Craig Dollansky survived a couple of run-ins and a heavy dose of thick lapped traffic to pick up his second Outlaws victory of the season and the $10,000 prize. It also extended his streak of claiming each World of Outlaws feature at the high-banked, quarter-mile oval during even years since 2006.

“I don’t know what there is to that,” he said. “It takes a team to win races and a great team, especially on this tour. It’s not easily done.

“At Haubstadt, there’s definitely a lot going on at this race track. There was a lot of back and forth, and sliding back and forth. It was great racing and that’s what you see here.”

After winning the dash, Dollansky started the 40-lap feature on the pole. Once the green flag waved, it was a no-holds-barred match between the 24 drivers in the bullring setting.

Several drivers were three wide and a couple popped wheelies on the opening lap as Dollansky took charge of the top spot. He chose the bottom line on a trio of double-file restarts in the first five laps before lapped traffic began to play a role.

With fifth-place starting Joey Saldana a close second, Dollansky entered lapped traffic on lap 11. Saldana closed within inches on several occasions as both drivers tried to maneuver around the slower cars. However, Saldana’s night ended on lap 16 when contact with Dollansky sent him airborne.

As the duo exited turn four a handful of laps prior to the midpoint of the feature, Dollansky worked toward the bottom of the track to avoid a slower driver. Saldana shot for a similar opening, but his car made contact with the left rear tire of Dollansky. The impact launched Saldana, whose car flipped several times across the finish line to bring out the red flag.

“I was working on some lapped cars and we got to the 66 car (of Alex Shanks),” Dollansky said. “I got to him a couple of times, but couldn’t get him cleared and he got us a little bit sideways on the frontstretch. As I was trying to get corrected and get going down the frontstretch, Joey was on my left rear there. I hate it for him. I hated to see him break an axel and get tipped over there. You never want to see that kind of stuff.”

After hopping out of his mangled car, Saldana found Dollansky parked in turn three during the stoppage. Saldana marched across the infield toward Dollansky to the roar of the crowd and the duo exchanged words before Saldana walked to his pit as the cars refired.

Brady Bacon dove to the bottom on the restart to capture the lead, which he relinquished a couple laps later after a broken fuel valve forced him to the infield with a 21st-place finish.

Dollansky regained the top spot and he manipulated traffic for the final 22 laps en route to the victory.

Dale Blaney capitalized on the final restart two laps before the midpoint by charging from seventh to third. After Bacon fell out of the race, Blaney advanced to the runner-up position to earn a season-best finish with the World of Outlaws.

“If you were a little bit better than a guy you could slide across and make a guy lift pretty easily,” he said. “If your car was really good you could maneuver a little bit.”

Championship leader Sammy Swindell, who entered the race with an eight-point advantage over Saldana, salvaged a third-place finish after fighting a broken right front shock for most of the race.

“I had a great car,” said Swindell, who now leads Donny Schatz by 36 points in the standings. “We just had a problem where we did a wheelie and broke a shock. I got the front up and I let it drop down too hard. We salvaged it with a third-place finish.”

Cody Darrah earned the KSE Hard Charger Award after driving from 18th to fourth and Steve Kinser finished fifth.

Stevie Smith was sixth, Lucas Wolfe seventh, Kraig Kinser eighth, Schatz ninth and Jason Sides rounded out the top 10.

Swindell, who has five World of Outlaws feature wins at Tri-State Speedway – including last season – timed in quickest with a top lap of 11.766 seconds.

The duo nearly took each other out on a restart with three laps remaining as they made contact entering turn one on the half-mile oval. Instead, Swindell held on to the top spot after an aggressive move to get to the bottom of the track and he pulled away to pick up his first World of Outlaws win at Missouri State Fair Speedway since 1985.

“We’re not just driving around people so you’ve got to use every bit that you have and you’ve got to take advantage of it,” said Swindell, who also won with the Outlaws in Sedalia in 1982.

“The main thing is to put yourself in the right position. When we’re in front we had control of the first corner. Once it was like that and you get out there running, the guy has to run behind you in the dirty air and if theirs were like mine, it wasn’t much fun.”

It was a bittersweet night for Saldana, who is only eight points behind Swindell after a runner-up finish.

“When you’re racing guys like Sammy Swindell, Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, they’re champions (and) have won a lot of races,” Saldana said. “You’ve got to learn from your mistakes and hope that you don’t do it again. We were in position. I just had to put my car in a better spot and I think we could have won the race.”

The drivers battled throughout several aggressive restarts, including one on lap 15 when the duo made it three wide with leader Cody Darrah getting stuck in the middle. Swindell capitalized on momentum in the outside lane to rocket into the lead off turn two as Saldana catapulted off the bottom lane to move into a close second.

Missouri native Brian Brown maneuvered from sixth to third on the same restart as the trio pulled to a sizeable advantage. Darrah, who was running fourth, brought out a caution with three laps remaining when he stopped in turn four with a broken U-joint.

Swindell chose the outside lane on the double-file restart and Saldana entered turn one side by side for the lead. They exited turn two in a tight battle before the final caution waved as NASCAR star Tony Stewart sustained a flat right rear tire while running fifth.

Swindell again picked the outside lane, which set up a drag race to turn one. In what looked like a dead heat, Swindell edged Saldana to the inside groove in turn one as their cars touched. Saldana lost momentum as Swindell cleared him for the lead.

“The way he raced me going into (turn) one, I should have raced him a little harder going into (turns) three and four,” Saldana said. “I had position on him there and I let it go. I just should have raced him harder because of the way he raced me earlier in that lap.

“I was just trying to race my car really clean. You get to a point like that and you kind of have to throw that out of the window if you’re going to win an Outlaws show. Tonight I think I just drove my car a little too easy.”

Brown closed within two car lengths of Saldana before his car began to show signs of running out of fuel, forcing Brown to race conservatively the last two laps.

“When you run a top three anywhere, it’s good, especially with the Outlaws,” he said. “With two to go, I was running out of fuel or I thought we may have had something for them. Hats off to Sammy and Joey. They’re at the top of their game right now and to run third to those guys is an honor.”

Donny Schatz earned the KSE Hard Charger Award after driving from 19th to fourth, which kept him third in the championship standings – only 20 points behind Swindell. Jason Sides, who started 14th, rounded out the top five.

Kerry Madsen drove from 12th to sixth with Kraig Kinser finishing seventh. Brady Bacon was eighth and Craig Dollansky placed ninth after violently flipping on the first lap of the dash. David Gravel charged from 17th to round out the top 10.

Stewart, outside polesitter and Missouri native Danny Lasoski, and Swindell each claimed a heat race. Brown won the Last Chance Showdown and Dollansky was the fast qualifier with a time of 15.975 seconds.

“In qualifying we went out and were really good, and then in the heat race we changed everything and were really bad,” he said. “Then we went back to the way we were in qualifying for the dash and we were respectable. And then we just worked off that and made our car 100 percent better for the feature, and it showed because when it counted we definitely had the car to pass. We had the speed when it counted and luckily we had enough tire to finish the race.”

Saldana, who timed in fifth quick of the 29 cars, dropped from third to fifth in his heat race to snag the second-to-last transfer to the 30-lap main event. However, Saldana’s qualifying effort combined with advancing to the feature earned him a spot in the dash. Saldana started fifth and finished fourth, which is where he began the main event.

On the third lap, Saldana made a dicey move to drive between Chad Kemenah and Geoff Dodge. With Kemenah on the bottom and Dodge running the top, all three cars were sliding through turn four when Saldana split the middle to pull into the runner-up position. He then closed on polesitter Danny Smith, who entered lapped traffic around lap 10.

A caution fell on lap 13 when Kemenah stopped in turn three with a flat right rear tire. Smith chose the bottom on the restart and it didn’t take long for Saldana to rocket into the lead when the green flag was waved.

Saldana held a slight advantage at the flag stand and Smith drove hard into turn one, sliding up from the middle of the track. However, Saldana’s momentum in the high line propelled him into the lead for good as the duo exited turn two.

“The rubber was getting laid down and I thought I could get in the middle there and get the jump on Joey and bring it home, but it didn’t work out that way,” Smith said after finishing second.

Saldana maintained the lead for the rest of the race and survived the closing laps. He finished with a little more than a one-second advantage as the top six were separated by less than four seconds.

“Racing with the Outlaws, you get a feel for the double-file restarts,” Saldana said. “I think (Smith) did the right thing. I had enough experience with it. I got a good start and put myself in position to get the lead. I don’t think he did anything wrong. That’s just a characteristic of double-file restarts.”

Sammy Swindell was arguably the quickest in the final half of the race as he charged from ninth to finish third after a pass on Kerry Madsen on the second-to-last lap.

“It was really hard to get by,” Swindell said. “You could pull down, but if you weren’t in the right spot there just wasn’t any grip. … Maybe a line and a half in the corners, but it was just a line and an eighth down the straights. So you had to be right on it.

“Sometimes track position means a lot. I think if we’d have started up front they wouldn’t have seen us, but coming from the fifth row we’ll take the third and try to be better next time.”

Madsen was fourth with Steve Kinser making a last-lap pass on Tony Stewart Racing teammate Donny Schatz to corral fifth place.

Following Schatz across the line was Geoff Dodge, who placed a career-best seventh. Cody Darrah was eighth, David Gravel ninth and Stevie Smith, who set fast time with a lap of 13.206 seconds, rounded out the top 10.

Kemenah, Gravel and Swindell each claimed heat races, and Jim Moughan won the Last Chance Showdown. Brian Paulus drove from 22nd to 15     th to earn the KSE Hard Charger Award.

Paducah International Raceway Notebook

“Pevely is a great race track,” Saldana said. “It always seems to put on a good show. It’s just a cool, little bullring. You just have to hustle your car and stay after it.

“When I was growing up racing, Bloomington, Ind., was a place we ran every Friday night. It’s pretty similar to that. So maybe my background in racing was short tracks and it just seems to be a pretty fun race track to race and everything that I do racing-wise seems to apply at that race track.”

April 14 will be the first of two World of Outlaws’ events this season at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, which has featured 20 different winners in 35 Outlaws races. The other event is the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 – the only 55-lap race on the schedule – on Aug. 4.

Brad Doty won the first World of Outlaws feature in 1987 and Craig Dollansky claimed last season’s lone event at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55. Dollansky, along with Saldana, Steve Kinser, Jac Haudenschild and Sammy Swindell have each won at least three main events there with Kinser taking a record four victories.

Kraig Kinser picked up his only win at the track in 2005.

“It’s close-quarter racing,” he said. “You’ve got a wall on the inside, a wall on the outside and 24 cars going around a short track. You always seem to be around cars there.”

Veteran Donny Schatz has experienced the highs and lows at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, including a victory in 2006.