By Tony Veneziano, image courtesy of Steve Lafond
Kilgore, TX-March 12, 2010-Craig Dollansky had been fast right out of the box in 2010, but had been plagued with bad luck in nearly every one of the first five World of Outlaws events of the season. He put all of that behind him on Friday night at Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore, Texas, turning in a very strong performance from start to finish en route to picking up his first World of Outlaws victory of the season.
For Dollansky, the $10,000 win over 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser and current series point leader Joey Saldana, was the 32nd of his World of Outlaws career. It was his second career victory in Texas and his first in the state since 2001.
“This is a great way to get this monkey that has been on our back off it,” said Dollansky. “This is a great team effort and we had to work for it. We started in the fourth row of the dash and when you can win races that way, it shows you have a strong team.”
Dollansky used a strong restart on the 19th lap in the Big Game Treestands Maxim to dive under Jac Haudenschild in turns one and two as Haudenschild bounced through a couple of holes and nearly got upside down, somehow keeping the car going and getting it back on all fours, though he lost six spots in the process.
Dollansky then opened up a comfortable lead in open track before a yellow flag bunched the field up. He withstood two double file restarts in the late going, which he chose the low line each time with Kinser lined up to his outside. A single file restart with five laps to go gave Kinser one final shot at Dollansky, but the native of Elk River, Minnesota was too strong and wound up winning by about a second and a half.
“Obviously those are great race cars and we had to deal with strong cars all night long,” Dollansky said. “Steve (Kinser) has definitely been strong and Joey (Saldana) coming from 17th to third, that’s a great run for his team. Thanks to everyone that supports us and digs deep to make this happen, especially my wife Julie who is back home in Minnesota.”
Dollansky began Friday night by turning in the second quickest lap in time trials. He followed that up with a solid third-place finish in the second heat race to pick up a spot in the dash, where he charged from seventh to third to earn a second row starting spot in the 30-lap main event.
“I’m fortunate to have some great people behind me, starting with Tod Quiring,” said Dollansky. “I’m so happy to join with him as our car owner and Big Game Treestands, along with the great sponsors we have in Karavan Trailers and Aggressive Hydraulics. It’s always a team effort when you win races and hopefully the fans enjoyed the race tonight. There was a lot going on there, and I’m just glad to bring home a win.”
Kinser ended up second in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim to earn his fifth Top-Five and sixth Top-10 finish of 2010 and also move up to second in the championship standings, just seven markers behind Joey Saldana as he chases his record 21st title. Kinser tried everything he could on the late restarts, but could not quite get a run on Dollansky.
“I had to hang on and not hit those holes coming off (turn) four,” shared Kinser. “Craig (Dollansky) was able to pick it back up pretty good. I might have tried to get a run on him, but he blocked the bottom and he was a little faster than us in the front. To come home second after starting way back in the dash isn’t too bad. We missed a couple of wrecks and have been running pretty good. We just need to move up a spot or two.”
Joey Saldana, the current World of Outlaws point leader, who was victorious last weekend in California, powered his way through the field to come from the 17th starting spot to finish third in the Budweiser Maxim.
“It was a great night,” Saldana said. “That is definitely the kind of night that you have to have when you start out having a bad night. We had a really good car, we just started really far back. We’ll go to Houston and try to get two spots more.”
The race began with Paul McMahan jumping to an early lead from the pole, with Jac Haudenschild in second, though the first caution of the night flew on the opening lap for an incident involving Donny Schatz and Terry McCarl. On the complete restart, McMahan again led with Dollansky battling Haudenschild for second.
Haudenschild moved into the lead on the ninth lap diving under McMahan in turn one and quickly put some distance between the pair, with Dollansky moving into the runner-up spot on the next circuit. Haudenschild was strong in lapped traffic, though a caution on the 19th lap set up a double file restart with him choosing the outside line and Dollansky lining up down low.
Jason Meyers had a consistent night finishing fourth in the GLR Investments KPC to earn his fifth Top-Five finish of the season. He has finished sixth or better in all six races in 2010 and is just nine points behind Joey Saldana as he chases his first World of Outlaws title.
Jason Sides picked up his third Top-Five finish of the season coming home fifth in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim, which moved him up to fourth in the series championship standings after Donny Schatz finished 14th.
Paul McMahan ended up sixth in the Great Clips Maxim after leading the first eight laps, to score his best finish of the season and his best since joining Kasey Kahne Racing filling in for the injured Cody Darrah.
Jac Haudenschild finished seventh in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass XXX. Haudenschild, who led 10 laps crossed the line in fifth, but was docked two positions at the finish by way of World of Outlaws rules for passing a car before the restart cone on the front straightaway on the final restart of the night, which was a single file restart due to consecutive yellow flags flying before a lap was completed on the double file restart. Kraig Kinser was eighth in the Quaker State Maxim, with Tim Kaeding ninth piloting the DTR Transport KPC. Danny Lasoski rounded out the Top-10 in the Casey’s General Stores JEI.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Saturday, March 13 at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown for The Texas Shootout to wrap up the Texas Two-Step Weekend.
LONE STAR SPEEDWAY NOTES
*FAST QUALIFIER: Donny Schatz paced the 29 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked half-mile oval at 14.411 seconds at 124.905 mph. For his qualifying effort, Schatz earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Craig Dollansky (4), Jason Sides (3), Sam Hafertepe Jr. (2) and Kraig Kinser (1).
*LONE STAR SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING WINNERS: Jac Haudenschild, Terry McCarl and Steve Kinser won heat races. Paul McMahan won the dash. Brian Ellenberger won the B-Main.
* FEATURE WINNERS: There have been six World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature events held in 2010. The winners include: Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Thunderbowl Raceway), Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park), Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway) and Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park).
*HALF-MILE WINNERS: Lone Star Speedway is a high-banked half-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced four times at a track that size in 2010. The winners include: Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park), Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Lone Star Speedway; Kilgore, TX; March 12, 2010
Qualifying
1) 15-Donny Schatz 14.411
2) 7-Craig Dollansky 14.549
3) 7S-Jason Sides 14.617
4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 14.670
5) 11K-Kraig Kinser 14.689
6) 6-Danny Lasoski 14.703
7) R19-Jac Haudenschild 14.725
8) 91-Paul McMahan 14.750
9) 14-Jason Meyers 14.760
10) 21-Brian Brown 14.769
11) 24-Terry McCarl 14.773
12) 11-Steve Kinser 14.774
13) 51-Fred Rahmer 14.815
14) 83-Tim Kaeding 14.816
15) 2B-Ben Gregg 14.824
16) 6R-Bill Rose 14.881
17) 9-Joey Saldana 14.881
18) 18-Tony Bruce Jr. 14.887
19) 22-Brian Ellenberger 14.897
20) 4X-Toni Lutar 14.904
21) 17-Daryn Pittman 14.940
22) 30C-Lance Dewease 15.010
23) 45X-Johnny Herrera 15.144
24) 44W-Austen Wheatley 15.167
25) 10A-Ricky Logan 15.294
26) 1-Bronson Maeschen 15.369
27) 63-Chad Kemenah 15.467
28) 4-Eric Baldaccini 15.811
29) 85-Josh Hawkins 16.447
30) 5W-Lucas Wolfe -.—
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) R19-Jac Haudenschild[2]
2) 21-Brian Brown[1]
3) 15-Donny Schatz[4]
4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[3]
5) 51-Fred Rahmer[5]
6) 6R-Bill Rose[6]
7) 10A-Ricky Logan[9]
8) 22-Brian Ellenberger[7]
9) 30C-Lance Dewease[8]
10) 4-Eric Baldaccini[10]
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 24-Terry McCarl[1]
2) 91-Paul McMahan[2]
3) 7-Craig Dollansky[4]
4) 11K-Kraig Kinser[3]
5) 9-Joey Saldana[6]
6) 83-Tim Kaeding[5]
7) 4X-Toni Lutar[7]
8) 45X-Johnny Herrera[8]
9) 1-Bronson Maeschen[9]
10) 85-Josh Hawkins[10]
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 11-Steve Kinser[1]
2) 14-Jason Meyers[2]
3) 6-Danny Lasoski[3]
4) 7S-Jason Sides[4]
5) 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[6]
6) 2B-Ben Gregg[5]
7) 63-Chad Kemenah[9]
8) 17-Daryn Pittman[7]
9) 44W-Austen Wheatley[8]
10) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[10]
Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 91-Paul McMahan[3]
2) R19-Jac Haudenschild[4]
3) 7-Craig Dollansky[7]
4) 14-Jason Meyers[2]
5) 7S-Jason Sides[6]
6) 15-Donny Schatz[8]
7) 11-Steve Kinser[10]
8) 24-Terry McCarl[9]
9) 21-Brian Brown[1]
10) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[5]
B-main (12 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 22-Brian Ellenberger[1]
2) 4X-Toni Lutar[2]
3) 30C-Lance Dewease[4]
4) 17-Daryn Pittman[3]
5) 44W-Austen Wheatley[6]
6) 10A-Ricky Logan[7]
7) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[12] [$200]
8) 63-Chad Kemenah[9] [$180]
9) 45X-Johnny Herrera[5] [$175]
10) 4-Eric Baldaccini[10] [$160]
11) 1-Bronson Maeschen[8] [$150]
12) 85-Josh Hawkins[11] [$150]
A-main (30 laps) – Starting Position [#]
1) 7-Craig Dollansky[3] [$10,000]
2) 11-Steve Kinser[7] [$5,500]
3) 9-Joey Saldana[17] [$3,200]
4) 14-Jason Meyers[4] [$2,800]
5) 7S-Jason Sides[5] [$2,500]
6) 91-Paul McMahan[1] [$2,300]
7) R19-Jac Haudenschild[2] [$2,200]
8) 11K-Kraig Kinser[11] [$2,100]
9) 83-Tim Kaeding[14] [$2,050]
10) 6-Danny Lasoski[12] [$2,000]
11) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[25] [$700]
12) 51-Fred Rahmer[13] [$1,200]
13) 24-Terry McCarl[8] [$1,100]
14) 15-Donny Schatz[6] [$1,050]
15) 63-Chad Kemenah[26] [$200]
16) 2B-Ben Gregg[15] [$900]
17) 4X-Toni Lutar[20] [$800]
18) 17-Daryn Pittman[21] [$800]
19) 6R-Bill Rose[16] [$800]
20) 22-Brian Ellenberger[19] [$800]
21) 44W-Austen Wheatley[23] [$800]
22) 30C-Lance Dewease[22] [$800]
23) 10A-Ricky Logan[24] [$800]
24) 18-Tony Bruce Jr[18] [$800]
25) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[10] [$800]
26) 21-Brian Brown[9] [$800]
Lap Leaders: Paul McMahan 1-8, Jac Haudenschild 9-18, Craig Dollansky 19-30
KSE Hard Charger Award: Lucas Wolfe
Penske Power Position Award: Ben Gregg
Note- Lucas Wolfe and Chad Kemenah used World of Outlaws Provisionals to start the A-Feature.
World of Outlaws Championship Standings through March 12
1. Joey Saldana 877
2. Steve Kinser 870 -7
3. Jason Meyers 868 -9
4. Jason Sides 830 -47
5. Donny Schatz 824 -53
6. Kraig Kinser 796 -81
7. Jac Haudenschild 780 -97
8. Danny Lasoski 778 -99
9. Tim Kaeding 757 -120
10. Craig Dollansky 753 -124