Hoosier Hospitality: Schatz Wins at Lawrenceburg to Pick up First Career Win in Indiana
It was Donny Schatz’s seventh win of the 2009 campaign and the 95th of his World of Outlaws career as he looks to become just the fifth driver in the 30-plus year history of the series to win 100 A-Feature events.
Lawrenceburg, IN— June 6, 2009—Donny Schatz competed in the state of Indiana for the first time back in 1997 during his rookie season with the World of Outlaws. In nearly 40 career starts in the Hoosier State leading into Saturday night’s finale at Lawrenceburg Speedway, the three-time and defending series champion had finished second or third six times in the state, but was still looking for that elusive first victory. He changed that all on Saturday night as he battled Jason Meyers and Joey Saldana to pick up the win at the pristine high-banked 3/8-mile located in Southeastern Indiana.
It was Schatz’s seventh win of the 2009 campaign and the 95th of his World of Outlaws career as he looks to become just the fifth driver in the 30-plus year history of the series to win 100 A-Feature events. He pocketed $10,000 on Saturday night for his Tony Stewart Racing team, which is based in Indiana, which is also the home state of his car owner. For Schatz, it was his first win of the year on a track other than a half-mile.
“What a night,” said Schatz. “These guys, Ricky (Warner), Shane (Bowers) and Eric (Prutzman) do an awesome job with this race car. A guy gets down and out once in a while and we don’t want to stay there long. I can’t thank those guys enough. We have struggled on shorts tracks and we came here this weekend and felt awesome last night. We didn’t get to show it last night and tonight we did.”
The 35-lap contest began with Jason Meyers who started on the pole
leading the field into turns one and two, with Joey Saldana taking
second from Schatz on the opening circuit. Meyers pulled away early in
the race in open track. The leaders were in lapped traffic by just the
sixth go-around giving Saldana a chance to close in on Meyers. Saldana
tried the extreme high side of the track and nearly got into the wall a
couple of times, allowing Schatz to close in on him and Meyers.
Saldana used the low line on the 16th
lap in an attempt to work his way past Meyers, though he could not
quite make the pass. The next lap he again looked low in turns one and
two. A couple of laps later, he slid under Meyers in turn two in heavy
traffic, and both drivers washed up the track, allowing Schatz to get
under Saldana and slip into second. Schatz then got around Meyers in
turns three and four to take the lead on the very same lap, going from
third to first a matter of half a track.
“When the race started, I didn’t want to be the guy out front leading,” he noted. “I didn’t know where to go. I’m glad that Jason (Meyers) got the start there. Joey (Saldana) and him got to racing and we just had to wait for lapped traffic. My car was good the longer the race went and we had to move around and go where they were not. My car was sticking in places it should have been and it’s awesome for me to drive.”
Schatz quickly began to pull away once he took the lead, as he worked to clear some of the lapped cars with Saldana running second. As Schatz lengthened his lead, Meyers closed back in on Saldana. That battled ended on the 30th lap as Saldana came to a stop on the back straightaway with a broken U-Joint which ended his night.
Schatz used a strong restart to pull away from Meyers who running second. The second and final caution of the night flew just one lap later. Again on the restart, Schatz quickly pulled away for the final five circuits and won by nearly three seconds in the Armor All J&J.
“Your tires cool down on those yellows and lose some air because the bleeders do their job and probably work too good,” explained the winner of the two late restarts. “I was a little nervous that maybe the tires had gone down too far and I was going to get too loose. I was loose those last five or six laps. I just had to pretend I was a pinball in the pinball machine and roll around the cushion and keep the pedal to the metal and get it done.”
Meyers led the first 18 laps of the race and wound up second in the GLR Investments KPC, after holding off a late charge from Danny Lasoski. For Meyers, it was his eighth Top-Five finish of the season.
“Obviously we are disappointed,” stated Meyers. “We don’t come out here to run second, but Donny (Schatz) did a great job. I had a little trouble getting through lapped traffic. I made some wrong decisions with a lapped car and just got beat.”
Meyers had a couple of opportunities to challenge Schatz in the late going on restarts, but was not able to get a run on the leader. After a solid weekend at Lawrenceburg helped the California native move into the third spot in points as he chases his first career World of Outlaws title.
“I hoped that I would, but Donny got out in clean air,” he said when asked if he had anything for Schatz on the late restarts. “With the wing package that we have, clean air makes these cars go a lot faster. Being in second is not a good thing on a restart. We had a good race car, just not good enough.”
Danny Lasoski finished third in the Casey’s General Stores JEI to pick up his 11th Top-Five finish of the season. He got around Lucas Wolfe on the opening lap and then did all he could to track down Schatz who at the time was running third.
“We had a pretty good car,” said the 2001 World of Outlaws champion. “We started fifth and got to third and were making some good progress. I can’t thank Lonnie Parsons enough for this opportunity. It’s a great honor to drive this car. We keep getting better each week.”
Steve Kinser recovered to finish fourth in the Quaker State Maxim, after falling back to 12th on the third lap after getting crossed up in turn four. Jason Sides was fifth in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim, with Lucas Wolfe sixth in the Allebach Racing Maxim. Jac Haudenschild was seventh in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim, with three-time series champion Sammy Swindell eighth in the Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim. Terry McCarl was ninth aboard the Big Game Treestands Maxim, with Craig Dollansky rounding out the Top-10 in the DirecTV Maxim.
The World of Outlaws head to Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas on Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13 for two full nights of racing, with the cameras from SPEED on hand to catch all the action both nights.
LAWRENCEBURG SPEEDWAY NIGHT #2 NOTES
• FAST QUALIFIER: Donny Schatz paced the 26 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 3/8-mile oval at 12.228 seconds at 110.402 mph. For his qualifying effort, Schatz earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Jason Sides (4), Steve Kinser (3), Kraig Kinser (2), and Craig Dollansky (1).
• QUALIFYING WINNERS: Joey Saldana, Lucas Wolfe and Jason Meyers won heat races. Jason Meyers won the Crane Cams Dash. Cale Conley won the B-Main.
• FEATURE WINNERS: There has been 25 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature event held in 2009. The winners include: Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Silver Dollar Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Lone Star Speedway, Houston Raceway Park, The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway and Lawrenceburg Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway, Eldora Speedway, Canandaigua Speedway and Lawrenceburg Speedway), Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway, Paducah International Raceway and I-96 Speedway), Dale Blaney (Attica Raceway Park), Randy Hannagan (Thunderbowl Raceway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Tim Kaeding (Riverside International Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway), (Tri-State Speedway) and Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway).
• 3/8--MILE WINNERS: Lawrenceburg Speedway is a high-banked 3/8-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced three times on a track that size this season. The winners include: Jason Meyers (Paducah International Raceway), Joey Saldana (Lawrenceburg Speedway) and Donny Schatz (Lawrenceburg Speedway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Lawrenceburg Speedway; Lawrenceburg, IN; June 6, 2009
Qualifying
1) 15-Donny Schatz 12.228
2) 7S-Jason Sides 12.326
3) 11-Steve Kinser 12.350
4) 20-Kraig Kinser 12.354
5) 19-Craig Dollansky 12.359
6) R19-Jac Haudenschild 12.512
7) 9-Joey Saldana 12.573
8) 22-Brian Ellenberger 12.578
9) 24-Terry McCarl 12.580
10) 6-Danny Lasoski 12.622
11) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 12.626
12) 14-Jason Meyers 12.652
13) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 12.673
14) 17-Daryn Pittman 12.692
15) 71-Paul May 12.697
16) 10-Sammy Swindell 12.718
17) 83-Tim Kaeding 12.783
18) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell 12.797
19) 3C-Cale Conley 12.832
20) 63-Chad Kemenah 12.879
21) 1X-Randy Hannagan 12.908
22) 6R-Bill Rose 13.159
23) 4B-Tom Busch 13.334
24) 8H-Brian Paulus 13.457
25) 5-Tiffany Wyzard 13.878
26) 4K-Kody Kinser 13.999
Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 9-Joey Saldana
2) 6-Danny Lasoski
3) 15-Donny Schatz
4) 10-Sammy Swindell
5) 20-Kraig Kinser
6) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
7) 3C-Cale Conley
8) 6R-Bill Rose
9) 5-Tiffany Wyzard
Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
2) 19-Craig Dollansky
3) 22-Brian Ellenberger
4) 17-Daryn Pittman
5) 83-Tim Kaeding
6) 7S-Jason Sides
7) 63-Chad Kemenah
8) 4B-Tom Busch
9) 4K-Kody Kinser
Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 14-Jason Meyers
2) 11-Steve Kinser
3) R19-Jac Haudenschild
4) 24-Terry McCarl
5) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell
6) 71-Paul May
7) 1X-Randy Hannagan
8) 8H-Brian Paulus
Crane Cams Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
1) 14-Jason Meyers
2) 15-Donny Schatz
3) 9-Joey Saldana
4) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
5) 6-Danny Lasoski
6) 7S-Jason Sides
7) 11-Steve Kinser
8) R19-Jac Haudenschild
9) 20-Kraig Kinser
10) 19-Craig Dollansky
B-main (8 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 3C-Cale Conley
2) 1X-Randy Hannagan
3) 63-Chad Kemenah
4) 6R-Bill Rose
5) 4B-Tom Busch
6) 8H-Brian Paulus
7) 5-Tiffany Wyzard [$200]
8) 4K-Kody Kinser [$180]
A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 15-Donny Schatz[2] [$10,000]
2) 14-Jason Meyers[1] [$5,000]
3) 6-Danny Lasoski[5] [$3,000]
4) 11-Steve Kinser[7] [$2,700]
5) 7S-Jason Sides[6] [$2,500]
6) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[4] [$2,200]
7) R19-Jac Haudenschild[8] [$2,000]
8) 10-Sammy Swindell[16] [$1,800]
9) 24-Terry McCarl[12] [$1,600]
10) 19-Craig Dollansky[10] [$1,450]
11) 17-Daryn Pittman[14] [$1,300]
12) 22-Brian Ellenberger[11] [$1,200]
13) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[13] [$1,100]
14) 63-Chad Kemenah[20] [$1,000]
15) 20-Kraig Kinser[9] [$950]
16) 83-Tim Kaeding[17] [$900]
17) 1X-Randy Hannagan[21] [$850]
18) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell[18] [$750]
19) 8H-Brian Paulus[24] [$725]
20) 3C-Cale Conley[19] [$700]
21) 6R-Bill Rose[22] [$700]
22) 71-Paul May[15] [$700]
23) 9-Joey Saldana[3] [$700]
24) 4B-Tom Busch[23] [$700]
Lap Leaders: Jason Meyers 1-18, Donny Schatz 19-35
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Steve Kinser
Penske Power Position Award: Danny Lasoski
KSE Hard Charger Award: Sammy Swindell
