From Tony Veneziano
Sedalia, MO- June 29, 2010- Each season Jason Sides sets a goal to win more races than the year before. After winning two events last season with the World of Outlaws, he wanted to take the checkered flag first at least three times in 2010. He picked up two wins earlier this year and reached the three-win mark on Tuesday night in Kasey’s King of Sedalia Presented By Budweiser at Missouri State Fair Speedway to surpass his win total from 2009.
Sides earned $10,000 for the victory, which was his second at Missouri State Fair Speedway and his first with the World of Outlaws at the historic half-mile, before a very large crowd. The native of Bartlett, Tennessee now has seven career A-Feature wins with the series dating back to 2004.
“It’s great to be here and win,” said Sides. “I hate it for Sam Hafertepe. He kind of left the bottom open for us. It was a great run. First and foremost our hearts go out to Shirley Gray, Sammy’s (Swindell) Mother-in-law, we lost her this week. I know he wanted to win it for her, but I wanted to win it just as bad.”
Sides started third in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim and took the second spot from Sammy Swindell at the drop of the green. He gained ground on leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. just past the halfway point as the leaders approached some light lapped traffic. Sides went low in turn four on the 15 th lap and powered by Hafertepe on the front straightaway to take the top spot. He would not look back the rest of the way, withstanding a yellow and then a red flag on the very next lap, using strong restarts each time to pull away.
“You really did have to be patient,” noted the winner. “We got our rhythm going around the bottom. Shane (Finch) and Doug (Rankin) have been working their butts off all year and it’s starting to pay off a little now hopefully.”
For Sides the win was his third of the season which marks a new career high with the World of Outlaws, for the 2003 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year. He won twice last season and picked up single wins in 2004 and 2007.
“It feels great to get the third one,” Sides said. “There are a lot of big races coming up in the next month, so hopefully this carries us into those.”
Hafertepe led the first 14 laps on Tuesday night after starting on the pole, eventually finish second in the G.H. Plumbing Maxim for the third time in his career with the series as he continues to chase his first win. The native of Sunnyvale, Texas was out front on a lap-6 double file restart and chose the bottom to shoot out to a quick lead as Sides and Swindell battled for second.
“Tonight to run as strong as we did all night long definitely feels good,” shared Hafertepe. “We’re going to go into Huset’s (Speedway) with a really good attitude. We always run strong there and hopefully this momentum from here just keeps on going. We have a pretty tough schedule and a lot of races coming up, so it’s good to get fast right now and hopefully we take advantage of it and it plays into our hand.”
Swindell finished third aboard the Big Game Treestands Maxim in his first start at Missouri State Fair Speedway in five years. The three-time series champion has finished third in three of the last five World of Outlaws races as he looks to add to his win earlier in the month.
“It’s good when you can say you hate to run third again, but we’ve had a bunch of them,” said Swindell. “We’re going to get there sometime. That restart on the outside, that wasn’t the place to be. We got a little run on Sam (Hafertepe) and Jason (Sides) was there. Late in the race you had to be on the bottom and I just did what I could.”
Donny Schatz, who was victorious in 2008 with the World of Outlaw at Sedalia, came home fourth in the Armor All/STP J&J, to earn his 13 th Top-Five finish of the season. The four-time and defending series champion got around Swindell on a lap-16 restart and closed right up on Hafertepe for second before Swindell got back around him.
“It was an all right night,” said Schatz. “We had a new car we were trying and it does a lot of things that we like it to do and some things we don’t like it to do. We qualified good for when we came out and I thought we raced pretty well. Everything we did, we made some headway and it feels like my cars from four or five years ago, so that’s kind of what we were trying to do. It was good, just not good enough to win the race.”
Wayne Johnson finished a very solid fifth in his first start with the World of Outlaws aboard his own Townline Variety Maxim.
Jason Meyers was sixth in the GLR Investments KPC, after starting the night by setting fast time. He took over the lead in the standings for the Showdown for the Bud Crown heading into the finale next week at LaSalle Speedway in Illinois. The California native has a 36-point lead over Paul McMahan, with Steve Kinser one spot behind. The Top-Three finishers will split a $15,000 point fund for the four-race mini-series.
McMahan finished seventh on Tuesday night in the Great Clips Maxim, with Craig Dollansky eighth piloting the Big Game Treestands Maxim. Steve Kinser worked his way from 18th to finish ninth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Joey Saldana, the current World of Outlaws point leader, came all the way from 22 nd to finish 10th aboard the Budweiser Maxim, to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award and also retain his spot at the top of the standings as he chases his first title.
Kasey Kahne, who helped promote the event finished 14th after starting 20th in his Budweiser Maxim as a teammate to Saldana and McMahan.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Thursday, July 1 at Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota.
KASEY’S KING OF SEDALIA NOTES
•FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Meyers paced the 27 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the semi-banked half-mile oval at 16.923 seconds at 106.364 mph. For his qualifying effort, Meyers earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Sammy Swindell (4), Donny Schatz (3), Sam Hafertepe Jr. (2) and Paul McMahan (1).
•MISSOURI STATE FAIR SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING WINNERS: Wayne Johnson, Kerry Madsen and Jason Sides won heat races. Sam Hafertepe Jr. won the dash. Zach Zimmerly won the Last Chance Showdown
• FEATURE WINNERS: There have been 30 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, Thunderbowl Raceway, Volunteer Speedway, Tri-State (Okla.) Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway and I-96 Speedway), Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway, Volunteer Speedway, I-55 Raceway, Eldora Speedway, Dodge City Raceway Park and River Cities Speedway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park, Jackson Speedway, River Cities Speedway and Lakeside Speedway), Jason Sides (Houston Raceway Park , Tri-City Speedway and Missouri State Fair Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Paducah International Raceway and Knoxville Raceway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park and The Dirt Track at Charlotte), Brooke Tatnell (Knoxville Raceway and Junction Motor Speedway), Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway), Chad Layton (Williams Grove Speedway), Paul McMahan (Eldora Speedway), Fred Rahmer (Williams Grove Speedway) and Sammy Swindell (Dodge City Raceway).
•HALF-MILE WINNERS: • Missouri State Fair Speedway is a semi-banked half-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced 16 times at a track that size in 2010. The winners include: Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park, Jackson Speedway and Lakeside Speedway), Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway and I-96 Speedway), Jason Sides (Tri-City Speedway and Missouri State Fair Speedway), Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Knoxville Raceway), Chad Layton (Williams Grove Speedway), Paul McMahan (Eldora Speedway), Joey Saldana (Eldora Speedway), Fred Rahmer (Williams Grove Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park) and Brooke Tatnell (Knoxville Raceway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Missouri State Fair Speedway; Sedalia, MO; June 29, 2010
Qualifying
1) 14-Jason Meyers 16.923
2) 1-Sammy Swindell 16.973
3) 15-Donny Schatz 16.980
4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 16.986
5) 91-Paul McMahan 17.008
6) 33-Zach Zimmerly 17.041
7) 63-Chad Kemenah 17.133
8) 1J-Bronson Maeschen 17.159
9) 7S-Jason Sides 17.173
10) 77X-Wayne Johnson 17.173
11) 3-Kerry Madsen 17.175
12) 11K-Kraig Kinser 17.275
13) R19-Jac Haudenschild 17.350
14) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 17.355
15) 6H-Kyle Hirst 17.359
16) 6-Danny Lasoski 17.396
17) 7-Craig Dollansky 17.416
18) 11-Steve Kinser 17.424
19) 21-Brian Brown 17.440
20) 4X-Toni Lutar 17.446
21) 4-Kasey Kahne 17.524
22) 22-Brian Ellenberger 17.530
23) 2B-Ben Gregg 17.565
24) 9-Joey Saldana 17.591
25) 18-Tony Bruce Jr. 18.069
26) 88-Tommy Worley 18.070
27) 1P-Curtis Evans 19.628
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 77X-Wayne Johnson[1]
2) 63-Chad Kemenah[2]
3) 14-Jason Meyers[4]
4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[3]
5) 21-Brian Brown[7]
6) 6-Danny Lasoski[6]
7) R19-Jac Haudenschild[5]
8) 22-Brian Ellenberger[8]
9) 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 3-Kerry Madsen[1]
2) 1J-Bronson Maeschen[2]
3) 7-Craig Dollansky[6]
4) 1-Sammy Swindell[4]
5) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[5]
6) 91-Paul McMahan[3]
7) 2B-Ben Gregg[8]
8) 4X-Toni Lutar[7]
9) 88-Tommy Worley[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 7S-Jason Sides[2]
2) 11K-Kraig Kinser[1]
3) 11-Steve Kinser[6]
4) 15-Donny Schatz[4]
5) 9-Joey Saldana[8]
6) 4-Kasey Kahne[7]
7) 33-Zach Zimmerly[3]
8) 6H-Kyle Hirst[5]
9) 1P-Curtis Evans[9]
Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[1]
2) 1-Sammy Swindell[3]
3) 7S-Jason Sides[7]
4) 15-Donny Schatz[2]
5) 14-Jason Meyers[4]
6) 11K-Kraig Kinser[10]
7) 77X-Wayne Johnson[8]
8) 3-Kerry Madsen[9]
9) 1J-Bronson Maeschen[6]
10) 63-Chad Kemenah[5]
B-main (12 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) – Starting Position [#]
1) 33-Zach Zimmerly[1]
2) R19-Jac Haudenschild[2]
3) 2B-Ben Gregg[6]
4) 6H-Kyle Hirst[3]
5) 18-Tony Bruce Jr[7]
6) 22-Brian Ellenberger[5]
7) 4X-Toni Lutar[4] [$200]
8) 88-Tommy Worley[8] [$180]
9) 1P-Curtis Evans[9] [$175]
A-main (25 laps) – Starting Position [#]
1) 7S-Jason Sides[3] [$10,000]
2) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[1] [$5,500]
3) 1-Sammy Swindell[2] [$3,200]
4) 15-Donny Schatz[4] [$2,800]
5) 77X-Wayne Johnson[7] [$2,500]
6) 14-Jason Meyers[5] [$2,300]
7) 91-Paul McMahan[11] [$2,200]
8) 7-Craig Dollansky[17] [$2,100]
9) 11-Steve Kinser[18] [$2,050]
10) 9-Joey Saldana[22] [$2,000]
11) 21-Brian Brown[19] [$1,500]
12) 63-Chad Kemenah[10] [$1,200]
13) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[14] [$1,100]
14) 4-Kasey Kahne[20] [$1,050]
15) 18-Tony Bruce Jr,[23] [$1,000]
16) 6-Danny Lasoski[16] [$900]
17) R19-Jac Haudenschild[13] [$800]
18) 2B-Ben Gregg[21] [$800]
19) 22-Brian Ellenberger[24] [$800]
20) 33-Zach Zimmerly[12] [$800]
21) 3-Kerry Madsen[8] [$800]
22) 11K-Kraig Kinser[6] [$800]
23) 6H-Kyle Hirst[15] [$800]
24) 1J-Bronson Maeschen[9] [$800]
Lap Leaders: Sam Hafertepe Jr. 1-14, Jason Sides 15-25
KSE Hard Charger Award: Joey Saldana
Penske Power Position Award: Zack Zimmerly
World of Outlaws Championship Standings through June 29
1. Joey Saldana 4191
2. Steve Kinser 4162 -29
3. Jason Meyers 4138 -53
4. Donny Schatz 4013 -178
5. Jason Sides 4005 -186
6. Paul McMahan 3862 -329
7. Lucas Wolfe 3841 -350
8. Jac Haudenschild 3803 -388
9. Craig Dollansky 3790 -401
10. Danny Lasoski 3752 -439