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Schatz two for three at Volusia.
Donny Schatz went wire to wire again at Volusia Speedway Park Thursday night to take his second victory in three nights with the O’Reilly All Stars. Schatz battled Lance Dewease on lap one, but he drove away unchallenged after securing the top spot.
“This Chevy power is bad to the bone,” said Schatz in victory lane. “I struggled at the end of the race, but we know exactly what it is. Sometimes I just gotta suck it up and drive, and that’s what I did tonight.”
Schatz drew the pole position for the 30-lap A-main with Lance Dewease on the outside. Dewease blasted from the cushion at the start, but Schatz proved too strong on the backstretch. From that point the battle was for second with a number of drivers taking their turn in the spot.
Early on Joey Saldana put the pressure on Dewease for second spot, and the two would battle back and forth throughout the early stages of the race. Jason Meyers kept them in sight as he kept busy holding off Fred Rahmer, Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, and Craig Dollansky.
Lapped traffic provided Schatz’ only challenge as the leader encountered slower cars by lap seven, and slowly worked his way through. As Schatz tiptoed through the backmarkers Saldana and Meyers continued their battle for third right behind Dewease.
Dewease appeared to close on Schatz in the middle of the race, but he couldn’t maintain his pace. At the midpoint of the race Schatz kept his straightaway lead over Dewease with Meyers, Saldana, and Rahmer rounding out the top five. Kinser, Dollansky and Lasoski also stayed close to the battle.
With less than 10 laps to go Dollansky started to work through the leaders passing Meyers then setting his sights on Dewease. Dollansky, Meyers and Dewease used every inch of race track battling for second before the race’s only mishap brought out a red flag with just eight laps to go.
Kraig Kinser was uninjured when his Tony Stewart Racing mount crashed hard in turn three, but his night was over. The restart was as close as the competition would get to Schatz, as he immediately reopened his advantage at the green flag.
Dewease restarted in the second spot with Saldana and Dollansky right behind. Meyers, Rahmer, Lasoski, Jac Haudenschild, Daryn Pittman, and Lucas Wolfe rounded out the top ten.
Dewease and Saldana touched in turn two causing both cars to slow on the track, but both continued without losing spots. Saldana finally completed the pass, and with just four to go trailed by half a straightaway behind Schatz.
He closed the gap, but in the end Schatz was too strong and held on to win his second O’Reilly All Star race in three nights. Saldana finished second followed by Meyers, Dewease and Dollansky.
Most eyes were on the back of the pack for the start of the 20 lap UMP Modified feature event. Sprint Cup stars Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader started in the last two rows after missing their heat races due to obligations, and co-points leader to Schrader Mike Spatola also started deep in the pack.
Batesville, Arkansas, driver Jerod Landers used his pole position to get out to an early advantage. The bottom groove seemed the place to be with most racers battling for track position down low. As Landers pulled away Brad Waits jumped from his fifth place starting spot to battle with Kenny Gaddis, Alan Mondus, Tim Hancock and Corky Thomas for second.
Wallace wasted no time in working to the front using great bite off the bottom of the corners to propel himself by a car every corner. His fortune didn’t last long as he crashed with Thomas early in the race suffering damage that ended his event.
Dave Hess jr. flexed his muscle on the restart working into the top three where he’d hound Waits for the second spot. With most drivers content on the bottom Jake Hawkins and Schrader ventured to the outside and started to progree.
Hawkins suffered mechanical failure, and pulled to the pits, but Schrader used the middle groove to battle through traffic. With 10 laps to go Landers lead was half a straightaway with Waits and Hess racing side by side. Scott Drake raced into the top five with Hancock behind him holding off Gaddis and Schrader.
Schrader finally cracked the top five with five laps to go, but fifth was as close to the front as he got as Landers held on to win over Hess who barely edged Wait at the stripe followed by Drake and Schrader.
“I’ve been wanting to come here and win for a while,” said Landers after the race. “It’s tough, and I hope we can keep it up. There’s a lot of good guys out here.” |
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