7/4/2010
Sprint Source
Jason Meyers Shows the Way at North Central Speedway: Earns Series Leading Seventh Win of 2010
Brainerd, MN— July 3, 2010—Jason Meyers certainly has known the way to Victory Lane this season with the World of Outlaws, as he started the year on a tear winning six times in the first 19 races of the 2010 campaign. Entering Saturday’s event at North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minnesota, it had been 12 races since he picked up a win and he wanted nothing more in his second visit to the 1/3-mile bullring than to pick up a victory. The native of Clovis, California did exactly that, besting Donny Schatz and Joey Saldana to score his series-leading seventh A-Feature win of the year.
Meyers used a strong double file restart on the low side of the track with four laps remaining to edge Schatz, after the pair had a great battle on a previous restart only to have the caution fly, setting up the final restart. For Meyers, the $10,000 win was the 42nd of his World of Outlaws career.
“It feels great to win,” said Meyers. “We had a little bit of a dry spell after a great start to the season and we’ve been digging hard here. This entire team has been working hard and I think my confidence was down a little and we are getting that back and really getting rolling now.”
On the final restart, Meyers, Schatz and Saldana nearly went three wide into turn one when the yellow flew for Danny Lasoski, who has stopped on the track. With the same restart order, Meyers led the field into turns one and two in the GLR Investments KPC with Schatz diving low and nearly taking the lead on the final green flag as the pair raced side-by-side. Meyers held him off and Schatz again looked low in turns one and two on the next lap, pulling even with the leader, but was not quite able to get a run on him to make a pass.
“All I was thinking was go hard,” shared the winner when asked about the final restart. “That’s the great thing about Donny (Schatz). He’ll race you as hard as can be, but he’ll race you clean. That takes a lot of skill to do. Anyone can run in there and run over you and Donny races you hard and I have the utmost respect for him.”
Meyers chose the low line on each of the five double file restarts on Saturday night, as he led the entire distance in the 35-lap contest. He had Schatz line up on his outside on four of those starts and Kraig Kinser on the other, leading the field each time into turn one.
“I was better on the top actually, but on a restart, when you are going from a stop, it’s just so far around the top going up there,” he explained. “I did that a couple of weeks ago starting on the top at Dodge City (Raceway Park in Kansas) and gave the race away to Joey (Saldana) and I learned my lesson. I promised my guys I would not make that mistake again.”
Schatz did everything he could as he looked for the win down the stretch, winding up second in the Armor All/STP J&J. After lining up fourth, the North Dakota native quickly got around Kraig Kinser at the start and then tracked down Paul McMahan on the fourth lap to move into second. Kinser got back around him on the seventh lap, with Schatz retaking the second spot coming off turn four on the 26th lap.
“He raced me clean and I guess you can’t win them all,” said Schatz of Meyers. “It doesn’t seem like we are winning too many, but we had an awesome car. I can’t thank my guys enough. They just keep plugging away and every night they keep giving me something even better than the night before. I probably left a few laps out there and didn’t get aggressive enough at the right times.”
The final six laps of the race saw three cautions, putting the leaders in open track down the stretch. Schatz made up some ground on Meyers and Kinser in lapped traffic after the midway point of the race during an 18-lap green flag stretch, which was the longest such period of the race.
“It would have,” quipped Schatz when asked if lapped traffic would have helped. “We strive for that and want to see the traffic. The longer we raced the more yellows we seemed to get. We were able to stay with him on that one restart and the yellow came back out. That’s just part of it and you find a way around it and keep on working.”
Joey Saldana, the current World of Outlaws point, leader quickly worked his way to the front on Saturday night. After falling back a spot to eighth on the start, he got around Danny Lasoski on the second lap and Tony Bruce Jr. on the fourth lap to move into sixth. Just two laps later he moved into the Top-Five getting around Jason Sides. He found himself in third on the eighth circuit, passing his teammate Paul McMahan. On the second to last restart, he ran nearly three-wide into turn one with Meyers and Schatz, when the caution came back out. He ended up third in the Budweiser Maxim, gaining 10 points on Steve Kinser in the series standings to extend his lead to 20 markers as he chases his first title.
“We came from seventh to third, so it was a pretty good night,” Saldana said. “I thought we had a shot at those guys and wanted to race them. On that last restart I was hoping Donny (Schatz) would go to the top because I was going straight to the cushion and didn’t want to spin him out. We came home third and I’ll take it. It’s definitely better than where we have been running.”
Kraig Kinser, who won in the World of Outlaws debut at North Central Speedway in 2008, came home fourth on Saturday night in the Quaker State Maxim. Tim Kaeding came from 11th to finish fifth in the DTR Transport KPC in his debut at the 1/3-mile.
Jason Sides was sixth in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim, with Chad Kemenah seventh in the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks Maxim. Steve Kinser earned the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award coming from 19th to finish eighth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Paul McMahan was ninth aboard the Great Clips Maxim, with Lucas Wolfe rounding out the Top-10 in the Allebach Racing Maxim.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Thursday, July 8 with the final round of the Showdown for the Bud Crown, Kasey’s King of LaSalle Presented By Budweiser at LaSalle Speedway in Illinois.
NORTH CENTRAL SPEEDWAY NOTES
•FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Sides paced the 26 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 1/3-mile oval at 12.938 seconds at 92.657 mph. For his qualifying effort, Sides earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Tim Kaeding (4), Kraig Kinser (3), Chad Kemenah (2) and Tony Bruce Jr. (1).
•HUSET’S SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING WINNERS: Brooke Tatnell, Jason Meyers and Danny Lasoski won heat races. Jason Meyers won the dash. Chad Kemenah won the Last Chance Showdown
• FEATURE WINNERS: There have been 32 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature events held in 2010. The winners include: Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Volunteer Speedway, Tri-State (Okla.) Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway, I-96 Speedway and North Central Speedway), Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway, Volunteer Speedway, I-55 Raceway, Eldora Speedway, Dodge City Raceway Park and River Cities Speedway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park, Jackson Speedway, River Cities Speedway and Lakeside Speedway), Jason Sides (Houston Raceway Park , Tri-City Speedway and Missouri State Fair Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Paducah International Raceway and Knoxville Raceway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park and The Dirt Track at Charlotte), Sammy Swindell (Dodge City Raceway and Huset’s Speedway), Brooke Tatnell (Knoxville Raceway and Junction Motor Speedway), Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway), Chad Layton (Williams Grove Speedway), Paul McMahan (Eldora Speedway) and Fred Rahmer (Williams Grove Speedway).
•1/3-WINNERS: North Central Speedway is a semi-banked 1/3-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced four times on a track that size this season. The winners include: Jason Meyers (Thunderbowl Raceway and North Central Speedway) and Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway and I-55 Raceway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; North Central Speedway; Brainerd, MN; July 3, 2010
Qualifying
- 7S-Jason Sides 12.938
- 83-Tim Kaeding 13.251
- 11K-Kraig Kinser 13.274
- 63-Chad Kemenah 13.308
- 18-Tony Bruce Jr. 13.316
- 15-Donny Schatz 13.348
- 91-Paul McMahan 13.417
- 14-Jason Meyers 13.465
- 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 13.480
- 59-Brooke Tatnell 13.557
- 9-Joey Saldana 13.558
- 6-Danny Lasoski 13.609
- 5W-Lucas Wolfe 13.617
- 7-Craig Dollansky 13.631
- 3-Kerry Madsen 13.645
- 2B-Ben Gregg 13.665
- 22-Brian Ellenberger 13.671
- R19-Jac Haudenschild 13.706
- 11-Steve Kinser 13.725
- 1K-Chris Shirek 13.943
- 8-Casey Mack 14.022
- 1H-Jeremy Kerzman 14.165
- 4X-Toni Lutar 14.194
- 19-Rob Kibli 14.308
- 11J-Nick Shirek 14.660
- 29-Leigh Thomas 14.668
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
- 59-Brooke Tatnell[1]
- 5W-Lucas Wolfe[5]
- 91-Paul McMahan[2]
- 11-Steve Kinser[7]
- 7S-Jason Sides[4]
- 2B-Ben Gregg[6]
- 1H-Jeremy Kerzman[8]
- 11J-Nick Shirek[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
- 14-Jason Meyers[2]
- 9-Joey Saldana[1]
- 18-Tony Bruce Jr,[3]
- 7-Craig Dollansky[5]
- 22-Brian Ellenberger[6]
- 4X-Toni Lutar[8]
- 83-Tim Kaeding[4]
- 29-Leigh Thomas[9]
- 1K-Chris Shirek[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
- 6-Danny Lasoski[1]
- 15-Donny Schatz[3]
- 11K-Kraig Kinser[4]
- R19-Jac Haudenschild[6]
- 3-Kerry Madsen[5]
- 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[2]
- 8-Casey Mack[7]
- 19-Rob Kibli[8]
Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
- 14-Jason Meyers[1]
- 91-Paul McMahan[2]
- 7S-Jason Sides[6]
- 15-Donny Schatz[3]
- 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[4]
- 11K-Kraig Kinser[5]
- 9-Joey Saldana[8]
- 6-Danny Lasoski[9]
- 5W-Lucas Wolfe[10]
- 59-Brooke Tatnell[7]
B-main (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
- 83-Tim Kaeding[1]
- 63-Chad Kemenah[2]
- 8-Casey Mack[4]
- 1K-Chris Shirek[3]
- 19-Rob Kibli[6]
- 1H-Jeremy Kerzman[5]
- 11J-Nick Shirek[7] [$200]
- 29-Leigh Thomas[8] [$180]
A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#]
- 14-Jason Meyers[1] [$10,000]
- 15-Donny Schatz[4] [$5,500]
- 9-Joey Saldana[7] [$3,200]
- 11K-Kraig Kinser[6] [$2,800]
- 83-Tim Kaeding[11] [$2,500]
- 7S-Jason Sides[3] [$2,300]
- 63-Chad Kemenah[12] [$2,200]
- 11-Steve Kinser[19] [$2,100]
- 91-Paul McMahan[2] [$2,050]
- 5W-Lucas Wolfe[9] [$2,000]
- 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[13] [$1,500]
- R19-Jac Haudenschild[18] [$1,200]
- 3-Kerry Madsen[15] [$1,100]
- 2B-Ben Gregg[16] [$1,050]
- 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[5] [$1,000]
- 4X-Toni Lutar[22] [$900]
- 8-Casey Mack[21] [$800]
- 22-Brian Ellenberger[17] [$800]
- 1K-Chris Shirek[20] [$800]
- 1H-Jeremy Kerzman[24] [$800]
- 6-Danny Lasoski[8] [$800]
- 7-Craig Dollansky[14] [$800]
- 59-Brooke Tatnell[10] [$800]
- 19-Rob Kibli[23] [$800]
Lap Leaders: Jason Meyers 1-35
KSE Hard Charger Award: Steve Kinser
Penske Power Position Award: Ben Gregg
World of Outlaws Championship Standings Through July 3
- Joey Saldana 4462
- Steve Kinser 4442 -20
- Jason Meyers 4435 -27
- Donny Schatz 4297 -165
- Jason Sides 4266 -196
- Paul McMahan 4128 -334
- Lucas Wolfe 4117 -345
- Jac Haudenschild 4057 -405
- Craig Dollansky 4036 -426
- Kraig Kinser 4003 -459
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Chizmark & Larson Insurance, Goodyear Tires (Official Tire), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, Jake’s Custom Golf Carts, KSE Race Products, Penske Shocks, R2C Performance, Racing Electronics, S&S Volvo; Engine Builder's Challenge participants Don Ott Racing Engines, Kistler Engines, Shaver Specialties and Speedway Engines; and Chassis Builder’s Challenge participants J&J Auto Racing, Maxim Racing and XXX Race Company.
Submitted By: Tony Veneziano