FULTON, N.Y. (October 7, 2017) – David Gravel inherited the lead on lap nine after race leader Daryn Pittman got into the back of a slower car and spun to a stop. Gravel survived a multitude of restarts and held off Jason Johnson and Donny Schatz to score his career-best 17th win of the season for CJB Motorsports at the Fulton Speedway Saturday night in conjunction with NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week.
Daryn Pittman muscled his way from fourth to second in his heat race, setting him up perfectly for the Craftsman Club Dash inversion of four. Pittman outdueled Jac Haudenschild in an entertaining Dash to earn the pole of the 25-lap Feature.
At the drop of the Green, Pittman and fellow front row starter Jason Johnson preferred the bottom line, while David Gravel was banging down the cushion.
Pittman had a healthy lead when he reached lapped traffic before disaster struck. Clyde Knipp was trying to pull off the racing surface, got on the brakes and Pittman hit the back of the Knipp and spun to a stop in front of the field off of turn four with eight laps complete. Pittman went to the work area and re-joined the field while Knipp called it a night.
Gravel assumed the lead and battled hard with Johnson on the ensuing restart as Donny Schatz maneuvered his way from his eighth-starting position to third. Another caution flag flew on lap 11 with Scott Kreutter, Parker Price-Miller and Paige Polyak, who qualified for her first ever Craftsman Club Dash earlier in the night, stopped in turn four.
Gravel continued to show the way on restarts and utilized the entire racing surface searching for the fastest way around.
A pair of yellows on lap 21 and 24 gave Johnson and the rest of the field chances to steal the win, to no avail as Gravel took the checkered flag nearly a second in front of Johnson and Schatz.
“The track got so technical. The top was good, then the bottom was good, then I thought the bottom was too slow,” Gravel explained in Victory Lane.
“I ran just about every line you could run tonight,” the driver of the CJB Motorsports No.5 said with a smile.
Greg Wilson charged from 14th to fourth with ‘The Wild Child’ Jac Haudenschild completing the top five. World of Outlaws Rookie Brent Marks had a strong night coming home sixth with 13th-starting Kraig Kinser finishing seventh.
Jason Johnson was pleased with his team’s runner-up efforts. “We gave it our best shot tonight. I did my best to race clean and hard and finishing between [Gravel and Schatz] is an accomplishment in itself,” Johnson said.
Brad Sweet, 22nd-starting Mike Mahaney and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top ten. Mahaney, who is qualified for Sunday’s Billy Whittaker Cars and Trux 200 at the Oswego Speedway, picked up the KSE Hard Charger award.
Donny Schatz, who extended his points lead, said, “We battled the best we could. That’s what you have to do to win a championship.
The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series returns to action next Saturday at the Port Royal Speedway for one final date with the Pennsylvania Posse before returning to New York for a pair of rain date events at the Weedsport Speedway and Ransomville Speedway Sunday and Monday October 15 and 16, respectively. Information on all three of these events are available on the World of Outlaws website.
NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week concludes Sunday afternoon at the Oswego with Championship events for the Big Block Modifieds, Sportsman Modifieds and Pro Stocks. Sunday’s Billy Whittaker Cars and Trux 200 for the Big Blocks will pay a hefty $50,000 to the winner. For all things, Super DIRT Week, vist SuperDIRTWeekOnline.com!
World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series
Fulton Speedway
Fulton, NY
Saturday October 7, 2017
Qualifying: 1. 41-Jason Johnson, 13.18; 2. 2-Shane Stewart, 13.185; 3. 19P-Paige Polyak, 13.211; 4. 49-Brad Sweet, 13.24; 5. 5-David Gravel, 13.272; 6. 17-Jac Haudenschild, 13.326; 7. 7S-Jason Sides, 13.392; 8. 15-Donny Schatz, 13.472; 9. 99L-Larry Wight, 13.488; 10. 9-Daryn Pittman, 13.509; 11. W20-Greg Wilson, 13.515; 12. 19-Brent Marks, 13.554; 13. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 13.565; 14. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 13.587; 15. 4-Parker Price-Miller, 13.635; 16. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild, 13.675; 17. 10K-Joe Kata, 13.71; 18. 10-Paul Colagiovanni, 13.731; 19. 1A-Jacob Allen, 13.746; 20. 13-Clyde Knipp, 13.762; 21. 49K-Scott Kreutter, 13.832; 22. 33-Mike Mahaney, 13.903; 23. 98-Joe Trenca, 14.042; 24. 7-Ed Aikin, 14.092; 25. 36-Matt Billings, 14.182; 26. 87-Jason Barney, 14.334; 27. 19JK-Joe Kubiniec, 14.46; 28. 18-Ryan Susice, 14.496; 29. OO-Dane Lorenc, NT
Heat #1 (8 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer – 1. 41-Jason Johnson [1]; 2. 9-Daryn Pittman [4]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [2]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [3]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5]; 6. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [6]; 7. 1A-Jacob Allen [7]; 8. 33-Mike Mahaney [8]; 9. 36-Matt Billings [9]; 10. 18-Ryan Susice [10]
Heat #2 (8 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer – 1. 5-David Gravel [2]; 2. 2-Shane Stewart [1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [5]; 5. W20-Greg Wilson [4]; 6. 10K-Joe Kata [6]; 7. 87-Jason Barney [9]; 8. 98-Joe Trenca [8]; 9. 13-Clyde Knipp [7]; 10. OO-Dane Lorenc [10]
Heat #3 (8 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer – 1. 17-Jac Haudenschild [2]; 2. 19P-Paige Polyak [1]; 3. 19-Brent Marks [4]; 4. 99L-Larry Wight [3]; 5. 49K-Scott Kreutter [7]; 6. 7-Ed Aikin [8]; 7. 10-Paul Colagiovanni [6]; 8. 4-Parker Price-Miller [5]; 9. 19JK-Joe Kubiniec [9]
Craftsman Club Dash (6 Laps) – 1. 9-Daryn Pittman [1]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson [4]; 3. 17-Jac Haudenschild [2]; 4. 5-David Gravel [3]; 5. 2-Shane Stewart [5]; 6. 19P-Paige Polyak [6]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps) – Top 6 Transfer: 1. 10-Paul Colagiovanni [2][-]; 2. 4-Parker Price-Miller [1][-]; 3. 1A-Jacob Allen [3][-]; 4. 33-Mike Mahaney [5][-]; 5. 87-Jason Barney [8][-]; 6. 13-Clyde Knipp [4][-]; 7. 18-Ryan Susice [10][$300]; 8. 36-Matt Billings [7][$250]; 9. 98-Joe Trenca [6][$225]; 10. OO-Dane Lorenc [11][$200]; 11. 19JK-Joe Kubiniec [9][$200]
Feature: (26 Laps due to green-white-checkered finish) 1. 5-David Gravel [4][$10,000]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson [2][$5,500]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz [8][$3,200]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson [14][$2,800]; 5. 17-Jac Haudenschild [3][$2,500]; 6. 19-Brent Marks [9][$2,300]; 7. 11K-Kraig Kinser [13][$2,200]; 8. 49-Brad Sweet [7][$2,100]; 9. 33-Mike Mahaney [22][$2,050]; 10. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [16][$2,000]; 11. 2-Shane Stewart [5][$1,500]; 12. 7S-Jason Sides [10][$1,200]; 13. 1A-Jacob Allen [21][$1,100]; 14. 4-Parker Price-Miller [20][$1,050]; 15. 9-Daryn Pittman [1][$1,000]; 16. 10-Paul Colagiovanni [19][$900]; 17. 49K-Scott Kreutter [15][$800]; 18. 87-Jason Barney [23][$800]; 19. 1S-Logan Schuchart [11][$800]; 20. 99L-Larry Wight [12][$800]; 21. 7-Ed Aikin [18][$800]; 22. 19P-Paige Polyak [6][$800]; 23. 13-Clyde Knipp [24][$800]; 24. 10K-Joe Kata [17][$800]; Lap Leaders: Daryn Pittman 1-8, David Gravel 9-26; KSE Hard Charger Award: 33-Mike Mahaney[+13]