From Aaron Fielder
Haubstadt, IN — (May 3, 2015) — Paul McMahan lived up to his nickname, ‘Pauls to the Walls,’ Sunday night at Tri-State Speedway as he waged a fierce battle with Brady Bacon and scored his second World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series win of the season on a slider with eight laps to go.
“I’ll tell you what, man I love this place,” McMahan said in victory lane. “This place has been so good to me.”
McMahan, who started the night in third, maintained through a caution plagued first third of the race. He got his opportunity to take a shot at the lead on lap 13.
Rico Abreu, who stole the show in the opening laps as he tried every possible line and move to get around Bacon, tried to cross under the leader in turns 1 and 2 for the lead. As he hit the middle of the corner, the lapped car of Kerry Madsen was on the bottom of the track. Abreu made contact with Madsen and subsequently flipped. He was OK.
That moved McMahan into the second position. On the restart, McMahan took up Abreu’s mantle and searched for a way around the young driver.
“Brady had an awesome racecar,” McMahan said. “In clean air he was a lot better than we were.”
Bacon eventually got himself free of McMahan, but as he approached lapped traffic on lap 21, McMahan began closing the gap once again. The pivotal restart came on lap 32 after Shane Stewart got into the turns 1 and 2 wall and brought out a red flag.
“I had one shot at (Bacon) on that restart,” McMahan said. “I was able to get a pretty good restart and get a good run on him. Instead of trying to slide him down there in one and two I just thought I’ll follow him there and then try to slide him down there. Down in three and four, you get down in there and it takes off on you in the dust. I didn’t know if I had enough room or not to go for the lead.”
Bacon tried to block McMahan and got pushed up into the turn four wall.
“When he slid me into three I should have just let him go and just crossed back underneath him,” Bacon said. “But I tried to block him and we both about crashed off of four.”
Bacon lost momentum and was forced to hold off Joey Saldana running in third. He eventually ran McMahan back down but a caution flag came out with three to go.
“That yellow came out and he was just a little better on restarts than I was,” Bacon said. “I need to get my car a little better on restarts, that’s pretty much what cost me the race.”
McMahan parked his car in victory lane, taking home his second World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series win of the season.
“We were getting better as the race went on but I still don’t think I had enough for Brady until that caution came out,” McMahan said.
The win came a night after McMahan got a DNF following an expired engine late in the feature at Pevely. McMahan credited his team and crew chief Barry Jackson with bouncing back after a frustrating night and some recent bad luck.
“Yesterday we were all down in the dumps when we lost a motor,” McMahan said. “This is just the way our team is. We just bounce right back and come back and win the race.”
With his win Sunday night, McMahan tied Bobby Allen for 17th on the World of Outlaws all-time wins list. Both drivers have 25 wins.
Joey Saldana, who started on the pole, spent much of the night fending off challenges from Kraig Kinser and, later, a surging Donny Schatz for the third position. Saldana briefly gave up the position to Kinser in the middle portion of the race but was able to hold Kinser and Schatz off through multiple restarts.
Saldana said he was disappointed with the night and the finish after starting up front.
“We just missed it,” Saldana said. “We over adjusted on our racecar and never had anything for him. Just have to do a better job of it and head into next week. Hopefully we can continue to be consistent like this.”
Late in the night Schatz battled with Saldana for the third position but was unable to make the move. He took home the KSE Racing Hard Charger Award after advancing 16 positions to finish in fourth.
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action next week at historic Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio for the ‘Mother’ of all sprint car weekends. The Series joins the USAC National Sprints for the first time ever on Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9. Tickets are just $25 for general admission. Find out more information about the event and how to buy tickets at http://woosprint.com/eldora-speedway.
Follow the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WorldofOutlaws, like it on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/WorldofOutlaws, or check out the latest videos on YouTube at www.youtube.com/WorldofOutlaws.
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Tri-State Speedway; Haubstadt, Ind.; May 3, 2015
A-Main – (40 Laps) – 1. 51-Paul McMahan [3] [$10,000]; 2. 99-Brady Bacon [2] [$5,500]; 3. 71M-Joey Saldana [1] [$3,200]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [20] [$2,800]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5] [$2,500]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet [22] [$2,300]; 7. O5-Brad Loyet [6] [$2,200]; 8. 7S-Jason Sides [17] [$2,100]; 9. 1ST-Gary Taylor [12] [$2,050]; 10. 71MX-Paul May [14] [$2,000]; 11. 9-Daryn Pittman [21] [$1,500]; 12. 87-Aaron Reutzel [7] [$1,200]; 13. O1-Sammy Swindell [24] [$1,100]; 14. 7-David Gravel [13] [$1,050]; 15. 2-Shane Stewart [9] [$1,000]; 16. 67-Christopher Bell [15] [$900]; 17. 2B-A.J. Bruns [8] [$800]; 18. 83-Kyle Hirst [23] [$800]; 19. 41-Jamie Veal [16] [$800]; 20. 29-Kerry Madsen [25] [$]; 21. 3-Tim Kaeding [18] [$800]; 22. 1S-Logan Schuchart [19] [$800]; 23. 9P-Parker Price-Miller [11] [$800]; 24. 24-Rico Abreu [4] [$800]; 25. 10H-Chad Kemenah [10] [$800]. Lap Leaders: Brady Bacon 1-32, Paul McMahan 33-40. KSE Hard Charger Award: 15-Donny Schatz [+16]
Qualifying – 1. 2-Shane Stewart, 12.037; 2. O5-Brad Loyet, 12.046; 3. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 12.057; 4. 24-Rico Abreu, 12.079; 5. 51-Paul McMahan, 12.089; 6. 71M-Joey Saldana, 12.101; 7. 99-Brady Bacon, 12.130; 8. 10H-Chad Kemenah, 12.162; 9. 9P-Parker Price-Miller, 12.190; 10. 1ST-Gary Taylor, 12.210; 11. 7-David Gravel, 12.238; 12. 71MX-Paul May, 12.250; 13. 67-Christopher Bell, 12.307; 14. 2B-A.J. Bruns, 12.333; 15. 41-Jamie Veal, 12.345; 16. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 12.375; 17. 7S-Jason Sides, 12.375; 18. 3-Tim Kaeding, 12.444; 19. 23-James Light, 12.448; 20. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 12.457; 21. 15-Donny Schatz, 12.460; 22. 9-Daryn Pittman, 12.479; 23. 49-Brad Sweet, 12.494; 24. 83-Kyle Hirst, 12.500; 25. W20-Greg Wilson, 12.501; 26. 6-Bill Rose, 12.505; 27. 29-Kerry Madsen, 12.550; 28. O1-Sammy Swindell, 12.555; 29. 11-Steve Kinser, 12.588; 30. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg, 12.597; 31. 4-Danny Smith, 12.639; 32. 11N-Randy Hannagan, 12.654; 33. 51B-Joe B Miller, 12.749; 34. 4K-Kody Kinser, 12.825; 35. 14T-Jimmy Bridgeman, 12.836; 36. 1A-Jacob Allen, 12.962; 37. 7M-Critter Malone, 13.085; 38. 7H-Jojo Helberg, 14.670
Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 51-Paul McMahan [3]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [6]; 3. 9P-Parker Price-Miller [2]; 4. 67-Christopher Bell [1]; 5. 7S-Jason Sides [5]; 6. 2-Shane Stewart [4]; 7. 7M-Critter Malone [10]; 8. W20-Greg Wilson [7]; 9. 51B-Joe B Miller [9]; 10. 11-Steve Kinser [8]
Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 2B-A.J. Bruns [1]; 2. 71M-Joey Saldana [3]; 3. O5-Brad Loyet [4]; 4. 9-Daryn Pittman [6]; 5. 1ST-Gary Taylor [2]; 6. 3-Tim Kaeding [5]; 7. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [8]; 8. 6-Bill Rose [7]; 9. 4K-Kody Kinser [9]; 10. 7H-Jojo Helberg [10]
Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 99-Brady Bacon [3]; 2. 41-Jamie Veal [1]; 3. 7-David Gravel [2]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet [6]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [4]; 6. 29-Kerry Madsen [7]; 7. 23-James Light [5]; 8. 4-Danny Smith [8]; 9. 14T-Jimmy Bridgeman [9]
Heat 4 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel [1]; 2. 71MX-Paul May [2]; 3. 10H-Chad Kemenah [3]; 4. 24-Rico Abreu [4]; 5. 83-Kyle Hirst [6]; 6. O1-Sammy Swindell [7]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart [5]; 8. 11N-Randy Hannagan [8]; 9. 1A-Jacob Allen [9]
Dash – (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 8 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 71M-Joey Saldana [2]; 2. 99-Brady Bacon [1]; 3. 51-Paul McMahan [3]; 4. 24-Rico Abreu [4]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5]; 6. O5-Brad Loyet [6]; 7. 87-Aaron Reutzel [8]; 8. 2B-A.J. Bruns [7]
Last Chance Showdown – (12 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 2-Shane Stewart [1] [-]; 2. 3-Tim Kaeding [2] [-]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart [4] [-]; 4. O1-Sammy Swindell [8] [-]; 5. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [10] [$300]; 6. W20-Greg Wilson [5] [$250]; 7. 11-Steve Kinser [9] [$225]; 8. 7M-Critter Malone [17] [$200]; 9. 4-Danny Smith [11] [$200]; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen [16] [$200]; 11. 23-James Light [3] [$200]; 12. 11N-Randy Hannagan [12] [$200]; 13. 7H-Jojo Helberg [18] [$200]; 14. 51B-Joe B Miller [13] [$200]; 15. 14T-Jimmy Bridgeman [15] [$200]; 16. 4K-Kody Kinser [14] [$200]; 17. 29-Kerry Madsen [7] [$200]; 18. 6-Bill Rose [6] [$200]