Mother Nature won the first round at Orange County Fair Speedway this season back in May when the World of Outlaws came to town, but Daryn Pittman won round two, in convincing fashion, as the series returned to the sprawling 5/8-mile track on Wednesday night to make up that event which was postponed by rain.
Pittman started on the outside of the front row and quickly took the lead from pole sitter Joey Saldana, as he went on to lead all 25 laps, en route to claiming his sixth A-Feature win of the season aboard the Titan Garages Maxim.
“I’m glad they rescheduled this race, ” said a jubilant Pittman from Victory Lane. “It’s always good to get a win. ”
Pittman was challenged early in the race by Saldana. After winning a drag race down the front straightaway on the opening lap, Pittman opened a slight advantage when the caution flew on the fourth lap. Saldana looked low heading into the first and second turns for the lead on the ensuing restart, but could not quite close the gap.
The leaders entered lapped traffic on the ninth lap, giving Jac Haudenschild who moved into third on the opening lap in the Wright One Construction Maxim, an opportunity to battle Saldana for the runner-up spot. As the pair continued to negotiate lapped traffic, this gave Donny Schatz the chance he needed to close in.
On the 12th lap, Schatz got around Haudenschild to move into third and set his sights on Saldana, while Pittman continued to lead in traffic. Pittman has a car that was very capable of maneuvering through traffic, and received a slight scare as he weaved his way through the slower machines.
“I didn’t get held up as much as I couldn’t see, ” noted Pittman, a native of Owasso, Oklahoma. “The dust coming off the cars ahead of you was really covering up the line and I couldn’t see the cushion, especially in (turns) three and four. They were racing and holding their position and I just couldn’t see the top, so I moved off it and went to the bottom. ”
Saldana continued to run second, and on a lap 17 caution, it was discovered that he had a right rear tire that was going flat. He elected to stay on the track and restarted in the second spot and was running fifth when the tire expired on the 20th lap, bringing out a caution. By way of World of Outlaws rules, there is no guaranteed trip to the work area with less than five laps remaining in the A-Feature. Saldana, who is second in the championship standings, would go on to finish 21st.
Pittman would lead on the restart, with Schatz behind him. Schatz moved to the low side of the track on the 20th lap, as Pittman was running high, but he could not quite close the four car length gap between them. At the line, Pittman won by over a second.
“Luckily we still had some air in the tires, ” Pittman said. “A lot of people were getting flats. The car was very good. This is a brand new race car that we built for Eldora. I wish we would have gone to these cars a long time ago. It has been very good. ”
Schatz originally was scheduled to start fifth in the ParkerStore J&J, but moved up to the inside of the second row, when third-starting Lucas Wolfe’s team had to change an engine after the Crane Cams Dash and was late getting to the starting line. For Schatz, his runner-up finish was his 45th Top-Five finish of the season.
“I thought we were good enough to win, ” said the reigning World of Outlaws champion. “As the race got going, our car got better. At the end I got really tight and couldn’t steer off. I was just along for the ride, and that is not typical for this type of car. Our nose wing actually fell back on it and I had nothing on the nose. That goes to show how important the nose wings are on there things. ”
Haudenschild ran the top side of the track for a number of laps, as he did everything he could to run down the leaders. He began the night by finishing second in the second heat to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash where he finished fourth. He moved into the third spot on the opening lap of the A-Feature and remained there for the rest of the race.
“The car felt good tonight, ” said Haudenschild. “We had it working pretty well. We started up front and we haven’t started up front for a while. We made it in the dash and helped. It’s always good to start in the first three rows and we had a good finish. ”
Steve Kinser turned in a very impressive run, coming from the 15th starting spot to finish fourth in the Q Oil Maxim. On the first lap of the race he passed both Jason Meyers and Paul McMahan. He next passed Danny Lasoski, as he continued his march to the front, later getting around reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Chad Kemenah.
“It was a pretty good night, ” said the 20-time World of Outlaws champion. “We can’t complain. We passed a lot of good race cars coming up through there. ”
Jason Meyers finished fifth in the Primerica Financial Maxim after starting 13th. He fell back to 14th on the opening lap, before making his charge to the front to earn his 31st Top-10 finish of the season.
Danny Lasoski was sixth in the Roth Motorsports JEI, with Stevie Smith finishing seventh in the Race Against the Abuse of Children Everywhere J&J to earn the KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award after starting 22nd. Paul McMahan was eighth in the Bass Pro Shops Eagle, with Chad Kemenah ninth in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim. Craig Dollansky rounded out the Top-10 in the Karavan Trailers Maxim after starting 17th.
Pittman was able to use both the high and low sides of the track as he negotiated heavy lapped traffic for a number of laps. Despite a heavy afternoon rain shower that deluged the track and pit area, Pittman was very pleased with the hard work of the track crew to prepare the surface for a full night of racing.
“The race track was pretty good, ” he noted. “It had a top and a bottom. This place probably needs a little rain the days that we race to hold it together. The track was probably in the best shape I have ever seen it here. ”
Schatz made up a lot of ground in lapped traffic and was hoping to have a longer green flag run at the end, as he tried to track down Pittman in search of his 17th win of the season.
“If we would have stayed in traffic I think we would have had a shot at it, ” said Schatz. “We has already passed the (No. ) 9 car once and were working on the (No. ) 21. That’s just the way it goes. What goes around comes around. ”
After losing a tire while leading at Eldora Speedway last Friday, Schatz knew exactly how a number of competitors felt on Wednesday night when they lost tired during the A-Feature. He was not concerned with losing a tire, but rather running his race and tracking down the leaders.
“At Eldora I was leading the race and blew a tire, ” he said. “It’s just the way it goes when you are running with a couple of other classes of cars and no one is paying attention to the race track and debris. We have had our fair share of it and that’s the way it goes. ”
For Haudenschild, his podium finish was his 13th Top-Five of the year. It was his second consecutive Top-Five finish at the largest track on the World of Outlaws circuit. He had one late chance to get back around Schatz on the lap 20 restart.
“The caution didn’t really hurt anything, ” said Haudenschild. “I thought we may have had more a shot there, but we couldn’t do anything with the (No. ) 15 car. We stayed right with him, and we were glad to run third. ”
Kinser found himself in the Top-10 just three laps into the 25-lap event and was fifth when the caution flag flew on the 17th lap. In the last 10 laps of the race, he passed Tim Shaffer, Lucas Wolfe and Joey Saldana. He easily got passed Saldana, who was trying to nurse the car with a flat tire, on a late restart to move into fourth.
“We lost a motor qualifying and didn’t get qualified very good, ” he said. “We got the car running pretty good after that. We have a couple old motors that run pretty good, we just can’t run it all the time is the problem. Everyone was running a pretty good pace. The only way we would have done anything was if we would have caught more cars in lapped traffic. ”
The World of Outlaws return to action on September 28-29 at Williams Grove Speedway with the National Open which will again pay $50,000 to the winner this season.
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