Joe Gibbs Driven

He made up for that in a big way on Saturday night, as he led wire-to-wire in the 40-lap event, to pick up his 10th win of the season and the 80th of his Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series career. He now just one win away from breaking into the Top-Five on the series all-time win list.

Schatz began the night by setting a new track record in time trials with a lap of 11.055 seconds. He did it with just one lap on the clock, after a rain delay near the end of qualifying forced the session to be aborted and complete restart to time trials in effect, with Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series officials opting to go with one lap of qualifying for each driver to save time.

Schatz lined up second in the A-Feature and charged high into the first and second turns to take the lead from pole sitter Jac Haudenschild at the drop of the green. Before Schatz was able to make it back to the start/finish line, the caution flag flew leading to a complete restart. On the second start, Schatz again powered his way to the lead.

At the same time, Craig Dollansky charged from the fifth starting spot around Steve Kinser and also Kraig Kinser to move into third. The first caution of the night flew on the sixth lap, leading to one of six restarts that Schatz masterfully negotiated.

Just a couple of laps after the restart, Schatz found himself in lapped traffic for the fist time in the event. He was help up a couple of times allowing Dollansky who had moved into second along with Jac Haudenschild to close on him. Another caution flew on the 11th lap followed by a red flag just three laps later.

On the ensuing restart, Dollansky tried a slide job on Schatz in the first and second turns, but could not complete the pass. After another caution, Dollansky tried the same move and again came up just a little short.

”It was a good night,” Schatz said. “Obviously Mother Nature played a part in us getting started late. I’m glad we were able to get the show in. We set a track record and got a good pill draw for the dash. We had a really good race car. The track was awesome. There was a top and bottom all over the place. My hat is off to these guys for giving us a good track to race on.”

The win was his fifth this season for Schatz at a track that he had never previously won at with in Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series competition. After having bad luck at Riverside International Speedway last season, Schatz was very pleased with how the night went for him and his team.

“We want to be competitive at places that we were not competitive at last year,” he explained. “This is a big step. Every place that we were bad at last year and have gone to this year, we have gotten better and some of them we have even won. We’re happy with that and that goes to show the capabilities of this team. We never want to finish second. We just want to keep pushing and that is the fun part about being here.”

Near the halfway point of the race, Schatz was in very heavy traffic aboard the Armor All J&J, even having to get up the brakes a couple of times to avoid some close calls. With the laps winding down, he was slicing his way through traffic when the final caution of the night flew. The caution was turned into a red flag for a fuel stop, as the car had gone over their allotted window of green and yellow flag caution laps that they could run. A strong restart with four laps to go sealed the deal for Schatz, as he pocketed $10,000 in the second of three races over the Fourth of July weekend for the World of Outlaws.

“It’s always fun for a driver that is leading to run in lapped traffic,” he shared. “A lot of guys cringe on it when they are up front, but that is what I am here for. The people come to see a show and that is where most of the show is, to see what guys can do in lapped traffic. I think we had some good racing going there in lapped traffic. We pushed ourselves as far as we could go without getting in trouble. We had the restart with four laps to go and none of them (the lapped cars) were in there, so you just have to make sure you don’t make any mistakes.”

After finishing second at Huset’s Speedway on Thursday night, Schatz’s team quickly packed their trailer and drove the 800-plus miles to Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas. While he was thrilled to pick up a win for his team, Schatz also was quick to point out the dedication of all the teams that follow the World of Outlaws full-time.

“I have to thank my crew,” he said. “They gave up their Fourth of July to drive 825 miles to get here. They don’t get that time back and they spend a lot of time working on this car. My hat is off to them and I’m going to try to get them a day off sometime here. Maybe we can go off and celebrate the Fourth of July a month later. For today, it was good to get a victory for what we had going on.”

Dollansky started fifth on Saturday night and picked up two spots on the opening lap of the race, before setting his sights on pole sitter Jac Haudenschild. He would get around the veteran driver on the fourth lap and began to chase Schatz. Dollansky, who won last Thursday night at Huset’s Speedway, has racked up 16 consecutive Top-10 finishes.

“We had to work our way up there,” Dollansky said, who drove a Snap-on Tools painted Maxim. “The car started off pretty decent at the beginning of the race, and got a more loose as the race wore on. There are some things we would like to do different if we could do it all again. To come home second considering where we started, was a good run for the team.”

Joey Saldana finished third after lining up seventh in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI. He began the night by turning the fifth fastest lap in time trials and followed that up with a third-place finish in the first heat, which earned him a spot in the Crane Cams Dash due to his strong qualifying time. After a tough night at Huset’s Speedway, he was thrilled to be on the podium at Riverside International Speedway.

“I feel pretty good,” Saldana said. “Going to Sioux Falls (Huset’s Speedway) and racing 17th was an eye opener for this team. We have to do a better job as a team and I as a driver have to do a better job. To come here and qualify fifth and run third in the heat and keep advancing every time we were on the track was good. We needed a good run. We are still struggling and we don’t know why. Hopefully we can carry this over to tomorrow at Haubstadt (Tri-State Speedway).”

Jac Haudenschild started on the pole after winning his fourth Crane Cams Dash of the season in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim. He ran up front all night long, finishing fourth, as he continues to close in on his first win of the season.

“The car has been good and fast all year,” noted the native of Wooster, Ohio. “We have been up there all the time, so hopefully we can get a win here before too long.”

Steve Kinser, who is the only driver that has competed in every single race the World of Outlaws have contested at Riverside dating back to 1979, finished fifth in the Q Oil Maxim. Jason Meyers was sixth in the GLR Investments KPC, with Kerry Madsen in the TK Concrete Maxim in seventh. Terry McCarl was eighth in the Big Game Treestands Eagle. Paul McMahan earned his third consecutive Top-10 finish in the Casey’s General Stores Maxim as he was ninth, with Chad Kemenah rounding out the Top-10 in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim.

Dollansky made up significant ground a couple of times on Schatz in lapped traffic. It was very reminiscent of the duel the pair has at Huset’s Speedway last Thursday in which they were in traffic for a majority of the race. For Dollansky, it was his 18th Top-Five finish of the season.

“There were a few close calls there,” explained the native of Elk River, Minnesota. “A few people almost lost it in front of me. In lapped traffic I think we were working as good as he (Donny Schatz) was. I would have liked to have stayed in lapped traffic longer and not had those late cautions. In open track he was pretty good. I tried to get a run on him on the restarts, but couldn’t make it happen.”

Saldana started seventh and worked his way around Kraig Kinser and Madsen on the opening lap, before battling Steve Kinser for a number of laps, before finally getting around him on the 15th lap. Saldana next set his sights on Haudenschild, who he would pass on the 24th lap en route to his 15th Top-Five finish of the season.

“My car was really good early and I got up to fourth. I got caught in lapped traffic,” said Saldana. “I got a run on Craig (Dollansky) on that restart, but (turns) three and four were so tricky and what do you do. I almost gave up the third position overdriving that corner. It was tough to get position on a guy, so you had to wait until lapped traffic. It would have been nice to have been in traffic more, but those guys were ahead of us and I don’t know if we could have gotten to them.”

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Sunday, July 6 at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Indiana.