Donny Schatz competed in the state of Indiana for the first time back in 1997 during his rookie season with the World of Outlaws. In nearly 40 career starts in the Hoosier State leading into Saturday night’s finale at Lawrenceburg Speedway, the three-time and defending series champion had finished second or third six times in the state, but was still looking for that elusive first victory. He changed that all on Saturday night as he battled Jason Meyers and Joey Saldana to pick up the win at the pristine high-banked 3/8-mile located in Southeastern Indiana.
It was Schatz’s seventh win of the 2009 campaign and the 95th of his World of Outlaws career as he looks to become just the fifth driver in the 30-plus year history of the series to win 100 A-Feature events. He pocketed $10,000 on Saturday night for his Tony Stewart Racing team, which is based in Indiana, which is also the home state of his car owner. For Schatz, it was his first win of the year on a track other than a half-mile.
“What a night,” said Schatz. “These guys, Ricky (Warner), Shane (Bowers) and Eric (Prutzman) do an awesome job with this race car. A guy gets down and out once in a while and we don’t want to stay there long. I can’t thank those guys enough. We have struggled on shorts tracks and we came here this weekend and felt awesome last night. We didn’t get to show it last night and tonight we did.”
The 35-lap contest began with Jason Meyers who started on the pole leading the field into turns one and two, with Joey Saldana taking second from Schatz on the opening circuit. Meyers pulled away early in the race in open track. The leaders were in lapped traffic by just the sixth go-around giving Saldana a chance to close in on Meyers. Saldana tried the extreme high side of the track and nearly got into the wall a couple of times, allowing Schatz to close in on him and Meyers.
Saldana used the low line on the 16th lap in an attempt to work his way past Meyers, though he could not quite make the pass. The next lap he again looked low in turns one and two. A couple of laps later, he slid under Meyers in turn two in heavy traffic, and both drivers washed up the track, allowing Schatz to get under Saldana and slip into second. Schatz then got around Meyers in turns three and four to take the lead on the very same lap, going from third to first a matter of half a track.
“When the race started, I didn’t want to be the guy out front leading,” he noted. “I didn’t know where to go. I’m glad that Jason (Meyers) got the start there. Joey (Saldana) and him got to racing and we just had to wait for lapped traffic. My car was good the longer the race went and we had to move around and go where they were not. My car was sticking in places it should have been and it’s awesome for me to drive.”
Schatz quickly began to pull away once he took the lead, as he worked to clear some of the lapped cars with Saldana running second. As Schatz lengthened his lead, Meyers closed back in on Saldana. That battled ended on the 30th lap as Saldana came to a stop on the back straightaway with a broken U-Joint which ended his night.
Schatz used a strong restart to pull away from Meyers who running second. The second and final caution of the night flew just one lap later. Again on the restart, Schatz quickly pulled away for the final five circuits and won by nearly three seconds in the Armor All J&J.
“Your tires cool down on those yellows and lose some air because the bleeders do their job and probably work too good,” explained the winner of the two late restarts. “I was a little nervous that maybe the tires had gone down too far and I was going to get too loose. I was loose those last five or six laps. I just had to pretend I was a pinball in the pinball machine and roll around the cushion and keep the pedal to the metal and get it done.”
Meyers led the first 18 laps of the race and wound up second in the GLR Investments KPC, after holding off a late charge from Danny Lasoski. For Meyers, it was his eighth Top-Five finish of the season.
“Obviously we are disappointed,” stated Meyers. “We don’t come out here to run second, but Donny (Schatz) did a great job. I had a little trouble getting through lapped traffic. I made some wrong decisions with a lapped car and just got beat.”
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