It’s been a While: Hodnett Scores First World of Outlaws Win Since 2004
For Greg Hodnett, the 1993 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award winner, it was his seventh career A-Feature win with the World of Outlaws and his second with the series at Williams Grove Speedway.
Courtesy: World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Media Relations Mechanicsburg, PA— May 15, 2009—Greg
Hodnett had not been to Victory Lane with the World of Outlaws Sprint
Car Series in nearly five years entering this week’s event at Williams
Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania. He also hadn’t reached the winner’s
circle at the famed half-mile since the 2007 campaign. He changed all
of that, after battling Stevie Smith and Cody Darrah for the $10,000
top prize on Friday night, leading the final 10 laps to pick up the win. For
Hodnett, the 1993 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award winner, it
was his seventh career A-Feature win with the World of Outlaws and his
second with the series at Williams Grove Speedway. “It
has been a long, long time since I won an Outlaws race,” said Hodnett
in Victory Lane. “Anytime you can win an Outlaws race is great and when
you can win it in front of your home fans, it’s even better. All the
Pennsylvania guys did really well and we are proud of them. We are very
fortunate to be standing up here.” The race
took three starts to get going, with Cody Darrah leading on the initial
one with the first caution of the night flying before the lap was
completed. On the next start it was Stevie Smith pacing the field into
turn one, with the caution again flying. The third start saw Smith
again dart to the lead over Darrah and quickly pull away. On
the opening lap, Hodnett got around Keith Kauffman to move into fourth
after starting in the fifth position. Hodnett would eventually move
into third when Ryan Bohlke fell out with mechanical problems on the 11th lap. Smith found himself in lapped traffic seven laps into the race and was in heavy traffic on the 12th
circuit when a caution flew, giving him clear track to operate with.
Darrah looked high in turns one and two on the ensuing restart, but was
not able to get enough momentum to make a move on the leader. By the 17th
lap the leaders were back in traffic and Darrah and Hodnett both closed
in on Smith. For the next few laps the Top-three ran very close
together. On the 21st lap, Hodnett got around Darrah for
second and set his sights on Smith. The very next lap he took the lead
from Smith on the bottom of turn three. “I
was moving around a little bit,” explained Hodnett. “I didn’t know when
the top was blown off enough. The top was pretty low all night and it
really wasn’t conducive to run the bottom early. For whatever reason it
started getting crumbly off of (turn) two and off of (turn) four. I
started getting better drive when I was waiting on it and running the
bottom. I just kind of did what the car told me and fortunate for us we
are in Victory Lane.” On the white flag lap,
the red flag flew for Lance Dewease who got upside. Since the lap was
not complete, a restart was in order and by way of World of Outlaws
rules, two full laps had to be completed in succession to end the race,
thus extending it to 31 laps. Hodnett wound up leading the final 10
circuits aboard the Macri Concrete JEI. “We
were pretty good and had a good drive off, so if I covered the bottom I
figured I would all right,” noted Hodnett of the green/white/checker
finish. “I knew Cody (Darrah) was hauling it in a little harder than
us, but I knew we had good drive off (the turn). I just tried to calm
down and keep it underneath me.” Darrah
picked up his best career finish with the World of Outlaws coming home
second aboard the J&K Salvage Maxim. After starting on the front
row in the main event, he dropped to third after Hodnett got around,
but he battled back and took the runner-up spot back from Smith late in
the going. “Second is really not that bad at
the end of the day,” said Darrah. “On the restarts the motor stumbled a
little bit and that kind of put me behind getting into (turn) one.
Halfway through the feature I was running the top and getting a little
loose and Greg (Hodnett) got by us both. We’re looking forward to
getting this momentum going and keeping it.” For
Darrah, it was his second consecutive strong finish with the World of
Outlaws, as he was seventh in his debut at Eldora Speedway last
weekend. He continues to hone his skills against strong fields of cars
each week, wherever he races. “It gives you
the feeling to be able to run it in harder,” he said of running up
front. “This is awesome. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was
beaten pretty hard with my confidence. We’re building it as we’re going
and it’s definitely helping.” Smith wound up
leading 21 laps after winning the Crane Cams Dash to start on the pole
in the Zemco Speed Equipment Maxim He ended up third when final
checkered flag flew. It was his third Top-Five finish in five events
with the World of Outlaws in 2009. “We’ve
had a good year so far and have just been struggling in the last half
of the features here (at Williams Grove),” said Smith. “We’ll try to
get better. The car is pretty nice right now and gets around here well,
we just have to get it better later in the feature.” Dave
Ely scored his best career World of Outlaws finish on Friday night
coming home fourth in the Shawn Martin Agency State Farm Insurance
Wolfweld. Donny Schatz, the three-time and defending World of Outlaws champion, came all the way from the 23rd
starting spot to finish fifth in the Armor All J&J. He extended his
lead in the championship standings to 39 points, after Steve Kinser had
engines troubles that ended his night early. The pair was separated by
just a single point entering the night. “We
had something happen at Delaware and didn’t find it until after the
B-Main (tonight),” shared Schatz. “It’s a shame, but I guess you’ll
have nights like that. Once we got everything lined out, starting 23rd
and running fifth here is not bad. 30 laps was a short race and we’ll
come back here in the fall and have 40 in the National Open and that’s
another ball game. It’s a good machine to be driving and I can’t wait
to get here.” Daryn Pittman came from 18th
to finish sixth in the Pete’s Bridge Street Motors Maxim, with Todd
Shaffer seventh aboard the McCoy Bros. Construction JEI. Fred Rahmer
came from the 28th starting spot to finish ninth and pick up
the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award in the Miller Bros. J&J.
Keith Kauffman rounded out the Top-10 in the Middleswarth Chips J&J. The
World of Outlaws return to action Friday, May 22 at The Dirt Track @
Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The event will be
televised live on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY NOTES • FAST QUALIFIER: Ryan
Bohlke paced the 45 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap
around the semi-banked half-mile oval at 16.814 seconds at 107.054 mph.
For his qualifying effort, Bohlke earned five bonus points. The next
four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Greg
Hodnett (4), Kevin Nouse (3), Brian Leppo (2), and Brian Montieth. (1). • QUALIFYING WINNERS:
Dave Ely, Todd Shaffer, Kevin Nouse and Cody Darrah won heat races.
Stevie Smith won the Crane Cams Dash. Craig Dollansky won the B-Main.
Don Kreitz Jr. won the C-Main • FEATURE WINNERS: There has
been 18 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 and Houston
Raceway Park), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt
Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway and Eldora
Speedway), Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway and Paducah
International Raceway), 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). • HALF-MILE WINNERS:
Williams Grove Speedway is a semi-banked half-mile oval. The World of
Outlaws Sprint Car Series has raced 10 times this season on a track
that size. The winners include: Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway
Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville
Raceway and Eldora Speedway), Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park and
Lone Star Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Chad
Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway) and Danny Lasoski (Delaware International
Speedway). Qualifying 1) 18-Ryan Bohlke 16.814 2) 22H-Greg Hodnett 16.820 3) 6N-Kevin Nouse 16.835 4) 71-Brian Leppo 16.846 5) 21-Brian Montieth 16.934 6) 7-Keith Kauffman 16.936 7) 1-Stevie Smith 16.940 8) 8M-Chris Meleason 16.993 9) 30C-Lance Dewease 16.997 10) 88-Todd Shaffer 17.006 11) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 17.025 12) 89-Cody Darrah 17.032 13) 75-Dave Ely 17.036 14) 15A-Adam Wilt 17.039 15) 19-Craig Dollansky 17.043 16) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 17.060 17) 25-Daryn Pittman 17.068 18) 11E-Mike Erdley 17.086 19) 45-A J Michael 17.121 20) 55-Chad Layton 17.126 21) 17B-Steve Buckwalter 17.126 22) 17-Pat Cannon 17.137 23) 11-Steve Kinser 17.151 24) R19-Jac Haudenschild 17.153 25) 22-Brian Ellenberger 17.159 26) 15-Donny Schatz 17.159 27) 39-Doug Esh 17.171 28) 9-Joey Saldana 17.188 29) 22Z-Justin Henderson 17.200 30) 7M-Mark Smith 17.205 31) 59-Jim Siegel 17.210 32) 51-Fred Rahmer 17.220 33) 14-Jason Meyers 17.250 34) 6-Danny Lasoski 17.272 35) 69K-Donald Kreitz Jr. 17.277 36) 87-Alan Krimes 17.305 37) 19M-Brent Marks 17.357 38) 7S-Jason Sides 17.404 39) 25A-Aaron Ott 17.459 40) 20-Kraig Kinser 17.464 41) 89G-David Gravel 17.478 42) 11C-Cory Haas 17.498 43) 13-Jesse Hockett 17.556 44) 98-Niki Young 17.651 45) 71X-Bill Stine 17.700 1) 75-Dave Ely 2) 30C-Lance Dewease 3) 21-Brian Montieth 4) 25-Daryn Pittman 5) 18-Ryan Bohlke 6) 22Z-Justin Henderson 7) 14-Jason Meyers 8) 17B-Steve Buckwalter 9) 89G-David Gravel 10) 22-Brian Ellenberger 11) 71X-Bill Stine 12) 19M-Brent Marks 1) 88-Todd Shaffer 2) 7-Keith Kauffman 3) 22H-Greg Hodnett 4) 15A-Adam Wilt 5) 11E-Mike Erdley 6) 15-Donny Schatz 7) 7S-Jason Sides 8) 17-Pat Cannon 9) 7M-Mark Smith 10) 6-Danny Lasoski 11) 11C-Cory Haas 1) 6N-Kevin Nouse 2) 1-Stevie Smith 3) 11-Steve Kinser 4) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 5) 39-Doug Esh 6) 59-Jim Siegel 7) 19-Craig Dollansky 8) 45-A J Michael 9) 69K-Donald Kreitz Jr. 10) 13-Jesse Hockett 11) 25A-Aaron Ott 1) 89-Cody Darrah 2) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 3) 71-Brian Leppo 4) 8M-Chris Meleason 5) R19-Jac Haudenschild 6) 55-Chad Layton 7) 9-Joey Saldana 8) 20-Kraig Kinser 9) 51-Fred Rahmer 10) 98-Niki Young 11) 87-Alan Krimes 1) 1-Stevie Smith 2) 89-Cody Darrah 3) 18-Ryan Bohlke 4) 7-Keith Kauffman 5) 22H-Greg Hodnett 6) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 7) 30C-Lance Dewease 8) 75-Dave Ely 9) 88-Todd Shaffer 10) 6N-Kevin Nouse 1) 69K-Donald Kreitz Jr. 2) 7S-Jason Sides 3) 20-Kraig Kinser [$125] 4) 19M-Brent Marks [$125] 5) 89G-David Gravel [$125] 6) 71X-Bill Stine [$100] 7) 11C-Cory Haas [$100] 8) 13-Jesse Hockett [$100] 9) 98-Niki Young [$100] 10) 87-Alan Krimes [$100] 11) 25A-Aaron Ott [$100] 1) 19-Craig Dollansky 2) 17B-Steve Buckwalter 3) 15-Donny Schatz 4) 55-Chad Layton 5) 9-Joey Saldana [$200] 6) 14-Jason Meyers [$180] 7) 17-Pat Cannon [$175] 8) 51-Fred Rahmer [$160] 9) 45-A J Michael [$150] 10) 22Z-Justin Henderson [$150] 11) 7S-Jason Sides [$150] 12) 6-Danny Lasoski [$150] 13) 22-Brian Ellenberger [$150] 14) 69K-Donald Kreitz Jr. [$150] 15) 7M-Mark Smith [$150] 16) 59-Jim Siegel [$150] 1) 22H-Greg Hodnett[5] [$10,000] 2) 89-Cody Darrah[2] [$5,500] 3) 1-Stevie Smith[1] [$3,200] 4) 75-Dave Ely[8] [$2,800] 5) 15-Donny Schatz[23] [$2,500] 6) 25-Daryn Pittman[17] [$2,300] 7) 88-Todd Shaffer[9] [$2,200] 8) 21-Brian Montieth[12] [$2,100] 9) 51-Fred Rahmer[28] [$1,250] 10) 7-Keith Kauffman[4] [$2,000] 11) 14-Jason Meyers[27] [$700] 12) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[6] [$1,200] 13) 6N-Kevin Nouse[10] [$1,100] 14) 8M-Chris Meleason[13] [$1,050] 15) 39-Doug Esh[24] [$1,000] 16) R19-Jac Haudenschild[22] [$900] 17) 71-Brian Leppo[11] [$800] 18) 9-Joey Saldana[25] [$0] 19) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[14] [$800] 20) 17B-Steve Buckwalter[20] [$800] 21) 55-Chad Layton[19] [$800] 22) 15A-Adam Wilt[15] [$800] 23) 30C-Lance Dewease[7] [$800] 24) 11-Steve Kinser[21] [$800] 25) 19-Craig Dollansky[16] [$800] 26) 18-Ryan Bohlke[3] [$800] 27) 11E-Mike Erdley[18] [$800] 28) 7M-Mark Smith[26] [$0] Top-10 in Points
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Williams Grove Speedway; Mechanicsburg, PA; May 14, 2009
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
Heat 4 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
Crane Cams Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
C-main (8 laps, top 2 finishers transferred to B-main)
B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
A-main (30 laps) - Starting Position [#]
Note:
Joey Saldana and Jason Meyers used World of Outlaws provisionals to
start the A-Feature. Mark Smith and Fred Rahmer used Williams Grove
Speedway track provisionals to start the A-Feature.
Lap Leaders: Stevie Smith 1-21, Greg Hodnett 22-31
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Donny Schatz
Penske Power Position Award: Stevie Smith
KSE Hard Charger Award: Fred Rahmer