11/11/2013
Sprint Source
Schatz Drives to 23rd World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series Victory of the Season, Tightens Championship Battle
Tony Stewart Racing star becomes winningest driver in The Dirt Track at Charlotte history
CONCORD, N.C. - Nov. 8, 2013 - Donny Schatz knows what it takes to win a World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series championship and he's not going to make it easy on Daryn Pittman, who's trying to win his first crown. Schatz, a five-time champ, worked past Brian Brown on Friday night at the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte to win for the 23rd time this season, and slice into Pittman's lead in the championship with only Saturday's race remaining.
Schatz trails Pittman, who was sixth on Friday night, by 36 points or 18 positions on the track. However, Schatz has already earned four qualifying points for Saturday night's race and owns the tiebreaker with the win total he's amassed this season. All factored in, if Pittman finishes no worse than 15th he will clinch his first championship and the first World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series title for Kasey Kahne Racing.
Schatz powered his STP/Armor All number 15 to the lead on lap 13 as he drove around leader Brian Brown. Schatz tried to open his advantage and run away until late in the race when lapped cars eventually tightened up the top two again. Schatz worked flawlessly through the traffic to earn a track record seventh feature win.
Behind Schatz was Brown who collected his fifth second-place finish in World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series competition in the 2013 season. Joey Saldana earned his 21st top-five finish of the season with a third-place run to round out the podium. Shane Stewart, of Bixby, Okla., finished fifth driving the Ohsweken Speedway #77 while Jason Sides of Bartlett, Tenn., finished fifth.
Brown started on the pole of the event alongside Joey Saldana and when the green flag dropped Brown darted to the early lead. Schatz started fourth in the event and by lap 10 was up to second. While Schatz was running strong Pittman, who started the event sixth, fell back to just barely inside the top ten. By lap 11, Schatz was knocking on the door of the lead as he had handily caught Brown and was looking for a way around. Schatz was looking to the outside in turn four of lap 12 when Kerry Madsen spun just in front of them. The leaders avoided the wreck and after another spin on the restart they would restart single file.
Schatz powered to the topside of the track and drove around Brown on the outside for the lead and led the remaining 17 laps of the feature event. Pittman's run wasn't done as he would also pick up several positions starting on the final restart and concluding with a tight three-way finish for the fifth position where Sides would win the position while Pittman would just barely get around Cody Darrah.
"The way we're running right now we really don't want this season to end," said Schatz, of Fargo, N.D. "I'm not going to lie, if we can't get the job done in the championship I'm going to be disappointed. We came and had a good night to win and we're going to come back tomorrow night and try to do the same thing. We're going to stay positive and try to do everything we can for tomorrow."
Brown came up one position short in his quest for his first World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series win.
"When there are 55 cars here and only one guy can win and we just ran second again," said Brown, of Grain Valley, Mo., and driver of the FVP Casey's General Store entry. "It's better than third and we'll take what we learned and come back tomorrow. I was able to win the dash pretty handily and felt we were pretty good in the feature but sometimes those restarts it's a double-edged sword, if you go to the top they may drive around you on the bottom. The good news is we kept him in our sights and I really felt like at the end we would have a shot to sneak back by, but it just wasn't meant to be."
Saldana credited his incredible second half surge to a car change.
"Definitely since changing to a GF1 chassis it has really changed our program," said Saldana, of Brownsburg, Ind. "It's tough out here. All these guys are prepared every single night. Tonight was a good solid run for us and we learned from what we did wrong so hopefully tomorrow we get a little bit better. Donny's definitely on his game right now and just seeing him at the end of the race you did something good, so hopefully we can get a little better and get him behind us."
Saturday night concludes the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series 2013 season with the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte with a full event. Hot laps for Saturday are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car series then going into heat racing action with a full event for the series.
Tickets for the event can be purchased at http://www.charlottemotorspeedway.com/dirt/tickets/world_of_outlaws_world_finals/
THE DIRT TRACK AT CHARLOTTE NOTEBOOK
NOTES - On Thursday, Jason Meyers was the fastest qualifier around the semi-banked 4/10-mile oval with a time of 12.912 seconds to earn five championship points. Also earning points were Donny Schatz (4 points), Paul McMahan (3), Brian Brown (2) and Sam Hafertepe Jr.(1). Jason Sides, Joey Saldana, Cody Darrah, Caleb Helms and Greg Wilson won heat races. ... The dash draw was a 6 for the 37th time this year... Brian Brown won the dash for the fourth time this year...
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