From Aaron Fielder
Grand Forks, ND — (June 19, 2015) — In front of a packed house at River Cities Speedway Friday night, Donny Schatz continued his impressive 2015 run, besting Dusty Zomer to score his 15th World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series win so far this season and fourth in a row.
“That was fun in traffic,” Schatz said. “The race track was unbelievable. There was a top, a bottom, a middle – sliding, turning. It’s not very often that it happens like that.”
Racing against impending weather, the green flag fell on the 40-lap feature with Zomer and Schatz on the front row. Zomer led the first two laps but a caution flag fell shortly after the second lap was completed. When the race returned to green, Schatz slid Zomer in turns three and four to lead lap three.
Schatz caught the back of the field on lap six and began lapping cars. As the laps ticked by Schatz expanded his lead as the field behind him stayed tight and worked their way through the traffic. By the final red flag of the night on lap 33, Schatz had built up a nearly four second lead over second place Zomer. On the restart, Zomer tried to make a move on the six-time champion, but it was Schatz’s to lose.
“It’s hard to tell what’s going on when you’re up front,” Schatz said. “You just keep pushing as hard as you can. My car, for a point, got really good, really good and then it seemed like those yellows kind of hurt the momentum a little bit and it got really, really tight.”
Through 36 races so far this season, Schatz has built up a 192 point lead over Shane Stewart in his campaign for a seventh series championship.
“Hats off to these three guys, they’re unbelievable,” Schatz said of his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team. “The car owner we have, we couldn’t do it without his hard work and his effort to put us here with great marketing partners like Chevrolet Performance and Bad Boy Buggies and all the great people we have.”
The battle for second and third was intense all night with a series of drivers fighting for the spots.
After Schatz took over the lead, Zomer settled in to second with Paul McMahan on his tail. By lap 12, it was Shane Stewart who, after slipping back to fourth at the start of the night, raced around McMahan on the high side of turns one and two. Five laps later, Stewart had caught Zomer and began trying to work his way around for second.
“We may have bumped a little bit but that’s short track racing and that’s what makes it fun and interesting,” Stewart said of contact made between he and Zomer on lap 19. “I actually thought I had him there and then the caution came out. Just had to get my nose clean because I was pretty tight behind cars and blistered the right rear tire a little bit and probably hurt us a little bit later in the race.”
After a caution on lap 31 and then a red flag on lap 33, Stewart tried again to get around Zomer but was not able as he fought off attempts by Brad Sweet, Joey Saldana and McMahan to get around him.
Zomer closed out the night in second with Stewart right behind in third. The finish was the best ever World of Outlaws finish for Zomer.
“I’m glad we could put on a heck of a show. Donny, he’s good. Obviously you can tell he’s been doing this for many years. He got around traffic really nice and he was able to maneuver really nice. I’m just happy for this whole team… they gave me a heck of a car tonight.”
Just one week ago, Zomer had a wild crash at River Cities that ended the night for his No. 82 Buffalo Wild Wings team.
“Last week, obviously, we made the papers up here for taking a wild ride so now we’re happy we’re maybe making the papers here for making a top-three at the Outlaw show,” Zomer said. “Super happy for the team, it was a good run.”
For Stewart, the finish was the 20th top-five run of the season for his No. 2 Eneos/Larson Marks Racing team.
“It’s great to come here to Grand Forks,” Stewart said. “This is an awesome crowd. I haven’t been here in a long time. It’s good to see the fan support and head on to Huron and hopefully we can pick up a win then.”
For the first time ever, the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series takes on Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D. for the Iverson Huron presents, tomorrow night. For more information on the event and to learn how to purchase tickets, visit http://woosprint.com/dakota-state-fair-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; River Cities Speedway; Grand Forks, N.D.; June 19, 2015
A-Main – (40 Laps) – 1. 15-Donny Schatz [2] [$10,000]; 2. 82-Dusty Zomer [1] [$5,500]; 3. 2-Shane Stewart [3] [$3,200]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet [7] [$2,800]; 5. 71M-Joey Saldana [6] [$2,500]; 6. 51-Paul McMahan [5] [$2,300]; 7. 9-Daryn Pittman [12] [$2,200]; 8. 13-Mark Dobmeier [19] [$2,100]; 9. 29-Kerry Madsen [18] [$2,050]; 10. 3-Tim Kaeding [16] [$2,000]; 11. 41-Sammy Swindell [4] [$1,500]; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser [21] [$1,200]; 13. 7S-Jason Sides [9] [$1,100]; 14. 1S-Logan Schuchart [10] [$1,050]; 15. 17A-Austin McCarl [11] [$1,000]; 16. 92-Mitch Mack [15] [$900]; 17. 1K-Chris Shirek [14] [$800]; 18. 7-David Gravel [8] [$800]; 19. 2A-Austin Pierce [23] [$800]; 20. 5-Dave Glennon [13] [$800]; 21. 99-Jordan Graham [24] [$800]; 22. 19-Paige Polyak [20] [$800]; 23. 1A-Jacob Allen [17] [$800]; 24. 6N-Greg Nikitenko [22] [$800].
Lap Leaders:Dusty Zomer 1-2, Donny Schatz 3-40.
KSE Hard Charger Award: 13-Mark Dobmeier [+11]
Qualifying – 1. 71M-Joey Saldana, 9.964; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 10.026; 3. 7S-Jason Sides, 10.073; 4. 41-Sammy Swindell, 10.158; 5. 17A-Austin McCarl, 10.173; 6. 5-Dave Glennon, 10.251; 7. 7-David Gravel, 10.257; 8. 92-Mitch Mack, 10.282; 9. 1A-Jacob Allen, 10.346; 10. 13-Mark Dobmeier, 10.365; 11. 13X-Ty Hanten, 10.365; 12. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 10.376; 13. 2A-Austin Pierce, 10.390; 14. 20A-Jordon Adams, 10.498; 15. 8-Casey Mack, 10.530; 16. O-Nick Omdahl, 10.936; 17. 51-Paul McMahan, 10.027; 18. 2-Shane Stewart, 10.031; 19. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 10.088; 20. 9-Daryn Pittman, 10.131; 21. 82-Dusty Zomer, 10.163; 22. 49-Brad Sweet, 10.232; 23. 1K-Chris Shirek, 10.314; 24. 3-Tim Kaeding, 10.371; 25. 29-Kerry Madsen, 10.396; 26. 19-Paige Polyak, 10.503; 27. 6N-Greg Nikitenko, 10.604; 28. 99-Jordan Graham, 10.699; 29. 9N-Wade Nygaard, 10.769; 30. 8H-Jade Hastings, 11.166; 31. 8B-Jack Croaker, 11.329; 32. 6-Zach Wilde, 11.515
Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 7-David Gravel [1]; 2. 71M-Joey Saldana [4]; 3. 17A-Austin McCarl [2]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [3]; 5. 2A-Austin Pierce [7]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [5]; 7. 13X-Ty Hanten [6]; 8. 8-Casey Mack [8]
Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 41-Sammy Swindell [3]; 2. 92-Mitch Mack [1]; 3. 11K-Kraig Kinser [6]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 5. 13-Mark Dobmeier [5]; 6. 20A-Jordon Adams [7]; 7. 5-Dave Glennon [2]; 8. O-Nick Omdahl [8]
Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 82-Dusty Zomer [2]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [3]; 3. 1K-Chris Shirek [1]; 4. 51-Paul McMahan [4]; 5. 29-Kerry Madsen [5]; 6. 6N-Greg Nikitenko [6]; 7. 9N-Wade Nygaard [7]; 8. 8B-Jack Croaker [8]
Heat 4 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 49-Brad Sweet [2]; 2. 9-Daryn Pittman [3]; 3. 2-Shane Stewart [4]; 4. 19-Paige Polyak [5]; 5. 99-Jordan Graham [6]; 6. 8H-Jade Hastings [7]; 7. 6-Zach Wilde [8]; 8. 3-Tim Kaeding [1]
Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 8 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 82-Dusty Zomer [6]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 3. 2-Shane Stewart [4]; 4. 41-Sammy Swindell [5]; 5. 51-Paul McMahan [2]; 6. 71M-Joey Saldana [1]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet [8]; 8. 7-David Gravel [7]
Last Chance Showdown – (12 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 3-Tim Kaeding [2] [-]; 2. 5-Dave Glennon [1] [-]; 3. 1A-Jacob Allen [3] [-]; 4. 6N-Greg Nikitenko [4] [-]; 5. 9N-Wade Nygaard [6] [$300]; 6. 20A-Jordon Adams [7] [$250]; 7. 13X-Ty Hanten [5] [$225]; 8. O-Nick Omdahl [11] [$200]; 9. 8H-Jade Hastings [8] [$200]; 10. 8B-Jack Croaker [10] [$200]; 11. 8-Casey Mack [9] [$200]; 12. 6-Zach Wilde [12] [$200]