Ever since winning his first race of the season on July 26 at Lebanon Valley Speedway in New York, Craig Dollansky has been on a roll, finishing in the Top-Three in five of the next six races. He added to this hot streak on Friday night at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota picking up his third win of the 2009 campaign. The victory was his sixth podium finish in the last seven races.
Dollansky started on the pole and was challenged late in the going by his teammate Joey Saldana as the pair encountered heavy lapped traffic over the last five laps of the 30-lap contest. For Dollansky, it was his second career victory at River Cities Speedway and the 31st of his World of Outlaws career.
“I got kind of nervous there toward the end,” shared Dollansky in Victory Lane. “I lost my brakes with probably three or four laps to go and it was getting a little hairy there in lapped traffic. This Kasey Kahne Racing team has been getting stronger as we go. To get another win is great. I’m proud of this entire team and it feels good to get our third win.”
Dollansky started on the pole and got the jump on Tim Kaeding heading into turn one at the drop of the green, though the first red flag of the night would be displayed before the lap was competed for an incident involving Mark Dobmeier who was in the third spot and got upside down, collecting fourth-place running Jason Meyers, who had nowhere to go.
On the complete restart Dollansky again jumped out to a quick lead only to have another red on the second lap. He would endure three red flags and three yellows over the course of the 30-lap event. Down the stretch, Saldana closed in on leader who had some trouble clearing a couple of lapped cars and with two laps to go was right on his tail tank in heavy traffic. Dollansky held on to nip Saldana by just 0.131 seconds at the line aboard the DirecTV Maxim.
“The track just kept getting tighter and tighter and our car was getting tighter and tighter as well,” he said. “I was just trying to get through lapped cars as best as I could and it was a long race as well. We were able to get to the finish line first and I am happy for all of my fans here and my Canadian friends that were here. There are a lot of great fans that come here to Grand Forks and I appreciate all of you.”
For Dollansky, it was his second win in three starts with veteran crew chief Bonzai Bruns turning the wrenches after joining the team during the inaugural Ironman 55 weekend two weeks ago. It was also the second consecutive one-two finish for the Kasey Kahne Racing team. With his win on Friday night, Dollansky became just the third driver to win at least three A-Feature events this season with the World of Outlaws.
“It’s a total team effort,” noted the winner. “These guys are working hard and we’ll keep on digging. We didn’t have the start to the year that we wanted and we’re coming on right now and just have to keep working at it. I feel great about this team and we’re going to finish off the year as strong as we can.”
Joey Saldana lined up sixth in the A-Feature and moved up a row after the opening lap accident. He moved into third on the opening beating Donny Schatz into turn one and then patiently worked on Tim Kaeding. He would get around Kaeding on the 11th lap going low in turn two in traffic. After catching Dollansky late in the race, Saldana settled for the second spot in the Budweiser Maxim.
“I drew a nine for the dash and ended up second,” stated Saldana. “Guys complain all the time that you can’t pass and I drew a bad number on a track you couldn’t pass on. I felt pretty good going from ninth to sixth in the dash and I felt like we had the best car in the feature. We had a really good car and were right there. It would have been nice to have been a 40-lap race to see what would have happened. It was a good effort.”
Saldana closed in a number of times on Dollansky in traffic only to have the caution flag come out. He was right on him with two laps to go and a lapped car in front of him forced him to have to get on the brakes, breaking his momentum as he looked for a way around the leader heading into turn one.
“I was getting better and better and Craig (Dollansky) was getting tighter,” explained Saldana. “It would have been interesting if he would have had to move around and not just run the top. He was carrying his left front pretty good from the middle off. I was just hoping we would get to lapped traffic because he was too tight to move around. He was having to lift on the exit and I was able to get a run on him. On a track that was tough to pass on, it was a great effort for this team.”
Tim Kaeding, who won earlier this season with the World of Outlaws, finished third in the DTR Transport KPC to earn his fourth Top-Five finish of the season. He opened his night by turning the third-fastest lap in time trials.
Donny Schatz, who won at River Cities Speedway earlier this season with the World of Outlaws came home fourth in the Armor All J&J and extended his lead in the series championship standings over Jason Meyers who ended up 23rd after getting caught up in the first lap incident, going to the work area and then pulling in on the second lap.
Steve Kinser finished fifth in the Quaker State Maxim, with his son Kraig Kinser in sixth piloting the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Chris Shirek came all the way from the 18th starting spot to finish seventh in the R&R Contracting Schnee to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award for the second consecutive time with the World of Outlaws at River Cities Speedway.
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