] [-]; 4. 88-Jesse Whitney [2] [-]; 5. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [9] [-]; 6. 33-Colton Heath [8] [-]; 7. 6-Bill Rose [1] [$200]; 8. 44-Daniel Anderson [6] [$180]; 9. 2W-Wheeler Boys [10] [$175]; 10. 17J-Jayme Barnes [5] [$160].

A-Main – (35 Laps) – 1. 18-Travis Jacobson [3] [$12,000]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [8] [$5,700]; 3. 7S-Jason Sides [7] [$3,500]; 4. 29-Kerry Madsen [1] [$3,000]; 5. 7-Craig Dollansky [9] [$2,600]; 6. 4-Cody Darrah [11] [$2,400]; 7. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [10] [$2,300]; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah [4] [$2,200]; 9. 9-Joey Saldana [6] [$2,150]; 10. 83-Tim Kaeding [17] [$2,100]; 11. 11-Steve Kinser [16] [$1,600]; 12. 1-Sammy Swindell [5] [$1,350]; 13. 88-Jesse Whitney [18] [$1,300]; 14. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [13] [$1,200]; 15. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [21] [$1,100]; 16. 55-Trey Starks [22] [$1,000]; 17. 39C-Travis Rilat [19] [$900]; 18. 33-Colton Heath [24] [$850]; 19. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [23] [$800]; 20. 57-Shane Stewart [12] [$800]; 21. 7X-Kevin Smith [20] [$800]; 22. 4X-Toni Lutar [14] [$800]; 23. 11K-Kraig Kinser [2] [$800]; 24. O-Jonathan Allard [15] [$800]. Lap Leaders: Travis Jacobson 1-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 83-Tim Kaeding [+7].

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	T5	T10	QT
1	Craig Dollansky	7577	0	7	31	43	8
2	Donny Schatz	7533	-44	7	25	45	2
3	Sammy Swindell	7532	-45	11	25	38	11
4	Joey Saldana	7462	-115	5	19	41	8
5	Steve Kinser	7450	-127	3	24	39	0
6	Kraig Kinser	7248	-329	4	18	35	5
7	Cody Darrah	7061	-516	1	18	29	2
8	Kerry Madsen	7011	-566	4	11	30	1
9	Chad Kemenah	6915	-662	2	9	27	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	6619	-958	1	7	18	1
11	Bill Rose	6036	-1541	0	0	9	0
12	Jason Sides	4747	-2830	0	13	22	1
13	Jac Haudenschild	2790	-4787	0	2	6	0
14	Tim Kaeding	2721	-4856	3	5	12	0
15	Daryn Pittman	2537	-5040	0	6	13	1
16	Sam Hafertepe Jr.	2454	-5123	0	3	7	0
17	Danny Lasoski	2431	-5146	1	5	8	0
18	David Gravel	2385	-5192	0	7	9	4
19	Paul McMahan	2296	-5281	1	2	3	0
20	Stevie Smith	2276	-5301	0	3	11	1

September 2, 2012

Swindell streak ends at two in Skagit

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”199″][/media-credit]Once Kerry Madsen crossed the finish line with the checkered flag waving behind him, it was safe to breathe. Up to that point, not so much.

Five drivers had a bid for the victory end in contact or mechanical failure during World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series action on Friday evening at Skagit Speedway, which wraps up the Outlaws schedule in Washington on Saturday. Opening Ceremonies are slated for 7 p.m.

Madsen overcame a near mess of his own after colliding with Donny Schatz for the lead on a restart en route to his fourth World of Outlaws feature win of the season.

“Any of these races is tough to win,” Madsen said. “When you get around the front five, there’s not a lot of give and take. Luckily we had track position.”

The front row starters battled side by side for the opening lap before Schatz edged Madsen at the line to lead the first lap. He maintained the advantage as the drivers entered traffic on lap six. However, Cody Darrah spun in turn two on lap 11 to cause the first caution of the race.

Attrition to cars in the top five began to take its toll on the restart as fourth-running Tim Kaeding pulled to the infield following an engine issue around the same time there was contact for the lead.

As Schatz and Madsen took the green flag and raced toward turn one, a slight collision occurred near the flag stand. The contact was enough to flatten the left rear tire for Schatz, who dropped several positions before stopping on the frontstretch on lap 13 for a caution.

“It was very close,” Madsen said. “Unfortunately we banged wheels. Donny’s a great racer and he’s renowned for being clean, so really unfortunate for him. I hate that happened for him.”

Schatz’s crew changed the tire and he restarted 19^th, but the attrition continued. Shane Stewart, who advanced to second for the restart, began to challenge Madsen for the lead when a broken rear end sent him to the infield on lap 16.

The drivers entered traffic on lap 22 before trouble struck for a pair of top-five drivers. With three laps remaining, Trey Starks spun on the frontstretch in front of the leaders. Kraig Kinser and his father, Steve Kinser, were nearly side by side in a battle for third place when both collided with Starks.

Kraig Kinser smashed into Starks’ car, which had spun around backwards, head on and Steve Kinser caught the left rear tire of Kraig Kinser’s car. The contact forced Steve Kinser’s car to tip over, which ended his night with an 18^th-place result. Kraig Kinser was also done and credited with 17 ^th.

That gave Sammy Swindell a final chance at recording his third consecutive win and he nearly pulled it off. Swindell, who started on the outside of Madsen on the double-file restart, dove to the bottom in turns one and two. However, Madsen’s momentum on the high groove exiting turn two proved just enough to give him the edge going into turn three.

“We got close, but I wasn’t expecting him to go to the bottom in (turn) three,” Swindell said after finishing second. “He changed directions and kinda went down there and shut down. I got in a little too low and gave him a little chance. But you gotta do whatever you can. He was in the right place.”

The runner-up performance was Swindell’s fifth top-two finish in the seven races since the Goodyear Knoxville Nationals.

The attrition also helped Craig Dollansky secure his 10^th podium finish in the last 14 points events.

“There was a lot of banging wheels and cars were a little bit everywhere, but sometimes some of these races you just have to try to survive them,” said Dollansky, who maintained his championship points lead. “We didn’t have a real good car. We were kinda hanging in there at best, but we’ll go to work on that tomorrow.”

Jac Haudenschild charged from 13^th to fourth and Chad Kemenah placed fifth. Travis Jacobson ended sixth and Travis Rilat earned the KSE Hard Charger Award after piloting from 22^nd to seventh. Joey Saldana was eighth, Jason Sides ninth and Bill Rose rounded out the top 10 after starting 19^th.

Schatz rallied to finish 11^th, while Stewart and Kaeding were scored 20^th and 24^th, respectively, after their early challenges for the win ended with mechanical failures.

Skagit Speedway Night 1 Statistical Report

A-Main – (25 Laps) – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [1] [$8,000]; 2. 1-Sammy Swindell [4] [$4,000]; 3. 7-Craig Dollansky [5] [$2,500]; 4. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [13] [$2,200]; 5. 63-Chad Kemenah [10] [$2,100]; 6. 18-Travis Jacobson [8] [$2,000]; 7. 39C-Travis Rilat [22] [$1,800]; 8. 9-Joey Saldana [11] [$1,600]; 9. 7S-Jason Sides [9] [$1,500]; 10. 6-Bill Rose [19] [$1,300]; 11. 15-Donny Schatz [2] [$1,200]; 12. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [24] [$1,100]; 13. 4-Cody Darrah [17] [$1,000]; 14. 59-Eric Fisher Jr [16] [$700]; 15. 4X-Toni Lutar [20] [$600]; 16. 17J-Jayme Barnes [21] [$600]; 17. 11K-Kraig Kinser [7] [$600]; 18. 11-Steve Kinser [12] [$600]; 19. 55-Trey Starks [23] [$600]; 20. 57-Shane Stewart [3] [$600]; 21. O-Jonathan Allard [15] [$600]; 22. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [14] [$600]; 23. 98M-Mitch Olson [18] [$600]; 24. 83-Tim Kaeding [6] [$600]. Lap Leaders: Donny Schatz 1-10, Kerry Madsen 11-25. KSE Hard Charger Award: 39C-Travis Rilat [+15].

Qualifying – 1. 1-Sammy Swindell, 11.329; 2. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 11.356; 3. 15-Donny Schatz, 11.370; 4. 7-Craig Dollansky, 11.389; 5. 9-Joey Saldana, 11.409; 6. 11-Steve Kinser, 11.421; 7. 57-Shane Stewart, 11.468; 8. 29-Kerry Madsen, 11.474; 9. 63-Chad Kemenah, 11.495; 10. 7S-Jason Sides, 11.522; 11. 18-Travis Jacobson, 11.532; 12. 83-Tim Kaeding, 11.545; 13. 18H-Jac Haudenschild, 11.597; 14. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 11.635; 15. O-Jonathan Allard, 11.645; 16. 59-Eric Fisher Jr, 11.648; 17. 4-Cody Darrah, 11.650; 18. 55-Trey Starks, 11.677; 19. 98M-Mitch Olson, 11.696; 20. 6-Bill Rose, 11.696; 21. 4X-Toni Lutar, 11.727; 22. 17J-Jayme Barnes, 11.790; 23. 88-Jesse Whitney, 11.792; 24. 39C-Travis Rilat, 11.813; 25. 33-Colton Heath, 11.871; 26. 7X-Kevin Smith, 11.883; 27. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson, 11.986; 28. 87-Liam Ryan, 12.159; 29. 44-Daniel Anderson, 12.328; 30. 2W-Wheeler Boys, 12.767; 31. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr, No Time.

Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 7S-Jason Sides [1]; 2. 57-Shane Stewart [2]; 3. 7-Craig Dollansky [3]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell [4]; 5. 18H-Jac Haudenschild [5]; 6. 98M-Mitch Olson [7]; 7. 17J-Jayme Barnes [8]; 8. 59-Eric Fisher Jr [6]; 9. 33-Colton Heath [9]; 10. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [11].

Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 18-Travis Jacobson [1]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen [2]; 3. 9-Joey Saldana [3]; 4. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]; 5. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [5]; 6. 6-Bill Rose [7]; 7. 7X-Kevin Smith [9]; 8. 4-Cody Darrah [6]; 9. 88-Jesse Whitney [8]; 10. 44-Daniel Anderson [10].

Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 83-Tim Kaeding [1]; 2. 63-Chad Kemenah [2]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [3]; 5. O-Jonathan Allard [5]; 6. 4X-Toni Lutar [7]; 7. 55-Trey Starks [6]; 8. 39C-Travis Rilat [8]; 9. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [9]; 10. 2W-Wheeler Boys [10].

Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen [1]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 3. 57-Shane Stewart [2]; 4. 1-Sammy Swindell [6]; 5. 7-Craig Dollansky [3]; 6. 83-Tim Kaeding [10]; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5]; 8. 18-Travis Jacobson [9]; 9. 7S-Jason Sides [8]; 10. 63-Chad Kemenah [7].

B-Main – (12 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 59-Eric Fisher Jr [1] [-]; 2. 17J-Jayme Barnes [4] [-]; 3. 4-Cody Darrah [2] [-]; 4. 39C-Travis Rilat [6] [-]; 5. 55-Trey Starks [3] [-]; 6. 26-Sam Hafertepe Jr [12] [-]; 7. 88-Jesse Whitney [5] [$200]; 8. 33-Colton Heath [7] [$180]; 9. 7X-Kevin Smith [8] [$175]; 10. 8X-Jonathan Jorgenson [9] [$160]; 11. 2W-Wheeler Boys [11] [$150]; 12. 44-Daniel Anderson [10] [$150]; 13. 87-Liam Ryan [13] [$150].

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	T5	T10	QT
1	Craig Dollansky	7437	0	7	30	42	8
2	Sammy Swindell	7403	-34	11	25	38	11
3	Donny Schatz	7383	-54	7	24	44	2
4	Joey Saldana	7328	-109	5	19	40	8
5	Steve Kinser	7322	-115	3	24	39	0
6	Kraig Kinser	7144	-293	4	18	35	5
7	Cody Darrah	6923	-514	1	18	28	2
8	Kerry Madsen	6869	-568	4	10	29	1
9	Chad Kemenah	6781	-656	2	9	26	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	6499	-938	1	7	18	1
11	Bill Rose	5961	-1476	0	0	9	0
12	Jason Sides	4598	-2839	0	12	21	0
13	Jac Haudenschild	2654	-4783	0	2	5	0
14	Tim Kaeding	2591	-4846	3	5	11	0
15	Daryn Pittman	2537	-4900	0	6	13	1
16	Danny Lasoski	2431	-5006	1	5	8	0
17	David Gravel	2385	-5052	0	7	9	4
18	Sam Hafertepe Jr.	2332	-5105	0	3	7	0
19	Paul McMahan	2296	-5141	1	2	3	0
20	Stevie Smith	2276	-5161	0	3	11	1

September 1, 2012

Schatz dominates Knoxville; Kinser and Swindell don’t make show

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Aug. 11, 2012 – Wow. Simply put, the packed Knoxville Raceway grandstands were wowed before the 52^ndannual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals feature hit the track on Saturday. Then, the near capacity crowd was on its feet at the checkered flag as Donny Schatz recorded his sixth Nationals victory in the last seven years after outlasting Brian Brown by 0.117 seconds to earn the $150,000 prize.

“There’s something about this place when we come here for the Nationals, it’s game on,” Schatz said. “It takes everything to be right. When you get on it and get it right, it’s something that you can keep bringing back here. That’s why we’ve been able to get this success because the baseline we have for coming here is an awesome baseline.”

History was made before the green flag waved as two of the sports’ biggest stars – Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell – failed to advance to the feature. It was the first time since 1975 that neither driver earned a spot in the prestigious event. For Kinser, it snapped a Knoxville Nationals best 34-year streak in the main event.

“There’s a lot of disappointment to not see those guys,” Schatz said. “Those guys paved the way. To see those guys not in the show, it’s really disheartening. That just goes to show how tough this week really is.”

There wasn’t much time for disbelief as the 50-lap feature was pushed off several minutes after the B Main ended because of the threat of an incoming storm. Once the green flag was waved, the focus turned to the side-by-side action on the famed half mile.

Schatz drove from his fifth starting position to third place on the opening lap and passed Jonathan Allard for the runner-up position as the duo exited turn four on the sixth lap. Schatz then chased down polesitter Stevie Smith, who led the first 13 laps before Schatz took over the top spot as the drivers exited turn four in traffic on the 14^th lap.

The scheduled red flag for a fuel stop came on lap 27, erasing a solid lead for Schatz. However, once the race resumed, it took only three laps for him to build nearly a three-second advantage. Once he entered traffic on lap 35, Schatz led by more than four seconds.

Before the lap was completed, Kyle Larson brought out the second-and-final caution when he stopped in turn four. With the field bunched together, Brown slid Craig Dollansky for second place in turn four on the restart and set his sights on Schatz.

With 13 laps remaining, Schatz led by a little more than one second. However, as both drivers ran the cushion around the track, Brown cut the deficit to .440 seconds with 10 laps to go before he jumped the cushion in turn two.

Traffic began to play a role in the final seven laps and Brown reeled Schatz to within a couple of car lengths before the cushion in turn two slowed him once again with a handful of laps remaining. Schatz had all but sealed the victory on the final lap before he was slowed exiting turn four while trying to lap two cars.

Brown’s momentum sucked him to the back of Schatz’s car and the duo drag raced to the checkered flag, which Schatz reached first by approximately half a car length.

“It’s real just surreal to be up her with Donny Schatz and all these champions,” Brown said after his career-best finish in the event. “I never figured I’d be in the Knoxville Nationals, let alone run second.

“I feel like we’re a team that’s growing, trying to be like Donny Schatz one day.”

Dollansky tied his career-best result by rounding out the podium.

“My hat’s off to Donny,” he said. “Six of these things, that’s quite an accomplishment.”

Kraig Kinser drove from ninth to fourth and Jason Meyers finished fifth. Shane Stewart advanced from 13^th to sixth, Smith placed seventh, Lance Dewease maneuvered from 15^th to a career-best eighth, Tim Kaeding was ninth and Davey Heskin charged from 22^nd to 10^th to earn the Hard Charger Award.

Larson, who won a preliminary feature and finished 16^th in Saturday’s main event, claimed the Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year.

52^nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals Night 3 Statistical Report; Knoxville Raceway; Knoxville, Iowa; Aug. 11, 2012

A Feature (50 laps) – 1. Donny Schatz (5); 2. Brian Brown (4); 3. Craig Dollansky (2); 4. Kraig Kinser (9); 5. Jason Meyers (7); 6. Shane Stewart (13); 7. Stevie Smith (1); 8. Lance Dewease (15); 9. Tim Kaeding (8); 10. Davey Heskin (22); 11. Joey Saldana (6); 12. Mark Dobmeier (21); 13. Jonathan Allard (3); 14. Justin Henderson (17); 15. Daryn Pittman (14); 16. Kyle Larson (12); 17. Dale Blaney (19); 18. Ian Madsen (11); 19. Lucas Wolfe (10); 20. Jason Sides (24); 21. Cody Darrah (20); 22. David Gravel (18); 23. Paul McMahan (16); 24. Brian Paulus (23).

E Feature (10 laps) – 1. Bill Rose (2); 2. Ed Lynch Jr. (3); 3. Critter Malone (4); 4. Tasker Phillips (7); 5. Geoff Dodge (9); 6. Sheldon Haudenschild (8); 7. Josh Hodges (6); 8. Ron Krysl (1); 9. Seth Brahmer (5).

D Feature (12 laps) – 1. Tyler Walker (2); 2. Logan Schuchart (3); 3. Casey Mack (1); 4. Austin McCarl (4); 5. Kaley Gharst (8); 6. Dustin Morgan (5); 7. Danny Smith (7); 8. Jarrod Schneiderman (6); 9. Trevor Reynolds (11); 10. Geoff Dodge (24); 11. Kevin Ingle (10); 12. Caleb Helms (14); 13. Ed Lynch Jr. (21); 14. Chris Shirek (12); 15. Glen Saville (15); 16. Bill Rose (20); 17. AJ Moeller (9); 18. Robert Bell (13); 19. Tasker Phillips (23); 20. Critter Malone (22); 21. Jim Moughan Jr. (19); 22. Bryan Sebetto (18); 23. Domain Ramsay (17); 24. TJ Peterson (16).

C Feature (15 laps) – 1. Jac Haudenschild (4); 2. Danny Lasoski (1); 3. Brad Sweet (11); 4. James McFadden (6); 5. Jamie Veal (2); 6. Jack Dover (13); 7. Cap Henry (5); 8. Randy Hannagan (17); 9. Greg Wilson (7); 10. Jeff Swindell (8); 11. Tyler Walker (21); 12. Don Droud Jr. (18); 13. Logan Schuchart (22); 14. Josh Schneiderman (20); 15. Tony Bruce Jr. (12); 16. Trey Starks (19); 17. Lynton Jeffrey (16); 18. Austin McCarl (24); 19. Casey Mack (23); 20. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (9); 21. Joey Moughan (10); 22. Brady Bacon (15); 23. Ryan Bunton (14); 24. Rager Phillips (3).

B Feature (22 laps) – 1. Mark Dobmeier (2); 2. Davey Heskin (1); 3. Brian Paulus (4); 4. Jason Sides (10); 5. Sammy Swindell (6); 6. Tim Shaffer (7); 7. Jason Johnson (5); 8. Kevin Swindell (18); 9. Kerry Madsen (11); 10. Steve Kinser (15); 11. Bronson Maeschen (17); 12. Brooke Tatnell (8); 13. Chad Kemenah (12); 14. Terry McCarl (13); 15. Wayne Johnson (19); 16. James McFadden (24); 17. Danny Lasoski (22); 18. Scott Winters (20); 19. Danny Holtgraver (16); 20. Greg Hodnett (3); 21. Brad Sweet (23); 22. Dustin Selvage (9); 23. Jac Haudenschild (21); 24. Dusty Zomer (14).

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Top 20 Championship Standings

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	T5	T10	QT
1	Craig Dollansky	6413	0	6	23	34	8
2	Steve Kinser	6396	-17	3	21	35	0
3	Donny Schatz	6374	-39	4	18	37	1
4	Sammy Swindell	6355	-58	8	19	31	7
5	Joey Saldana	6351	-62	5	17	33	6
6	Kraig Kinser	6270	-143	4	17	33	5
7	Cody Darrah	5986	-427	1	14	23	2
8	Kerry Madsen	5930	-483	3	8	23	1
9	Chad Kemenah	5874	-539	2	8	22	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	5625	-788	1	6	16	1
11	Bill Rose	5115	-1298	0	0	8	0
12	Jason Sides	4226	-2187	0	12	19	0
13	Daryn Pittman	2537	-3876	0	6	13	1
14	Danny Lasoski	2431	-3982	1	5	8	0
15	David Gravel	2385	-4028	0	7	9	4
16	Tim Kaeding	2376	-4037	3	5	10	0
17	Paul McMahan	2296	-4117	1	2	3	0
18	Jac Haudenschild	2129	-4284	0	1	2	0
20	Brad Sweet	1854	-4559	1	5	8	1

August 12, 2012

Larson Capitalizes On Night 1 of Goodyear Knoxville Nationals

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Aug. 8, 2012 – He’s done it again.

Kyle Larson, the phenom who wins in anything and everything he races, claimed the opening night of the 52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals on a stormy Wednesday at Knoxville Raceway in his first attempt in the prestigious event.

“Getting a win at Knoxville is so big, but it’s only a prelim night,” Larson said after winning the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event. “It’s going to be tough for sure, but tonight gave me a lot of confidence going into Saturday.”

Larson took the checkered flags for the first time at the famed half mile around 1 a.m. to complete the weather-delayed opener in the biggest weekend in sprint car racing. Night Two of qualifying is Thursday with Opening Ceremonies scheduled for 8 p.m.

On Wednesday, a vicious storm blanketed the area with rain, wind and lightning around 4:20 p.m. The facility was under a severe thunderstorm warning during the storm, which lasted more than an hour before tractors began to work the soggy grounds. Cars first touched the track around 9 p.m. – approximately two hours late.

The weather also set up for a fast track and conditions that made it tough to pass most of the night. Eight of the top 10 qualifiers failed to advance out of the heats and it didn’t get any easier in the 25-lap main event.

Polesitter Davey Heskin dominated the first half of the race before the first caution on lap 14 for Mike Reinke, who stopped in turn four. At the same time the caution waved, second-running Randy Hannagan went up in smoke on the frontstretch after a fitting broke. His car caught fire under caution and had to be extinguished in the work area to cap Hannagan’s night.

Jason Sides utilized a near-perfect slide job on Heskin for the lead in turn two on the restart and Larson slid Heskin for the runner-up position in turn four. The trio entered traffic in a tight battle with seven laps remaining and a lap later, Sides’ left rear tire exploded in turn two. He spun around and ended up tipping over, which gave Larson the lead.

Sides was able to continue, but stopped in turn four with four laps remaining to set up another late restart. This time Brian Paulus was on Larson’s tail after narrowly passing Heskin on the previous lap. However, Paulus slowed dramatically while running second as he was facing the white flag and eventually brought out the final caution, which set up a green-white-checkered finish.

Larson sailed to the lead on the restart and Heskin held off Donny Schatz for second place after the duo traded slide jobs in the closing laps.

“I was just lucky to get back by Schatz,” Heskin said.

Schatz, the defending Goodyear Knoxville Nationals champion and the winner in five of the last six events, joked about being the elder of the podium finishers and praised Larson for the big win.

“This kid’s got a lot of talent in everything he drives,” Schatz said. “It’s good to see the younger guys come up.”

Craig Dollansky charged from 22nd to finish fourth and Lucas Wolfe ended fifth. Brooke Tatnell was sixth, 23rd-starter Shane Stewart placed seventh, 21st-starter Joey Saldana finished eighth, Dustin Selvage was ninth and Jonathan Allard rounded out the top 10.

52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals Night 1 Statistical Report; Knoxville Raceway; Knoxville, Iowa; Aug. 8, 2012

A Feature (25 laps) – 1. Kyle Larson (3); 2. Davey Heskin (1); 3. Donny Schatz (5); 4. Craig Dollansky (22); 5. Lucas Wolfe (7); 6. Brooke Tatnell (11); 7. Shane Stewart (23); 8. Joey Saldana (21); 9. Dustin Selvage (10); 10. Jonathan Allard (8); 11. Jeff Swindell (13); 12. Austin McCarl (14); 13. Don Droud Jr. (16); 14. Paul McMahan (24); 15. Ed Lynch Jr. (20); 16. Glen Saville (18); 17. AJ Moeller (12); 18. Brian Paulus (6); 19. Lee Sowell (15); 20. Jason Sides (4); 21. Casey Mack (17); 22. Randy Hannagan (2); 23. Kerry Madsen (9); 24. Mike Reinke (19).

Qualifying – 1. 9, Joey Saldana, Brownsburg, IN (28), 14.715; 2. 7, Craig Dollansky, Elk River, MN (10), 14.768; 3. 0, Jonathan Allard, Chico, CA (22), 14.813; 4. 13x, Paul McMahan, Nashville, TN (2), 14.832; 5. 82, Justin Henderson, Sioux Falls, SD (12), 14.847; 6. 89G, David Gravel, Watertown, CT (13), 14.851; 7. 57, Shane Stewart, Bixby, OK (3), 14.88; 8. 51, Fred Rahmer, Salfordville, PA (8), 14.891; 9. 5w, Lucas Wolfe, Mechanicsburg, PA (31), 14.901; 10. 63, Chad Kemenah, Findlay, OH (20), 14.905; 11. 28, Brian Paulus, Mooresville, IN (32), 14.94; 12. 15, Donny Schatz, Fargo, ND (11), 14.948; 13. 6R, Ryan Bunton, Morton, IL (4), 14.958; 14. 2x, Dustin Morgan, Tulsa, OK (15), 14.97; 15. 11, Steve Kinser, Bloomington, IN (48), 14.97; 16. 26, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Sunnyvale, TX (27), 14.981; 17. 7s, Jason Sides, Bartlett, TN (19), 14.987; 18. 13v, Seth Brahmer, Wisner, NE (6), 15.002; 19. 1K, Kyle Larson, Elk Grove, CA (5), 15.005; 20. 1x, Randy Hannagan, Pittsboro, IN (16), 15.017; 21. 56, Davey Heskin, St. Michael, MN (38), 15.023; 22. 12, Lynton Jeffrey, Prairie City, IA (36), 15.024; 23. 29, Kerry Madsen, St. Marys, NSW, Aus (17), 15.027; 24. 59, Jac Haudenschild, Wooster, OH (30), 15.067; 25. 7x, Dustin Selvage, Indianola, IA (1), 15.093; 26. D4, Danny Holtgraver, Pittsburgh, PA (23), 15.106; 27. 99, Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, OK (24), 15.124; 28. 81, Austin Johnson, Shakopee, MN (14), 15.132; 29. 49, Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, CA (25), 15.135; 30. 71, Kevin Swindell, Charlotte, NC (21), 15.157; 31. 98, Brooke Tatnell, Sans Souci, NSW, Aus (43), 15.175; 32. 20, AJ Moeller, Rockwell City, IA (26), 15.182; 33. 7K, Jeff Swindell, Bartlett, TN (46), 15.195; 34. 17A, Austin McCarl, Altoona, IA (9), 15.224; 35. 2s, Lee Sowell, Lake Cormorant, MS (35), 15.228; 36. 47, Don Droud Jr., Lincoln, NE (34), 15.23; 37. 8, Casey Mack, East Grand Forks, ND (45), 15.231; 38. 75, Glen Saville, Razorback, NSW, Aust (42), 15.273; 39. 2L, Ed Lynch Jr., Apollo, PA (39), 15.276; 41. 9P, Rager Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (47), 15.311; 42. 88, Jarrod Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (37), 15.49; 43. 47AU, Trevor Reynolds, Perth, WA, Aust. (33), 15.593; 44. 4D, Danny Smith, Chillicothe, OH (44), 15.635; 45. 7c, Critter Malone, Speedway, IN (7), 15.714; 46. 20PK, Ron Krysl, Atkinson, NE (29), 16.22; 47. 2K, Kevin Ingle, Huron, SD (41), 16.247; 48. 54, Cap Henry, Bellevue, OH (40), No Time.

Heat 1 (10 laps) – 1. Brooke Tatnell (2); 2. Don Droud Jr. (1); 3. Brian Paulus (6); 4. Davey Heskin (4); 5. Danny Holtgraver (3); 6. Joey Saldana (8); 7. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (5); 8. David Gravel (7); 9. Rager Phillips (9); 10. Ron Krysl (10).

Heat 2 (10 laps) – 1. AJ Moeller (2); 2. Donny Schatz (6); 3. Jason Sides (5); 4. Casey Mack (1); 5. Lynton Jeffrey (4); 6. Craig Dollansky (8); 7. Shane Stewart (7); 8. Brady Bacon (3); 9. Jarrod Schneiderman (9); 10. Kevin Ingle (10).

Heat 3 (10 laps) – 1. Kerry Madsen (4); 2. Jonathan Allard (8); 3. Glen Saville (1); 4. Jeff Swindell (2); 5. Ryan Bunton (6); 6. Fred Rahmer (7); 7. Trevor Reynolds (9); 8. Seth Brahmer (5); 9. Austin Johnson (3); 10. Cap Henry (10).

Heat 4 (10 laps) – 1. Ed Lynch Jr. (1); 2. Austin McCarl (2); 3. Kyle Larson (5); 4. Lucas Wolfe (7); 5. Brad Sweet (3); 6. Paul McMahan (8); 7. Danny Smith (9); 8. Dustin Morgan (6); 9. Jac Haudenschild (4).

Heat 5 (10 laps) – 1. Lee Sowell (2); 2. Mike Reinke (1); 3. Dustin Selvage (4); 4. Randy Hannagan (5); 5. Steve Kinser (6); 6. Kevin Swindell (3); 7. Justin Henderson (8); 8. Chad Kemenah (7); 9. Critter Malone (9).

C Feature (8 laps) – 1. Rager Phillips (3); 2. Jarrod Schneiderman (4); 3. Kevin Ingle (7); 4. Ron Krysl (6); 5. Critter Malone (5); 6. Jac Haudenschild (1); 7. Austin Johnson (2); 8. Cap Henry (8).

B Feature (12 laps) – 1. Joey Saldana (1); 2. Craig Dollansky (2); 3. Shane Stewart (6); 4. Paul McMahan (3); 5. Justin Henderson (4); 6. David Gravel (5); 7. Chad Kemenah (8); 8. Steve Kinser (11); 9. Sam Hafertepe Jr. (12); 10. Fred Rahmer (7); 11. Brady Bacon (16); 12. Kevin Swindell (18); 13. Brad Sweet (17); 14. Ryan Bunton (9); 15. Danny Holtgraver (15); 16. Rager Phillips (21); 17. Jarrod Schneiderman (22); 18. Trevor Reynolds (19); 19. Lynton Jeffrey (14); 20. Dustin Morgan (10); 21. Kevin Ingle (23); 22. Seth Brahmer (13); 23. Ron Krysl (24); 24. Danny Smith (20).

52nd annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals Points Standings (After Night 1)

1. Craig Dollansky, 477; 2. Jonathan Allard, 475; 3. Donny Schatz, 471; 4. Joey Saldana, 471; 5. Lucas Wolfe, 467; 6. Kyle Larson, 458; 7. Shane Stewart, 458; 8. Paul McMahan, 453; 9. Davey Heskin, 449; 10. Brian Paulus, 440; 11. Brooke Tatnell, 430; 12. Dustin Selvage, 430; 13. Jason Sides, 424; 14. Justin Henderson, 416; 15. Kerry Madsen, 412; 16. Randy Hannagan, 411; 17. Austin McCarl, 409; 18. David Gravel, 409. 19. Jeff Swindell, 407; 20. A.J. Moeller, 406. 21. Don Droud Jr., 403; 22. Fred Rahmer, 403; 23. Chad Kemenah, 399; 24. Ed Lynch Jr., 396; 25. Lee Sowell, 396; 26. Steve Kinser, 396; 27, Glen Saville, 390; 28. Ryan Bunton, 388; 29. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 386; 30. Casey Mack, 379; 31. Mike Reinke, 373; 32. Dustin Morgan, 365; 33. Danny Holtgraver, 360; 34. Lynton Jeffrey, 360; 35. Brad Sweet, 358; 36. Brady Bacon, 357; 37. Kevin Swindell, 355; 38. Seth Brahmer, 355; 39. Jac Haudenschild, 320; 40. Rager Phillips, 316; 41. Trevor Reynolds, 314; 42. Jarrod Schneiderman, 312; 43. Austin Johnson, 310; 44. Danny Smith, 300; 45. Kevin Ingle, 291; 46. Ron Krysl, 289; 47. Critter Malone, 280; 48. Cap Henry, 265.

August 9, 2012
Severe Weather Dampens Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”296″][/media-credit]PEVELY, Mo. — Aug. 4, 2012 — A severe storm slammed the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 presented by Summit Distributing/Coors Light on Saturday night.

The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event was completed under a shortened program at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55. All races were finished except the final event, which was staged on the track when a downpour and lightning closed in on the area. Local authority warned of the severity of the storm and measures were immediately taken for the safety of the spectators and teams.

The Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 main event will be contested as part of the program during the World of Outlaws appearance at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 on Saturday, Oct. 13. Ticket holders for the October show will get to watch two feature programs for their admission.

Kerry Madsen won his fourth dash of the season to earn the pole for the famed event with fellow Australian James McFadden on the outside of the front row.

Kraig Kinser established quick time in qualifying to open the night, and Craig Dollansky, Dale Blaney and Donny Schatz each claimed a heat race.

August 5, 2012

Wolfe Wins First at Bloomington

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”212″][/media-credit]Bloomington Indiana is the home of the biggest name in Winged Sprint Car history. That name is Kinser. Steve Kinser to be exact. There would be 3 Kinser’s in the field tonight. But the victory would go to a first time winner. It seems hard to believe that Lucas Wolfe had never won a feature before. But it was true until tonight.

The evening was hot and humid as is typical in the midwest in August. The 1/4 mile dirt track at Bloomington Indiana was still wet from a brief rain shower but it didn’t discourage the fans from flocking to the home track of 20 time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser. The 22 drivers who also gathered at the track were geared up and ready to go. The semi-banked, quarter-mile oval track record of 9.672 seconds was established by Jason Meyers on Aug. 5, 2011. That track record would remain intact after qualifying was complete. Quick Time would be set by Donny Schatz with a time of 10.798 seconds or 81.98 mph. Lucas Wolfe, Jason Sides, Sammy Swindell, and Craig Dollansky would round out the top 5.

The heat races would be uneventful, with the small narrow track keeping passing to a minimum. The first heat race would see Greg Wilson fend off a hard charging Cody Darrah and Steve Kinser to take home the win and secure a spot in the dash. Also securing a spot in the dash would be Sammy Swindell and Donny Schatz with their times.

The second heat race would see Logan Schuchart hold off a hard charging Kraig Kinser in front of Kraig’s home town crowd. Finishing third was Craig Dollansky. Also transferring out of the 2nd heat to the dash based on his time was Lucas Wolfe.

The third heat was won by Joey Saldana by a straight away over fellow Outlaw Kerry Madsen. Also transferring to the Dash based on time was Jason Sides.

With the dash field set the inversion of a 6 was drawn putting quick time setter Donny Schatz back to 6th and Cody Darrah to the pole next to team mate Joey Saldana. Saldana would take the lead on the first lap and never look back. The real battle would be between Darrah and Sides for 2nd and Sammy Swindell and Donny Schatz for 4th. Saldana would lead Darrah and Sides across the line with Sammy Swindell holding on to 4th ahead of Donny Schatz.

With the A Main Line up set it was time to get down to business. The track reworked the surface to try to widen the groove out for the Outlaws. It wouldn’t take long for it to become obvious that it worked well. At the drop of the Green Joey Saldana took the lead and at times stretched it as far as 2 seconds over team mate Cody Darrah. Saldana would hold on the lead through lap 18 when Lucas Wolfe would make a slide move to the inside out of turn 4 to take the lead. Donny Schatz would challenge over and over for the second spot but Saldana would hold on to finish second with Schatz coming home in 3rd. Jason Sides and Cody Darrah would battle all the way to the line for the 4th spot with Sides holding off last years Rookie of the year Darrah. The victory would be the very first World of Outlaws feature win for Lucas Wolfe. It was a popular win with the crowd and with his competitors. A very quiet and calm Wolfe contained his excitement and paid tribute to his crew and his father in victory lane. Wolfe would also be the Hard Charger of the race gaining six positions from 7th.

Other notable performances on the race track included that of Steve Kinser. Kinser who tangled with Kody Kinser (distant relation) on the opening lap and got over on his side in the infield and started the race from the last spot charged through the field to finish 10th. Sammy Swindell would cut a tire at lap 38 and would make the tire change with no work time on the clock and make it back out on to the track as the last car on the lead lap. He would finish 13th on the lead lap.

It’s hard to believe that Lucas Wolfe had never won a feature with the Outlaws before tonight. His skills certainly would deny that. But if you ask anyone who follows the world of winged sprint car racing about Bloomington Indiana you will find an almost reverent tone. It is the home of champions. It is the home of extreme talents on the dirt. It is the home of the King. It is the home of Karl and Sheldon Kinser. It is the home Kraig Kinser and in that little town in Indiana it is a given that if your name is Kinser you are probably a front runner in the world of dirt. Tonight was no different really, Bloomington held magic in her hand and she gifted it to a young man who was more than deserving and very long over due.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qualifying results: 1) Donny Schatz 10.798. 2) Lucas Wolfe 3) Jason Sides 4) Sammy Swindell 5) Craig Dollansky 6) Joey Saldana 7) Cody Darrah 8) Kraig Kinser 9) Kody Kinser 10) Greg Wilson 11) Logan Schuchart 12) Kerry Madsen 13) Steve Kinser 14) Bill Rose 15) James McFadden 16) Chad Kemenah 17) Danny Smith 18) Paul May 19) Ty Deckard 20) Wes McIntyre 21) Brad Greer 22) A.J. Martin.

First Heat Race Results: ‎1) Greg Wilson 2) Cody Darrah 3) Steve Kinser 4) Sammy Swindell 5) Donny Schatz 6) A.J. Martin 7) Ty Deckard 8) Chad Kemenah

Second Heat Race Results: ‎1) Logan Schuchart 2) Kraig Kinser 3) Craig Dollansky 4) Danny Smith 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Bill Rose 7) Wes McIntyre

Third Heat Race Results: ‎1) Joey Saldana 2) Kerry Madsen 3) Kody Kinser 4) James McFadden 5) Paul May 6) Jason Sides 7) Brad Greer

Dash Results: Inversion was a 6. ‎1) Joey Saldana 2) Cody Darrah 3) Jason Sides 4) Sammy Swindell 5) Donny Schatz 6) Greg Wilson 7) Lucas Wolfe 8) Kraig Kinser 9) Logan Schuchart 10) Kerry Madsen

A Main Results: ‎1) Lucas Wolfe 2) Joey Saldana 3) Donny Schatz 4) Jason Sides 5) Cody Darrah 6) Greg Wilson 7) Kraig Kinser 8) Logan Schuchart 9) Craig Dollansky 10) Steve Kinser 11) James McFadden 12) Danny Smith 13) Sammy Swindell 14) Kerry Madsen 15) Bill Rose 16) Brad Greer 17) Paul May 18) Chad Kemenah 19) Kody Kinser 20) Wes McIntyre 21) Ty Deckard 22) A.J. Martin.

Hard Charger of the Race was Lucas Wolfe.

World of Outlaws Points

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	Top 5’s	Top 10’s	QT
1	Craig Dollansky	6338	0	6	23	34	8
2	Steve Kinser	6321	-17	3	21	35	0
3	Donny Schatz	6299	-39	4	18	37	1
4	Sammy Swindell	6280	-58	8	19	31	7
5	Joey Saldana	6276	-62	5	17	33	6
6	Kraig Kinser	6195	-143	4	17	33	5
7	Cody Darrah	5911	-427	1	14	23	2
8	Kerry Madsen	5855	-483	3	8	23	1
9	Chad Kemenah	5799	-539	2	8	22	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	5550	-788	1	6	16	1
11	Bill Rose	5040	-1298	0	0	8	0
12	Jason Sides	4151	-2187	0	12	19	0
13	Daryn Pittman	2462	-3876	0	6	13	1
14	Danny Lasoski	2356	-3982	1	5	8	0
15	David Gravel	2310	-4028	0	7	9	4
16	Tim Kaeding	2301	-4037	3	5	10	0
17	Paul McMahan	2221	-4117	1	2	3	0
18	Jac Haudenschild	2054	-4284	0	1	2	0
19	Austen Wheatley	1818	-4520	0	0	2	0
20	Brad Sweet	1779	-4559	1	5	8	1

August 4, 2012

Stewart Rules at Ohsweken!

[media-credit name=”Bill Oldroyd” align=”alignright” width=”265″][/media-credit]The day started out rainy and cloudy at Ohsweken Speedway, but the closer race time got the clearer the skies became. Until at the close of the draw for qualifying positions, the skies were clear and the temperature was in the 70’s and the chances of rain had disappeared. There was a promise in the air. An excitement among those who had waited a whole year for these two days. The man who had won his first World of Outlaws race a year ago was back in town. He had come from the back to win the A Main in 360 Sprint Car competition on Monday night. What would tonight hold? Would he take another Outlaw victory and start his path towards another record setting end of the year again? Only the night would tell.

The qualifying process at the high-banked, 3/8-mile oval brought anticipation. With the cooler temperatures the engines would make more horsepower. More horsepower translates to more speed. But could they use that speed on the 3/8 mile track. The track record of 12.047 seconds was established by Kraig Kinser on July 30, 2010, and early hot lap speeds were way off of that pace. Qualifying speeds would continue to drop as the track became slower as the night progressed. Quick Time was set by Kraig Kinser with a lap of 13.511 seconds or 99.92 mph. Second fast time would go to Tony Stewart who turned a lap of 13.874 seconds or 97.40 mph with a broken top wing panel. As qualifying progressed times slowed leaving some notable names to the back of the inversion. Names like Sammy Swindell, Joey Saldana, and Cody Darrah.

The heat races were very quick and event free, with the cream rising to the top of the barrell. Heat number one would see Cody Darrah lead all 8 laps to defeat Bill Rose, Lucas Wolfe, Kraig Kinser and track owner Glen Styres. Darrah and Rose would transfer to the Dash as would Kraig Kinser based on his Quick Time of the evening.

The second heat race would be a hard core affair with some of the staunchest racing of the pre main show. Sunday’s winner Donny Schatz would come home ahead of Joey Saldana, James McFadden, Tony Stewart and Chris Steele. Schatz, Saldana and Stewart would advance to the dash. Stewart filling the remaining time spot.

The third heat would see a dominating performance by Sammy Swindell as he held off Chad Kemenah, Kerry Madsen, Dustin Daggett, Michael Parent. Swindell and Kemenah would advance to the Dash.

The final heat would see first surprise of the evening. Jessica Zemken held off a hard charging Craig Dollansky for the victory. Dollansky would hold off a strong side by side challenge from 20 time World of Outlaw Champion Steve Kinser and Tom Huppenen would hold off Shane Ross for the final A Main transfer spot. Zemken and Dollansky would finish out the Dash field.

The Last Chance Showdown saw a field of local competitors putting on a whale of a show for the final four A Main positions. The race was won by Jamie Collard with Travis Cunningham, Keith Dempster and Dain Naida following him to the A Main.

The Dash was a taste of what was to come. The inversion of 4 was drawn putting Bill Rose on the pole and to his outside Craig Dollansky. Neither driver would lead a single lap as third place starter Tony Stewart would take the lead out of 2 and never look back. Stewart would lead all 8 laps of the dash to take the pole holding off Craig Dollansky and Donny Schatz.

The big show was set to go. The 30 laps $10,000 to win A Main came out of the gate like the thoroughbreds that were running it. Tony Stewart would take the lead into one and set sail. Dollansky would close to within a car length in traffic but Stewart would pull away. Stewart ran the thin cushion in 3 and 4. and the middle of the track in 1 and 2. On lap 5 Stewart would have a close call with a lap car and have to jump on the binders nearly hitting it from behind. Dollansky closed right on his rear bumper but Stewart pulled him down the front stretch and again stretched his lead to over a second. All the 2 while with Donny Schatz was challenging for the 2nd spot. In Schatz’s mirror was team mate Steve Kinser who would go three wide for third with Kraig Kinser and Schatz with The King of the Outlaws coming out on the top. When the white flag waved Stewart was safely a half a second in front of Craig Dollansky but Steve Kinser was right there to challenge for 2nd. When the checkers waved and the dust settled it would be Dollansky coming home in second place with Steve Kinser, Kraig Kinser and Donny Schatz the top 5.

This was Stewart’s 3rd sprint car win in as many races and his second of the week. It was also the second year in a row that Stewart had claimed the World of Outlaws race at Ohsweken. His victory last year he credited for propelling him to his 3rd Sprint Cup Championship. If that is the case his competition in the asphalt series best be putting on their big boy pants cause Smoke is coming.

Today, was full of difficulties for the World of Outlaws staff. The broadcast equipment wouldn’t broadcast so the fans were without the voice of one of the best broadcasters in the business Johnny Gibson. They worked tirelessly to get the broadcast going in time for the A Main. It showed a lot. It showed a lot about the staff of the Outlaws and their commitment to the people that they entertain and call fans and friends. It said a lot about their dedication to the sport and the jobs they do. But what spoke the loudest was the silence. Without the voice of Johnny Gibson and just the timing and scoring loop the competition was just numbers. It became black and white and a life very different than what the public is use to. It became obvious that the old saying of you don’t know what you have until it’s gone is true. And without Johnny Gibson the Outlaws were missing a star competitor. A man who races every lap from the booth just like drivers do in the cars. A man whose dedication to the sport and the drivers is second to none. A man’s whose talents and gifts light up all of our lives every race.

It was not much different than the way a young man started a long time ago in Indiana. Not much money but a whole lot of talent and desire. He worked his way into people’s hearts he gained their respect and he took their breath away. That young man went on to accomplish big things, an Indy car championship, 3 Nascar Championships, USAC Silver crown championships. But as one sits at the dirt track having watched him work his magic and display his skills, it becomes painfully obvious that the world of dirt didn’t know what it had until it was gone. Thankfully, Tony Stewart will always call the dirt home, and so far he has continued to find ways to come back and visit.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qualifying Results: 1) Kraig Kinser, 13.511 Seconds 2)Tony Stewart, 3) Dustin Daggett, 4) Steve Kinser, 5) Lucas Wolfe, 6) James McFadden, 7) Kerry Madsen, 8) Craig Dollansky, 9) Bill Rose, 10) Donny Schatz. 11) Chad Kemenah, 12) Tom Huppenen, 13) Cody Darrah, 14) JoeyVSaldana, 15) Sammy Swindell, 16) Jessica Zemken,17) Glenn Styres, 18) Jamie Collard, 19) Kyle Patrick, 20) Shane Ross.21) Travis Cunningham, 22) Keith Dempster, 23) Mitch Brown, 24) Dain Naida, 25) Mikey Kruchka, 26) Chris Steele, 27) Michael Parent, 28) Dave Dykstra, 29) Jamie Turner, 30) Havard Daniels. 31) Stevin Goldner, 32) Chris Durand, 33) Stan Zanchin.

First Heat Results: ‎1. Cody Darrah, 2. Bill Rose, 3. Lucas Wolfe, 4. Kraig Kinser, 5. Glenn Styres, 6. Travis Cunningham, 7. Jamie Turner, 8. Mike Kruchka, 9. Stan Zanchin

Second Heat Results: ‎1. Donny Schatz, 2. Joey Saldana, 3. James McFadden, 4. Tony Stewart, 5. Chris Steele, 6. Jamie Collard, 7. Keith Dempster, 8. Harvard Daniels

Third Heat Results: ‎1. Sammy Swindell, 2. Chad Kemenah, 3. Kerry Madsen, 4. Dustin Daggett, 5. Michael Parent, 6. Mitch Brown, 7. Kyle Patrick, 8. Stevin Goldner

Fourth Heat Results: ‎1. Jessica Zemken, 2. Craig Dollansky, 3. Steve Kinser, 4. Tom Huppenen, 5. Shane Ross, 6. Dania Naida, 7. Chris Durand, 8. Dave Dykstra

Last Chance Showdown Results: ‎1. Jamie Collard, 2. Travis Cunningham, 3. Keith Dempster, 4. Dain Naida, 5. Mitch Brown, 6. Jamie Turner, 7. Kyle Patrick, 8. Havard Daniels, 9. Stan Zanchin, 10. Mikey Kruchka, 11. Dave Dykstra, 12. Stevin Goldner, 13. Chris Durand

Dash Results: ‎1. Tony Stewart, 2. Craig Dollansky, 3. Donny Schatz, 4. Kraig Kinser, 5. Cody Darrah, 6. Bill Rose, 7. Chad Kemenah, 8. Sammy Swindell, 9. Jessica Zemken, 10. Joey Saldana

A Main Results: ‎1. Tony Stewart 2. Craig Dollansky 3. Steve Kinser 4. Kraig Kinser 5. Donny Schatz 6. Cody Darrah 7. Chad Kemenah 8. Sammy Swindell 9. Kerry Madsen 10. Michael Parent (Hard Charger) 11. Lucas Wolfe 12. Jessica Zemken 13. Tom Happenen 14. Dustin Daggett 15. Chris Steele 16. Jamie Collard 17. Travis Cunningham 18. Shane Ross 19. Joey Saldana 20. James McFadden 21. Glenn Styres 22. Keith Dempster 23. Bill Rose 24. Dain Naida

World of Outlaws Point Standings.

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	Top 5’s	Top 10’s	QT
1	Craig Dollansky	6205	0	6	23	33	8
2	Steve Kinser	6191	-14	3	21	34	0
3	Sammy Swindell	6154	-51	8	19	31	7
4	Donny Schatz	6150	-55	4	17	36	0
5	Joey Saldana	6130	-75	5	16	32	6
6	Kraig Kinser	6059	-146	4	17	32	5
7	Cody Darrah	5771	-434	1	13	22	2
8	Kerry Madsen	5733	-472	3	8	23	1
9	Chad Kemenah	5685	-520	2	8	22	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	5396	-809	0	5	15	1
11	Bill Rose	4920	-1285	0	0	8	0
12	Jason Sides	4006	-2199	0	11	18	0
13	Daryn Pittman	2462	-3743	0	6	13	1
14	Danny Lasoski	2356	-3849	1	5	8	0
15	David Gravel	2310	-3895	0	7	9	4
16	Tim Kaeding	2301	-3904	3	5	10	0
17	Paul McMahan	2221	-3984	1	2	3	0
18	Jac Haudenschild	2054	-4151	0	1	2	0
19	Austen Wheatley	1818	-4387	0	0	2	0
20	Brad Sweet	1779	-4426	1	5	8	1

August 1, 2012

Dollansky Gets #50 at Lebanon Valley

[media-credit name=”World of Outlaws” align=”alignright” width=”234″][/media-credit]Racing is all about numbers. The cars have numbers. The drivers are known by their numbers. Laps are timed and posted for positioning in numbers. It’s always better to draw a low number than a high number in racing. Careers are judged by the number of wins and championships. Racing is a game of math the simplest being adding to the win column to improve one’s overall position in the points so as to add another or a first championship to your resume. Tonight Craig Dollansky achieved a milestone when he won his 50th A Main event with the World of Outlaws.

The evening at Lebanon Valley, NY, saw an unusually low car count for the Outlaws, with only 23 cars signing in for tonight’s racing. With all the cars in attendance transferring to the A Main qualifying became even more important than normal. A driver’s qualifying time would determine where he would start the A Main if he didn’t transfer to the dash. Craig Dollansky set the pace early turning a lap of 16.582 or 130.262 mph around the semi banked 1/2 mile track. Dollansky’s lap was just .229 seconds off the track record of 16.353 set by Danny Lasoski on 5/27/03. The top 10 would be separated by only .658 seconds.

The first heat race brought trouble for last nights winner Cody Darrah as he had an engine let go early on, relegating him to last place in the heat. The race would be won by Jessica Zemken who held off a charging Craig Dollansky and Kraig Kinser. The heat would also find the seeming slump continuing for 4 time world of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz who finished a distant 5th.

The second heat held perhaps one of the truest illustrations of the level of skill that is possessed in the Outlaws series when Sammy Swindell dropped a cylinder on the pace laps and still held off the field to finish second. Logan Schuchart would win the race but the skills it took to run just hard enough to make it to the end and not so hard as to blow the engine up required not only the technical expertise with the engine but also the driving skills to make up for the horsepower that he didn’t have but that the other competitors did. Lucas Wolfe would push Swindell hard but he couldn’t find a way around the wily master and had to settle for 3rd.

The third heat would be won by Tim Kaeding with Joey Saldana in pursuit all the way to the checkers. The pair set sail and left 3rd place Chad Kemenah in their wake.

The Dash was a different situation tonight with so few cars. The top 2 from each heat still transferred to the Dash. But the other 4 cars had to have finished in the top 6 of their heat in order to be eligible for the Dash. But there would be another bump in the road for 2 of the Dash competitors. Jessica Zemken and Bill Rose both had right rear tire damage. According to Outlaws rules you can not change the Right rear tire before the dash. Neither competitor had a choice in changing the tire and so they were not allowed to run the dash but instead relegated to 9th and 10th starting positions in the A Main. The Dash inversion was a 4 putting Lucas Wolfe on the pole with Joey Saldana on the outside front row. Saldana would take the lead in turn 1 and never look back. Craig Dollansky would get by Wolfe for 2nd to set up the front row that would start the A Main.

With only 23 cars in attendance there was no need for a B Main. So the action went right to the A Main. Joey Saldana would lead all the way until lap 20. After trying nearly every lap on the low side to get around Saldana, Craig Dollansky would make the pass on the high side in traffic and drive by Saldana, bringing Daryn Pittman with him. Pittman would challenge Dollansky briefly before the checkered flag waved giving Dollansky his 50th win. Saldana would come home 3rd.

The final 6 laps of the race showed a resurgence for Donny Schatz who restarted in 12th and in 5 laps climbed up to 6th and finished in 6th as the races KSE Hard charger having started in the 13th spot. It would see another night of strange and difficult situations for Sammy Swindell who had to change an engine before the dash and then had a left rear tire go down to bring out the only caution in the A Main. Swindell would finish 13th. The King of the Outlaws would run in the top 10 all evening until the final lap of the feature when he slowed dramatically as the checkers flew and finished an uncharacteristic 15th.

Every racing series has a measuring stick. That one driver that everyone struggles and works to measure up to. In NASCAR it’s Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt. In Indy Car Racing it’s Mario Andretti or Rick Mears. In the World of Outlaws it’s Steve Kinser. His 20 national championships and 573 wins sets him apart from competitors not only in his own genre of racing but every genre of racing. Tonight at Lebanon Valley, NY, Craig Dollansky inched a half step forward towards that yard stick when he won his 50th A Main Feature. Yes it’s a long way from 573, but it’s a great deal further than many in other forms of racing have to call their own.

Dollansky’s win was hard fought and won. On a track that saw few passes made until the late stages of the race, Dollansky had a tough road to drive getting by Joey Saldana to take the lead and win the 25 lap $10,000 purse tonight. Saldana was strong and he seemed to know exactly where Dollansky was going to try his pass and when. Saldana is a fierce competitor in his own right and owns 82 career wins of his own, and on this tight narrow short track he was tough to get around. But Dollansky used lapped traffic and made a daring pass to the outside and drove around Saldana. Once by him he didn’t look back, and it was probably a good thing because if he had he would have found a new foe chomping at his heels in Daryn Pittman. Pittman tried high. Pittman tried low. That is after all what racing is about, winning. Not playing the numbers and playing it safe but winning. In the end win number 50 was Craig’s. “The Crowd Pleaser” as he is known lived up to his nick name.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

‎Qualifying Results:

1) Craig Dollansky 16.582 130.262 mph. 2) Daryn Pittman 3) Joey Saldana 4) Cody Darrah 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Bill Rose 7) Jessica Zemken 8) Sammy Swindell 9) Tim Kaeding 10) Kraig Kinser 11) Logan Schuchart 12) Chad Kemenah 13) Donny Schatz 14) Steve Kinser 15) Danny Smith 16) Kerry Madsen 17) Jason Sides 18) Paul Sides 19) Michael Parent 20) Jacob Allen 21) Russ Bennett 22) Dick Spadaro 23) Curtis Bradshaw

Heat 1 Results:

‎1) Jessica Zemken 2) Craig Dollansky 3) Kraig Kinser 4) Kerry Madsen 5) Donny Schatz 6) Michael Parent 7) Dick Spadaro 8) Cody Darrah

Heat 2 Results:

‎1) Logan Schuchart 2) Sammy Swindell 3) Lucas Wolfe 4) Daryn Pittman 5) Steve Kinser 6) Jason Sides 7) Jacob Allen 8) Curtis Bradshaw.

‎Heat 3 Results:

1) Tim Kaeding 2) Joey Saldana 3) Chad Kemenah 4) Danny Smith 5) Bill Rose 6) Russ Bennett 7) Paul Sides (DNF)

Dash Results:Inversion was 4

‎1) Joey Saldana 2) Craig Dollansky 3) Lucas Wolfe 4) Daryn Pittman 5) Tim Kaeding 6) Logan Schuchart 7) Sammy Swindell 8) Kraig Kinser 9) Bill Rose 10) Jessica Zemken

A Main Results:

‎1) Craig Dollansky 2) Daryn Pittman 3) Joey Saldana 4) Logan Schuchart 5) Cody Darrah 6) Donny Schatz 7) Tim Kaeding 8) Lucas Wolfe 9) Kerry Madsen 10) Bill Rose 11) Jason Sides 12) Kraig Kinser 13) Sammy Swindell 14) Danny Smith 15) Steve Kinser 16) Jacob Allen 17) Michael Parent 18) Jessica Zemken 19) Chad Kemenah 20) Russ Bennett 21) Paul Sides 22) Curtis Bradshaw 23) Dick Spadaro.

KSE Hard Charger of the Race: Donny Schatz

World of Outlaw Points after Lebanon Valley:

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	Top 5’s	Top 10’s	QT
1	Steve Kinser	5633	0	3	18	31	0
2	Craig Dollansky	5622	-11	6	19	29	7
3	Donny Schatz	5610	-23	3	15	33	0
4	Sammy Swindell	5589	-44	7	17	27	8
5	Joey Saldana	5584	-49	4	14	29	6
6	Kraig Kinser	5503	-130	4	15	29	3
7	Kerry Madsen	5218	-415	3	8	21	1
8	Cody Darrah	5217	-416	1	11	18	2
9	Chad Kemenah	5143	-490	2	8	18	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	4862	-771	0	4	13	0
11	Bill Rose	4430	-1203	0	0	7	0
12	Jason Sides	4006	-1627	0	11	18	0
13	Daryn Pittman	2462	-3171	0	6	13	1
14	Danny Lasoski	2356	-3277	1	5	8	0
15	David Gravel	2310	-3323	0	7	9	4
16	Tim Kaeding	2301	-3332	3	5	10	0
17	Paul McMahan	2221	-3412	1	2	3	0
18	Jac Haudenschild	2054	-3579	0	1	2	0
19	Austen Wheatley	1818	-3815	0	0	2	0
20	Brad Sweet	1779	-3854	1	5	8	1

July 23, 2012

Darrah Takes Summer Nationals In Front of Hometown Crowd

[media-credit name=”Willams Grove Speedway” align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]This years Summer Nationals at Willams Grove Speedway didn’t start off well; the two night event was rained out on Friday, leaving just the Saturday night duel between the Outlaws and the Posse. And what a duel it turned out to be.

Williams Grove Speedway is a half-mile race track located in Williams Grove, between Mechanicsburg and Dillsburg in Pennsylvania. It opened in 1939, and hosted Championship races from 1949 to 1959 named the “Indianapolis Sweepstakes”, contested by a small field of the best Champ Car racers. Many notable drivers have raced here, including A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. Williams Grove Speedway is a semi-banked, oval. The track record of 16.140 seconds was established by Brian Paulus on April 26, 2002.

Steve Kinser has won at “the Grove” 38 times and Sammy Swindell and Donny Schatz have each won 15 times. The man with the most wins all time is Fast Freddy Rahmer with 81 wins. But tonight’s winner wasn’t among the legends of the World of Outlaws, instead he was last years Rookie of the Year, Kasey Kahne Racing’s, Cody Darrah who is from Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania. The emotional Darrah dedicated the win to his grandparents who have been suffering hard times lately. But Darrah proved himself more than just a race winner tonight however, when he jumped from his car on a red flag to help fellow driver Craig Dollansky from his burning car after Dollansky flipped down the back stretch causing a fuel fire to break out around and under the car, instead he proved himself as a champion of men not just race car drivers. A great testament to the 23 year old driver.

The very eventful night started out relatively calm with close qualifying throughout the pack. The top 20 qualifiers were separated by only .140 seconds. The entire field was only separated by 1.191 seconds. Quick Time would go to the Posse with Greg Hodnett turning a lap of 16.745 seconds. Second would be Alan Kreitz Jr. Third, Craig Dollansky, Joey Saldana and Daryn Pittman would round out the top 5.

The heat races were relatively calm as well. The first heat was a Posse victory for Adam Wilt who held off a hard charging Jason Sides, Daryn Pittman, Greg Hodnett and Tyler Walker. The Outlaws were down 2 nothing for the night. But they weren’t done yet.

The second heat race would see Kraig Kinser pull out and pull away from a fast and charging Tony Stewart to take the win. Stevie Smith would come home 3rd with Alan Kreitz and Lucas Wolfe in hot pursuit. The Outlaws were on the board but former Outlaw champion Danny Lasoski would have to run the B Main.

The third heat would find Cody Darrah swimming amongst the Posse sharks. But Darrah would take the checkers over Danny Holtgraver, Craig Dollansky, Danny Dietrich and Steve Kinser. This heat would relegate 4 time champion Donny Schatz to the C Main after an uncharacteristically poor qualifying effort.

The fourth and final heat would see Sammy Swindell hold off the strongest challenge of the Posse to take the win with Gerald McIntyre Jr, Joey Saldana, Fred Rahmer and Lance Dewease rounding out the top five. Another big name from the Outlaws was relegated to the B when Kerry Madsen finished 7th and failed to transfer to the A.

The Outlaws were leading the game 3 to 2. But the rest of the night would be a hard fought battle to come home on top of the Nationals.

The C Main went to the Posse with Chad Layton coming home ahead of a struggling Donny Schatz. Schatz at numerous times was able to pull even with Layton but just couldn’t make the pass on the narrow fast clay surface. Their battle would carry on into the B Main where Layton would finish 12th ahead of Schatz’s 13th. The B would be won by former Outlaws Champion Danny Lasoski but he would be up to his wing in Posse with the closest Outlaw finisher coming home 4th in Chad Kemenah. Alan Krimes and Cory Haas would finish 2nd and 3rd.

The Dash was a hard fought battle with 5 drivers representing the Outlaws and 5 representing the Posse. The Posse would come out on top but the race would be foretelling of the night to come. Sammy Swindell would have trouble early in and finish 10th. Tony Stewart couldn’t find a way around Adam Wilt and finished where he started in 8th. Cody Darrah did everything shy of use his wing to fly and still finished 2nd to Gerald McIntrye Jr. The night was beginning to shape up as a track position night. But then again, the night was not over and the Outlaws still had more than a few tricks up their sleeves.

When the A Main rolled off, it did so with 4 provisional spots bringing the car count for the event to 28. Donny Schatz and Kerry Madsen would take provisionals from the World of Outlaws. While Ryan Smith and Chad Layton would take provisionals from Willams Grove Speedway. Chad Kemenah would break a magneto on the car during the pace laps causing the car to cut off and not refire. He retired before the green. Danny Dietrich would be the next out with contact with the wall, he was followed by Danny Holtgraver. Fred Rahmer would be the next Posse member to retire after flipping wildly in turns 3 and 4, Rahmer would climb from the car and walk away. Lance Dewease would drop out at the same time due to a misunderstanding of the rules. Dewease would pull into the rear pit area and pull his car nose first to the trailer signaling to the Outlaws officials that he was done for the evening as he did not stop at the work area. Dewease was not allowed to return to the competition. Stevie Smith would be the next casualty flipping his car in turn 1. Smith climbed out of the car but was done for the evening. Daryn Pittman and Danny Lasoski would fall victim to engine failures as would Gerald McIntyre who started the race on the pole. The most scarey incident of the evening came late in the race when Craig Dollansky returned to the track after flipping in 4 and again flipped the car on the back straightaway causing a fuel fire to surround the car. With a red flag on the track, Cody Darrah quickly exited his car and ran to the assistance of Dollansky and helped him from the car. The car flipped so hard that part of the front suspension was imbedded into the track. Dollansky was unhurt. The final victim of the evening was Don Kreitz whose engine let go just 4 laps from the end of the race.

The attrition left just 17 cars on the track. One of those was Kerry Madsen who had very methodically worked his way into the top 10. Madsen would finish 9th and get the hard charger of the night award after starting dead last on the field. And it was well deserved, the fast narrow track was difficult and almost impossible to pass on. So much so that with 18 laps to go the Outlaws determined that all restarts from that point on would be single file restarts rather than the traditional double file restarts. A decision that played to Cody Darrah’s hand. Darrah set sail on the final caution and never looked back. The challenge would never be for the lead but for second. Jason Sides and Greg Hodnett would exchange slides and come side by side but Hodnett could never make it all the way around Sides for the second spot. The Outlaws would take the night over the Posse 5 to 4. The finishing order would find 6 Outlaws 3 Posse and 1 Sprint Cup Champion in the top 10.

Willams Grove has a reputation of launching the very best young sprint car drivers in the world. They lived up to that reputation tonight. Cody Darrah is a former track champion at The Grove. As a matter of fact this was his 50th win at his home track. And if winning before his home town crowd wasn’t enough Darrah announced that Kasey Kahne Racing has signed a sponsor for his effort that up to this point had been funded out of pocket by Kasey Kahne. That announcement to come soon.

Racing is a field of dreams. Sometimes they are dreams that come true. Sometimes they are nightmares. Sometimes they are just the reassurance that with all the bad things that are going on in the world we are still free to pursue our passions, whether they be winning at The Grove or writing about the race itself.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Qualifying results:

‎1) Greg Hodnett 2) Don Kreitz Jr. 3) Craig Dollansky 4) Joey Saldana 5) Daryn Pittman 6) Stevie Smith 7) Danny Dietrich 8) Fred Rahmer 9) Jason Sides 10) Kraig Kinser 11) Cody Darrah 12) Gerald McIntyre Jr. 13) Adam Wilt 14) Tony Stewart 15) Danny Holtgraver 16) Sammy Swindell 17) Tyler Walker 18) Danny Lasoski 19) Alan Krimes 20) Lance Dewase 21) Cory Haas 22) Lucas Wolfe 23) Steve Kinser 24) Brian Monteith 25) Chad Kemenah 26) Jim Seigel 27) Logan Schuchart 28) Kerry Madsen 29) Tim Kaeding 30) Steve Buckwalter 31) Davey Sammons 32) Nicole Bower 33) Danny Esh 34) Curt Michael 35) Donny Schatz 36) Chad Layton 37) Michael Ruttkamp 38) Aaron Ott 39) Mike Erdley 40) Brent Marks 41) Frank Cozze 42) Tim Glatfelter 43) Ryan Smith 44) Derek Sell 45) Bill Rose

Heat Race 1 Results: ‎1) Adam Wilt 2) Jason Sides 3) Daryn Pittman 4) Greg Hodnett 5) Tyler Walker 6) Cory Haas 7) Chad Kemenah 8) Doug Esh 9) Tim Kaeding 10) Michael Ruttkamp 11) Frank Cozze (DNS) 12 Bill Rose (DNS)

Heat Race 2 Results: ‎1) Kraig Kinser 2) Tony Stewart 3) Stevie Smith 4) Don Kreitz Jr 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Danny Lasoski. 7) Steve Buckwalter 8) Curt Michael 9) Aaron Ott 10) Jim Siegel 11) Tim Glatfelter

Heat Race 3 Results: ‎1) Cody Darrah 2) Danny Holtgraver 3) Craig Dollansky 4) Danny Dietrich 5) Steve Kinser 6) Donny Schatz 7) Alan Krimes 8) Logan Schuchart 9) Ryan Smith 10) Mike Erdley 11) Davey Sammons

Heat Race 4 Results: ‎1) Sammy Swindell 2) Gerald McIntyre 3) Joey Saldana 4) Fred Rahmer 5) Lance Dewease 6) Brian Montieth 7) Kerry Madsen 8) Chad Layton 9) Brent Marks 10) Nicole Bower 11) Derek Sell

C Main Results: ) Chad Layton 2) Donny Schatz 3) Michael Ruttkamp 4) Brent Marks 5) Tim Glatfelter 6) Ryan Smith 7) Frank Cozze 8) Derek Sell (DNS) 9) Bill Rose (DNS)

Dash Results: ‎1) Gerald McIntyre 2) Cody Darrah 3) Kraig Kinser 4) Jason Sides 5) Greg Hodnett 6) Don Kreitz Jr 7) Adam Wilt 8) Tony Stewart 9) Danny Holtgraver 10) Sammy Swindell

B Main Results: ‎1) Danny Lasoski 2) Alan Krimes 3) Cory Haas 4) Chad Kemenah 5) Jim Siegel 6) Tim Kaeding 7) Logan Schuchart 8) Davey Sammons 9) Doug Esh 10) Steve Buckwalter 11) Kerry Madsen 12) Chad Layton 13) Donny Schatz 14) Nicole Bower 15) Chad Michael 16) Brian Montieth.

A Main Results: ‎1) Cody Darrah 2) Jason Sides 3) Greg Hodnett 4) Kraig Kinser 5) Adam Wilt 6) Lucas Wolfe 7) Steve Kinser 8) Tony Stewart 9) Kerry Madsen 10) Cory Haas 11) Donny Schatz 12) Chad Layton 13) Joey Saldana 14) Tyler Walker 15) Sammy Swindell 16) Alan Krimes 17) Ryan Smith 18) Don Krietz 19) Craig Dollansky 20) Gerald McIntyre Jr. 21) Danny Lasoski 22) Daryn Pittman 23) Stevie Smith 24) Fred Rahmer 25) Lance Dewease 26) Danny Holtgraver 27) Danny Dietrich 28) Chad Kemenah.

KSE Hard Charger Award went to Kerry Madsen.
The $10,000 Goodyear tire mid point bonus for the driver leading the points at the half way point of the season went to Steve Kinser.

The top 15 in points following the Willam’s Grove Race:

Pos.	Driver	Total	Diff	Wins	Top 5’s	Top 10’s	QT
1	Steve Kinser	5513	0	3	18	31	0
2	Donny Schatz	5472	-41	3	15	32	0
3	Craig Dollansky	5467	-46	5	18	28	6
4	Sammy Swindell	5465	-48	7	17	27	8
5	Joey Saldana	5437	-76	4	13	28	6
6	Kraig Kinser	5377	-136	4	15	29	3
7	Kerry Madsen	5086	-427	3	8	20	1
8	Cody Darrah	5075	-438	1	10	17	2
9	Chad Kemenah	5031	-482	2	8	18	2
10	Lucas Wolfe	4727	-786	0	4	12	0
11	Bill Rose	4300	-1213	0	0	6	0
12	Jason Sides	3878	-1635	0	11	18	0
13	Danny Lasoski	2356	-3157	1	5	8	0
14	Daryn Pittman	2312	-3201	0	5	12	1
15	David Gravel	2310	-3203	0	7	9	4

July 22, 2012