Schatz Back on Top with Lebanon Valley Speedway Win
Answers after five straight second place World of Outlaws full points finishes
WEST LEBANON, N.Y. – July 26, 2015 – After five straight second place finishes in full points events, Donny Schatz returned to victory lane Sunday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway as he scored his 21st World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series feature win of the season.
“It hasn’t felt like we’ve had a very good day lately, I guess,” Schatz said. “We’ve had respectable finishes but this is where we want to be, we want to be winning. I guess you have to go through those stages where you’re learning a little bit, get beat, try to get up on your game a little bit.”
Schatz came into the night after two frustrating nights at Williams Grove Speedway Friday and Saturday that saw him get passed by Danny Dietrich and run out of time against Stevie Smith.
The event got underway earlier Sunday evening, following an hour and a half delay for rain. The rain set up a fast race track. Kerry Madsen proved that by knocking down the old track record of 16.179 seconds, set by Daryn Pittman in 2013, with his qualifying lap of 16.044 seconds.
Schatz and Brad Sweet started the feature on the front row with Schatz holding the lead through the opening laps. As the reigning series champion began working his way through traffic, Sweet closed the gap in his No. 49 Razorback Professional Tools car.
“When you come on someone a little slower, you have to be cautious,” Schatz said of working his way through traffic Sunday. “I was probably just a little too cautious.”
By the halfway point, Schatz had built up a half straight lead over Sweet. With nine laps to go, the caution flag flew for David Gravel who had a tire go down and hit the wall in turn four. Sweet tried to make a move on the restart but did not have anything for the No. 15 Bad Boy Buggies car.
“You always want a second chance,” Sweet said of the restart. “Donny got out there in front and was able to get by a few of those lap guys but it was really hard to pass, even the lap cars tonight. We’re happy to run second but we started on the pole of the dash and lost the start and Donny beat us on every start after that. We had three shots at it. I think if we’d have gotten out front he would have been hard to pass us the same way as it was hard to pass him. He did everything right to win the race and it’s nice to get a good solid finish after the weekend we had.”
Schatz and his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team have finished first or second in 17 consecutive full points Outlaws races and 19 of the past 20.
“Hats off to the Bad Boy Buggies team – they adjusted perfectly,” Schatz said. “The motor ran great. Generally when we come here we have a cooling issue (at Lebanon Valley), we can’t keep it cool and it ran 180 degrees the whole race. One more thing they overcame. Glad we got it in, glad all the fans got to see a race tonight and we get to go on to Canada now.”
Jacob Allen was the night’s KSE Racing Hard Charger, advancing five positions in his No. 1A Shark Racing car to finish in the 12th position.