“When we got to lapped traffic the first go-around, there were four or five guys that could have got the lead at any point,” four-time Outlaws champion Donny Schatz said. “It was like a hornets nest. We needed to stay out of that situation and that we did. When the race restarted those guys were all beating and banging on each other around there, and I just stayed out of the way on the bottom and got through there.”

The excitement elevated a few levels on a restart following a caution on lap 13 when Shane Stewart and Cody Darrah collided in turn two. Polesitter Kerry Madsen, who led from the drop of the initial green flag, and runner-up Daryn Pittman spun in turn one in front of the field.

Sammy Swindell, who was running fourth, had nowhere to go and skidded into the duo as they slid toward the middle of the track. Third-running Craig Dollansky slid off the top of the track and nearly tipped over during the process to avoid the melee as cars were sideways trying to avoid the mess.

Schatz was there to capitalize. After restarting fifth and maneuvering through the mess, he inherited the lead. Schatz led the final 28 laps of the race to become the first three-time winner this season.

“On the start I got next to Dollansky and he got a good run off into the corner and I needed to slow down because I saw cars in front of us,” he said. “I just went to the bottom and was lucky enough to miss them.

“It doesn’t help to have guys fall out in front of you. We like earning these races. We’ve earned plenty of them, but we’ve had them go that way against us (as well). You had to be smart and stay out of the trouble, and that we did.”

The race was anything but over at that point. Brad Sweet, who went from sixth to second during that restart, stayed within a car length of Schatz for most of the race as the track slicked off with each completed lap.

“I’d like to try it over again,” Sweet said after a season-best second-place finish. “I don’t really know if I could have done anything different. I was just really trying to take care of my tires. It was really slick down in turns one and two. When I was coming off (turn) two I was just trying to take care of my tires and it was kind of on the cushion in (turns) three and four.

“Donny just never made a mistake. I was right there. If he would have made one little mistake or we got some traffic, I think we could have at least made a race out of it. I don’t know if we would have been able to beat him or not.”

Kraig Kinser charged from seventh to third. After losing a couple of positions in the opening laps, he took advantage of the wild restart.

“We were fortunate that we avoided some of the collisions there early in the race and got away with a pretty respectable finish I think,” Kinser said.

He moved to fifth after the restart on lap 13, passed Austen Wheatley for fourth place on lap 15 and eventually worked by Danny Lasoski for the podium finish on lap 23.

Lasoski placed fourth and Brady Bacon charged from 17th to fifth. Joey Saldana was sixth and Steve Kinser drove from 22nd to seventh to earn the KSE Hard Charger Award. Randy Hannagan advanced from 18th to eighth and Chad Kemenah from 23rd to ninth. Wheatley rounded out the top 10.

Madsen, Wheatley, Dollansky and Kraig Kinser each claimed heat race wins and Bacon won the Last Chance Showdown. Sweet turned the quickest lap in qualifying with a time of 10.609 seconds.