I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri certainly lived up to its name on Friday night as being one of the raciest tracks on the World of Outlaws circuit. Craig Dollansky, Jason Sides and Donny Schatz battled for the win on the high-banked 1/3-mile bullring down the stretch with Dollansky prevailing in a thrilling 30-lap contest to open to the Ironman 55 weekend at the track located just outside of St. Louis, Missouri.
Dollansky led the race early before Donny Schatz got around him on the 16th lap to take the point in lapped traffic. On the 25th lap, Dollansky went high off of turn four and nearly took the lead as the front pair charged down the front straightaway. He then took the top spot in turns one and two on the very next lap, with Sides closing in as well and the trio running side-by-side. Dollansky would hold on for the final five laps to score his second career win at I-55 Raceway and his second win of 2009, which was the 30th win of his World of Outlaws career.
“It’s a great total team effort,” said Dollansky. “We had a good starting spot, but when you have a good starting spot you have to capitalize on it. We were running a good pace early and Donny (Schatz) got by us in the middle of (turns) three and four. Once he got by us, I tried to be patient on the restart and work ourselves back up in there. Fortunately for our entire race team we were able to get the win.”
Dollansky started on the pole for the 30-lap after winning the Crane Cams Dash in the DirecTV Maxim, and jumped to a quick lead in turns one and two, with Jason Meyers and Schatz right on him. The leader found himself in lapped traffic by just the ninth lap and ran high when he approached the slower machines.
At this same point, Schatz and Meyers began a spirited battle for the second position. Schatz took the spot in turn one on the 12th lap and quickly closed in on Dollansky. On the 15th lap Schatz went under Dollansky coming off turn four to take lead, only to have Dollansky power back by him at the line. On the 16th lap Schatz got back around Dollansky as the pair split a lapped car and he quickly opened up a lead.
The only caution of the night flew on the 19th lap with Schatz using a strong restart to maintain his lead, while Dollansky and Meyers battled for second. After charging into the Top-Five after lining up 12th, Jason Sides got around Meyers to move into the third spot with 10 laps to go and began to set his sights on the lead pair.
With six laps to go, Schatz found himself in heavy lapped traffic, allowed Dollansky and Sides to close right in on him. Dollansky went high off turn four on the 25th go-around, nearly taking the top spot. On the next lap he took the lead in turns one and two from Schatz as the pair along with Sides all ran side-by-side.
“We all had good race cars and everybody was fighting for the lead,” noted the winner of the three-wide battle in lapped traffic. “I was just trying to go where my car felt best. I started working the middle in (turns) three and four somewhat and then went back to the top. We could hammer the top pretty good and felt good up top.”
Dollansky will look to put his name in the record books on Saturday night in the finale of the inaugural Ironman 55 as the A-Feature event will be 55 laps of green flag racing with $20,000 awaiting the winner. He applauded the track crew at I-55 for their tireless work on Friday night to provide a racy surface for the drivers.
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