“It’s A Great Way To Kick Off The Season”: Dollansky
Feb 10, 2008
Barberville, FL—Craig Dollansky had just two month to prepare for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series 2008 season. After joining Larry Woodward Racing to pilot the No. 2 in early December, he and his new team worked countless hours in the shop, meticulously getting ready for their first season together.
All of the hard work paid off on Friday night, as he led wire-to-wire to claim the first of three nights of action for the series as part of the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park.
“It’s great to get the first win of the year at Volusia, “ said Dollansky, driver of the Auto Value Maxim “It’s a great way to kick off the season. I am very happy for the race team. I had a great race car. We set fast time and had a good starting position and capitalized on that. “
Dollansky started second in the 30-lap contest and took the lead at the drop of the green flag, while battling Daryn Pittman. Also on the opening circuit, two-time defending Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz charged around Pittman and Joey Saldana to move into second.
Dollansky maintained his lead in the early going and was setting a blistering pace, entering lapped traffic on just the fourth lap on the spacious half-mile. This allowed Schatz to close back in, as he looked low exiting the third and fourth turns a couple of times.
A red flag period on the seventh lap bunched the field up, but a strong restart by Dollansky gave him a comfortable advantage. The leaders were just about to enter lapped traffic again on the 11 go-around when the caution flew. Another strong restart for Dollansky was negated when the caution flew two laps later. After an open red flag period on the 16th lap, Dollansky used an open to track to pull away as the laps wound down.
Schatz caught him with less than 10 laps to go and looked high off the fourth turn on the 23rd lap for the lead. For the next couple of laps he shadowed Dollansky, before the latter pulled away to win by nearly two seconds in the 30-lap event.
“I am very excited for this new race team and the people that are involved with it, “ Dollansky noted. “We learned some thing the first three nights and I am very encouraged by some of the changes that we have made and some of the improvements that we have made.
For Dollansky it was his 22nd career A-Feature win with the series and helped his car owner Larry Woodward kick of his 50th year in the sport. His team provided him with a fast car all night, starting with turning the fastest lap of the 46 cars that took to the track in time trials, and he backed that up with a second-place run in the first heat to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash where he finished second.
Donny Schatz finished in the Top-Five for the fourth consecutive night this week at Volusia. He came home second, after a strong run from the eighth starting spot to finish second in the fourth heat race earned him a spot in the Crane Cams Dash, where he finished fourth to line up on the second row for the 30-lap A-Feature.
“I’m glad to get started halfway decent, “ said Schatz, driver of the Armor All J&J. “Anything can happen and we know that. We have two more nights and we’ll come back tomorrow with our game face on. “
Lance Dewease raced his way into the A-Feature by way of the B-Main and passed the most cars on the night. After starting 23rd, he wound up fourth as he continues his strong start to the 2008 season. For his efforts on Friday night, he earned the first KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award of the year.
“We made a lot of changes to the car tonight and really made some gains after the heat race, “ said Dewease, who piloted the Advanced Development Services J&J. “I think we are really headed in the right direction. The motors are running outstanding and we just have to get it to the ground. “
Jason Meyers aboard the GLR Investments KPC snared the fifth spot on the final lap, as he got around Joey Saldana and Layton. It was his third Top-Five finish of the week in the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals.
Layton, who won with the World of Outlaws at Williams Grove Speedway last season, wound up sixth in the YTI Career Institute Maxim after thrilling battles with Meyers, Steve Kinser and Pittman.
Joey Saldana finished seventh on Friday night aboard the Budweiser Mopar-powered JEI, with Chad Kemenah in the Kantor Oil Company machine in eighth, Daryn Pittman in the Titan Garages Maxim in ninth and Tim Kaeding in the Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim in 10th.
In both of his wins this week with the All Star Circuit of Champions, Schatz used long green flag runs to his advantage, slicing his way through traffic. He was hoping on Friday night to have a similar situation, but with a number of cautions and red flags, the field had open track ahead of them for most of the event.
“I guarantee it would have helped me, “ said the North Dakota native of a longer green flag run. “That’s the way we race. We need them to go green. When you have all of those yellows, it bunches everyone up. Without them you get in lapped traffic and can race. We barely hit it and that is where races are won and lost on the big tracks. “
McCarl also was hoping for a longer green flag run, for which his car was set up. An open red flag on the 16th lap allowed the teams to make adjustments on their cars for the final half of the race.
“I didn’t want to see it, “ said McCarl of the red flag. “My car was coming on pretty strong and I didn’t want to give those a chance to make their cars better. It was a great way to start off the season with the Outlaws. “
The second of three nights of racing at Volusia Speedway Park as part of the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals awaits the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series on Saturday night.
