Outlaws Strike Back: Schatz Battles Hodnett for Williams Grove Win
Scores his ninth World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory of the season
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – May 15, 2015 – Two nights after Greg Hodnett scored a win for the Pennsylvania Posse at Lincoln Speedway, the Outlaws fired back as Donny Schatz won at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night.

For Schatz, the win was the ninth World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory of his 2015 season and his 19th career win at Williams Grove.

“It’s always awesome to win at Williams Grove,” said Schatz, who fortuitously picked up the win on May 5, 2015 or 5/15/15. “To come to a place and everyone is so fiery, whether it’s the racers, the fans, the car owners – man, that’s what a guy lives off of. The intensity and the competitiveness of the sport, you don’t get that anywhere else. Here is probably the finest place for that. I just enjoy being part of that.”

With his win Friday night, Schatz is just the second Outlaw driver to score nine wins this early in the season. 20-time Outlaw champion Steve Kinser managed the feat by May 8 in both 1987 and 1991.

Schatz and Hodnett started on the front row with Hodnett jumping out to the early lead. Through the first seven laps, Hodnett built up a large lead over Schatz. Traffic came into play on lap seven and Hodnett and Schatz were both forced to maneuver through.

Nine laps later Schatz caught the leader Hodnett and was on his back bumper bar. The next lap, Schatz got the opportunity he needed. Schatz battled past Hodnett as the two drove through turns one and two. They drag raced down the backstretch and Schatz dove into turn three as the leader.

“Greg set a pretty good pace there,” Schatz said. “You need traffic to be able to get by guys. He kind of moved all over. We were passing good cars. When he went to the bottom, I had to go to the opposite groove so I went to the top and we were able to get a good run on him and get by him.”

Hodnett tried to close the gap in the waning laps, but it was Schatz who parked his car on the front stretch.

“This whole Bad Boy team did a phenomenal job,” Schatz said. “It probably wasn’t the best way to start the night. I’m like a stick of dynamite when things don’t go good. Hats off to these guys for giving me a great racecar there. It got better the longer the race went.”

Hodnett said the top line on the race track ended up being the place to be.

“We were just a tick off all night and it showed up in traffic,” Hodnett said. “Donny is obviously the best in the world for a reason. He pretty much ate us up in traffic so we just have to get better and do a better job. The guys on the Lelands.com, Eagle Steel, Trone Outdoor car did a great job. It’s just, I let them down.”

The battle for third played out throughout the feature. Quick time recipient Aaron Ott held the position at the start of the feature but lost it as he rounded lap three to Paul McMahan. McMahan held the spot for the next nine laps until Ott fought back and retook the position on lap 11 as the two drivers worked their way through lapped traffic. It was Brian Montieth though who worked his way forward from fifth and got around Ott with six laps to go.

As he worked his way forward, Montieth, who finished the night in second, said there was one really key thing to continuing the charge.

“It is just momentum,” Montieth said. “The track was basically a one groove track. All of the passes I made were when the guy in front of me was trying to make a pass and you just kept your momentum up. At this type of track you don’t want to be leading as you get through lapped traffic.”

Montieth, who has the last two weekly wins at Williams Grove and currently sits second in the track’s 410 points standings, said tonight’s run was a big confidence booster heading into Saturday night’s Morgan Cup battle at the track.

“To come here and time as good as we did – that’s probably one of the best times we’ve ever had here,” Montieth said. “To race like we did, you can’t ask for much more. The other two weeks we won here, we started near the front, we had clean air – clean air is a big key. Just momentum and hopefully we can keep carrying it into tomorrow.”

Cody Darrah was the night’s KSE Racing Hard Charger, advancing six positions to finish in 16th.