From Aaron Fielder
Alger, WA — (September 5, 2015) — Shane Stewart battled Jason Johnson and held firm through a yellow and red flag plagued first half to win night two of the Monster Meltdown at Skagit Speedway on Saturday.
With his win, Stewart claimed his eighth World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory of the season.
“It just feels good to get these wins, they’re so hard to get,” Stewart said. “Starting on the front row was obviously pretty important tonight and the way the track ended up racing, it was pretty tough. And the lap cars were pretty tough.”
“I love coming here. The Northwest has some of the best sprint car fans in the country.”
The win was even sweeter for Stewart’s Larson Marks Racing crew chief Scotty Martin, a native of nearby Camano Island, Wash.
“I was able to win in Oklahoma in front of all my family and friends – it just feels good to win in front of Scotty’s friends and family as well,” Stewart said. “This has honestly been a dream season for this whole crew, this whole team, everyone that’s involved. They work endless hours and they just always keep their heads down and keep pedaling away.”
Stewart’s win was his first Outlaws win at the track and second ever after winning on a preliminary night of the 2013 Dirt Cup.
Stewart and Jason Johnson started on the front row of the feature, the only one of the weekend after rain canceled the first night of the Monster Meltdown on Friday.
Kerry Madsen battled forward early challenging Stewart for the top spot. The move to second was short lived for Madsen though as a flat tire forced him to work area on a lap five red flag.
The red was one in a series of both red and yellow flags to wave through the first half of the feature.
As Madsen fell back, Joey Saldana fought forward, taking over second until lap 13 when disaster nearly struck for him in turn two as he was racing through traffic. With Saldana relegated back to fourth after nearly spinning, Johnson took the second spot back over and began challenging Stewart for the lead.
Meanwhile, Donny Schatz, who at one point was as far back as eighth place, had steadily worked his way forward, moving his No. 15 Bad Boy Buggies/Chevrolet Performance car into third by lap 13.
With the feature finally rolling unabated by halfway, Schatz looked to second. On lap 26, a several lap battle commenced between Johnson and Schatz for the position. Johnson held him lap after lap until lap 30 when Schatz was able to get a run off of turn four and barrel past the No. 41 Priority Aviation car off of turn two.
Schatz tried in the waning laps to run down Stewart as the No. 2 Eneos/GoPro/KickIt car worked its way through traffic, but he ran out of laps.
“I’m not quite sure how we got through it, other than a great race team,” Schatz said. “Some nights you’d like to wipe away and we turned this into a decent night… At one point we were back in eighth and didn’t really feel all that spectacular but you have to wait for the fuel load to come off the car and the car gets a little bit better. That’s just part of racing.”
Since returning from an early season injury that sidelined him for months, Johnson said his team has worked hard to give him what he needs to finish on the podium.
“We were hoping tonight was the night that we were going to break into victory lane for sure,” Johnson said. “These (Outlaw drivers) are the toughest in the world – the toughest in the business and there’s a reason why. To be on the podium with these two guys, it’s really a good night all together… This Priority Aviation team just keeps flying around and we keep striving really hard and hopefully a win is right around the corner.”
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action Monday night at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. for the Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel Outlaw Invasion. To find out more information and to learn how to buy tickets, visit http://woosprint.com/grays-harbor-raceway.
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; Skagit Speedway; Alger, Wash.; Sept. 5, 2015
A-Main – (35 Laps) – 1. 2-Shane Stewart [1] [$10,000]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [5] [$5,500]; 3. 41-Jason Johnson [2] [$3,200]; 4. 71M-Joey Saldana [6] [$2,800]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet [3] [$2,500]; 6. 9-Daryn Pittman [7] [$2,300]; 7. 18-Jason Solwold [12] [$2,200]; 8. 11K-Kraig Kinser [14] [$2,100]; 9. 1S-Logan Schuchart [11] [$2,050]; 10. 29-Kerry Madsen [4] [$2,000]; 11. 7S-Jason Sides [15] [$1,500]; 12. 98-Brock Lemley [17] [$1,200]; 13. 44W-Austen Wheatley [9] [$1,100]; 14. 55-Trey Starks [20] [$1,050]; 15. 26-Willie Croft [13] [$1,000]; 16. 9R-Reece Goetz [23] [$900]; 17. 7-David Gravel [10] [$800]; 18. 21-Robbie Price [16] [$800]; 19. 39C-Travis Rilat [19] [$800]; 20. 2L-Logan Forler [21] [$800]; 21. 99T-Skylar Gee [24] [$800]; 22. 56-Justin Youngquist [18] [$800]; 23. 1A-Jacob Allen [22] [$800]; 24. 51-Paul McMahan [8] [$800]. Lap Leaders: Shane Stewart 1-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 9R-Reece Goetz [+7]
Qualifying – 1. 29-Kerry Madsen, 10.923; 2. 15-Donny Schatz, 10.928; 3. 49-Brad Sweet, 10.941; 4. 71M-Joey Saldana, 10.977; 5. 2-Shane Stewart, 10.977; 6. 44W-Austen Wheatley, 10.990; 7. 7-David Gravel, 11.010; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 11.034; 9. 18-Jason Solwold, 11.049; 10. 41-Jason Johnson, 11.058; 11. 9-Daryn Pittman, 11.069; 12. 51-Paul McMahan, 11.079; 13. 26-Willie Croft, 11.125; 14. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 11.159; 15. 7S-Jason Sides, 11.187; 16. 21-Robbie Price, 11.358; 17. 98-Brock Lemley, 11.378; 18. 56-Justin Youngquist, 11.381; 19. 39C-Travis Rilat, 11.430; 20. 55-Trey Starks, 11.441; 21. 99T-Skylar Gee, 11.447; 22. 2L-Logan Forler, 11.498; 23. 1A-Jacob Allen, 11.500; 24. 9R-Reece Goetz, 11.786; 25. 9A-Luke Didiuk, 11.939; 26. 81-Darren Smith, 12.579
Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 41-Jason Johnson [1]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen [4]; 3. 7-David Gravel [2]; 4. 71M-Joey Saldana [3]; 5. 26-Willie Croft [5]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler [8]; 7. 9A-Luke Didiuk [9]; 8. 21-Robbie Price [6]; 9. 39C-Travis Rilat [7]
Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 9-Daryn Pittman [1]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [2]; 3. 2-Shane Stewart [3]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [4]; 5. 55-Trey Starks [7]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [8]; 7. 98-Brock Lemley [6]; 8. 11K-Kraig Kinser [5]; 9. 81-Darren Smith [9]
Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 51-Paul McMahan [1]; 2. 18-Jason Solwold [2]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [4]; 4. 44W-Austen Wheatley [3]; 5. 7S-Jason Sides [5]; 6. 56-Justin Youngquist [6]; 7. 99T-Skylar Gee [7]; 8. 9R-Reece Goetz [8]
Dash – (8 Laps, finishing order determined first 8 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 2-Shane Stewart [2]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson [1]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [4]; 4. 29-Kerry Madsen [6]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz [5]; 6. 71M-Joey Saldana [3]; 7. 9-Daryn Pittman [7]; 8. 51-Paul McMahan [8]
Last Chance Showdown – (12 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 11K-Kraig Kinser [1] [-]; 2. 21-Robbie Price [2] [-]; 3. 98-Brock Lemley [3] [-]; 4. 39C-Travis Rilat [4] [-]; 5. 9R-Reece Goetz [6] [-]; 6. 99T-Skylar Gee [5] [-]; 7. 9A-Luke Didiuk [7] [$300]; 8. 81-Darren Smith [8] [$250]