After several close calls and some early season frustrations, Donny Schatz finally broke through on Friday night at Attica Raceway Park for his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory of the season.
It was the 106th triumph of his career, and the perfect way to wrap up his car owner Tony Stewart’s birthday. It also moves the four-time champion to within victory one of tying his childhood idol, Doug Wolfgang, on the Outlaws all-time career win list.
Schatz was strong all night in his STP/Armor All/Chevrolet J&J, running third in the dash to secure the inside of Row 2 on the starting grid for the 40-lap A-main. He quickly slid past pole-sitter Phil Gressman and fought off Craig Dollansky’s charge for victory.
“Ideally, I would have liked to started about fifth or sixth,” said Schatz, of Fargo, N.D., who also won in 2008 at Attica. “However, once the race got going, I was able to find a good line around the bottom of (turns) one and two and the outside in three and four. Towards the end of the race, I started over driving it a bit and slid up into the middle and found out I could still get some grip. We had a car that could run all over and that is a testament to Ricky Warner and this whole team. We were great all night.”
Schatz was cruising until the first caution flew with 23 laps complete. That was the first of four caution periods – including a red flag for Jac Haudenschild’s flip with nine to go - that forced Schatz to decide which lane was best on double-file restarts. Dollansky tried a slide job on the closing laps in the Big Game Treestands Maxim, but then had a battle on his hands with 2010 Knoxville Nationals champion Tim Shaffer, who had charged from 23rd to finish third.
“I felt like we had a good shot at getting around (Schatz) had we stayed green,” said Dollansky, a native of Elk River, Minn., who has led a series-high 93 laps this season. “That red flag coming out killed us a bit because we did have a better car on the longer runs. I tried to dive in there deep and hoped it would get enough bite to get around Schatz but it just didn’t hold. We were good all night on the top and if we were going to get him, it was probably going to have to be there.”
Shaffer tried to dive below Dollansky for the second spot on the last lap but came up just short and settled for the third position.
“We had a very decent run tonight and the top was really working for us,” said Shaffer, of Aliquippa, Pa., who was the KSE Hard Charger after passing 20 cars. “We managed to keep our nose clean and run strong. We gained quite a bit of knowledge tonight.”
Following his flip in Turn 2 that brought out a red flag with 31 laps complete, Ohio fan favorite Haudenschild emerged from the wreckage unharmed and waved to the fans, receiving a thunderous response.
Sam Hafertepe Jr. had another strong outing with the World of Outlaws to finish fourth, while defending series champion Jason Meyers was fifth and enters Saturday’s event at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Mich., aiming to win at that track for the third year in a row.
Series points leader Joey Saldana never quite found his groove, finishing 11th after starting 18th. Steve Kinser continues chasing Saldana in the overall standings, using his sixth-place finish Friday night to cut Saldana’s lead to 27 points. Only 97 points separates Saldana in first to Jason Sides in fifth.
The Outlaws invade I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Mich., on Saturday night (May 21) before heading southeast on Friday, May 27, to compete during Speed Weeks at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
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