Defending World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Jason Meyers snapped a season-long victory drought on Friday night at Cedar Lake Speedway, and wound up on top of the series championship standings at the same time.
Using his third consecutive front-row starting spot, Meyers earned the first victory of his career at Cedar Lake and took over the race for the season-long title. Meyers, of Clovis, Calif., becomes the fourth different driver this season to lead the standings, joining Steve Kinser, Joey Saldana and Donny Schatz.
“It really does feel like the first one ever,” said Meyers, who last won a World of Outlaws race in November when he clinched the crown during the World Finals. “It’s been such a long time since this team and I have been to victory lane but we’ve finally done it.”
Meyers started the 35-lap main event on the outside of the front row alongside Danny Lasoski and quickly charged into the lead on the first lap. Through numerous restarts, Meyers was good enough to maintain his advantage throughout the night.
“I found something in (turns) 3 and 4 that really helped my car get going on the outside,” said Meyers, who led all 35 laps in his DDNi/Media-Tile/Allstar Performance KPC. “Danny got pinned down to the inside a couple of times and that wasn’t the place to get going. We were really lucky tonight to have the lead so we had lane choice.”
Lasoski kept the pressure on Meyers and finished second, but knew getting past him was going to be tough.
“Jason just had an amazing car tonight,” said Lasoski, the 2001 series champion from Dover, Mo. “I knew I had to take care of my tires and wait for him to mess up but he didn’t. We had a pretty good battle going with Kerry (Madsen) there back and forth through the middle of the race. Overall, to come out here and run second for all of the folks that support us and stand behind us is huge.”
Despite suffering minor damage to the nose wing of his Maxim during the nights Dash, Steve Kinser charged his way forward throughout the feature to finish third in the Bass Pro Shops/J.D. Byrider/Chevrolet Maxim.
Madsen faded to fourth as the race wore on as Brad Sweet rounded out the top five. KSE Hard Charger Donny Schatz finished sixth and fell to second in the series standings by one point. Sammy Swindell, the night’s fastest qualifier, finished seventh with Joey Saldana in eighth.
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