Even though he won’t claim a fifth series title this season, Donny Schatz is ending 2011 in a high note. Coming into the Lowes Foods World Finals presented by Tom’s Snacks, Coca-Cola and Nature’s Own, Schatz holds a slim lead over teammate Steve Kinser for the second spot in the series standings. A strong qualifying effort propelled Schatz to the pole of the night’s feature event where he led all thirty laps to secure his fifth career win at the Dirt Track at Charlotte.
“It feels really good to come out here and win to close out the season,” said Schatz, who now has a 17 point advantage over Kinser. “The track held up really well considering the weather we’ve had here all day and the fact that we’ve also had the Late Models and Big Block Modifieds running with us. We were very good from the get go and the restarts did help us. These STP guys deserve to be in victory lane a whole lot more. We’ll take this one tonight and try to get back here again to close out the season.”
One driver who wasn’t happy to see the restarts was Sammy Swindell. The Germantown, Tenn. native started the night’s feature event ninth and had taken the top spot at lap sixteen. Schatz fought back and regained the top spot as lap traffic held up the leaders.
“We certainly were better on the longer runs,” said Swindell. ”Those restarts towards the end hurt us. When we had the red for a fuel stop, I think Donny must have made some changes or found something. We didn’t make any adjustments and he seemed to be able to get going pretty quick after we fired up again. It was a good night for us though. Just came up a little bit short.”
As Schatz and Swindell raced away from the field in the latter stages of the event, the battle was on for third as both Jason Meyers and Craig Dollansky looked to use the outside to hold onto the spot. In the end, it was Meyers who secured the spot and the 2011 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series title.
“The outside was the place to be,” said Meyers, a Clovis, Calif. native. ”Craig and I had a great battle going and kept swapping the spot back and forth for awhile. We did really well here last year when we won both races but something felt like it was missing tonight. I searched around to find a spot that would help me pick up some time and I did for awhile. Eventually Donny found it as well and was awesome around it so there wasn’t much we could do.”
Dollansky crossed the line in fourth with Kasey Kahne Racing star, Joey Saldana, rounding out the top-5. Greg Hodnett appeared to have a strong machine early on as he started on the outside pole but mechanical issues slowed his #39 sprinter and dropped him to a 20th place finish. Ian Madsen crashed hard into the front stretch wall on a restart at lap five. Madsen, filling in for the injured Bill Rose, was taken to a nearby hospital for further observation.
The 2011 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series concludes with the final night of the 5th annual Lowes Foods World Finals presented by Tom’s Snacks, Coca-Cola and Nature’s Own at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. Champions from the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, World of Outlaws Late Models Series and Super DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds will be crowned at the end of the night.
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