Schatz closes in on Pittman –Is a Sixth Title a bridge too far

Schatz win at Rolling Wheels from McMahan and Dollansky

ELBRIDGE, N.Y. – Oct. 12, 2013: Schatz closes in on Pittman’s lead in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Title Chase when he secured his 22^nd win for the season at Rolling Wheels Raceway.

The win brings Schatz to within 52 points of Pittman as they close in on the final three shows for the year at the Dirt Track Charlotte.

Schatz no doubt is paying the price for his slow start to the Championship that enabled Pittman to jump out to a likely Title winning position.

After qualifying in 5^th position Schatz won the dash and started the 25 lap Feature from pole. Schatz and pole equal the win and at Rolling Wheels Schatz was a class above the rest. McMahan and Dollansky were next best and joined Schatz on the podium. Pittman’s ability to limit the damage when Schatz is in such form is impressive. With a points advantage of 3 points gained early due to his 2^nd fastest time behind Dave Ely and his fourth placing behind Schatz assisted the damage control.

The race engineers and tacticians for both the Tony Stewart/STP/Armor All J&J and the Kasey Kahne/Great Clips team will be spending the three weeks break before the Final Chapter in the STP Championship at Charlotte to squeeze that little extra bit of performance and reliability out of their race cars.

Pittman must go into the final 3 race showdown as a firm favorite. The equation for Schatz is simple win each of the remaining three Features and hope Pittman finishes no better than 7^th in each of the remaining races .Schatz will also need to out qualify Pittman on each night.

Driver Quotes

Donny Schatz  “It was a good night, I got qualified decent and had a good heat race, really good dash and built on it for the feature,” said Schatz, of Fargo, N.D., who is fourth all-time in World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series history with 146 wins, seven behind Mark Kinser. “In the 25 laps, the car changed quite a bit, but the guys did a really good job, and they keep finding ways to make this car better and more fun for me to drive. I tried to play my lap traffic smart and get around them as quick as I could without jeopardizing anything.”

 Paul McMahan “The car was pretty good, but just a little short tonight,” said McMahan, who resides near Nashville, Tenn. “We were getting better as the race went on, but just didn’t have enough to catch Donny. The track stays about the same every time we come here, but the key to this place is just starting up front. Hopefully in a few weeks we can pick up one more spot.”

Paul McMahan

 Craig Dollansky “There were a couple of grooves out there to work with,” said Dollansky, of Elk River, Minn. “It seemed like the top groove favored the way that our car was. We hated to see that yellow flag when Joey stopped. I ran the bottom a couple of different times, but I was really just trying to create different lanes where you could pass. Starting where we did and get up there and in the mix was a pretty good run for us.”

 Qualifying

Top 5 – 1. 65-Dave Ely, 16.477; 2. 9-Daryn Pittman, 16.491; 3. 8-Blake Breen, 16.524; 4. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 16.568; 5. 15-Donny Schatz, 16.589

 Heat 1 – (8 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [1]; 2. 51-Paul McMahan [2]; 3. 11K-Kraig Kinser [3]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [5]; 5. 65-Dave Ely [4]; 6. 71M-Joey Saldana [6]; 7. 1Z-Jessica Zemken [8]; 8. 6-Bill Rose [7]; 9. X-Dan Mazy [9]

Heat 2 – (8 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1. 7-Craig Dollansky [1]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 3. 9-Daryn Pittman [4]; 4. 17B-Steve Buckwalter [5]; 5. 5-Justin Barger [6]; 6. 69-Ryan Smith [7]; 7. 49-Todd Hoddick [8]; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah [2]; 9. 24K-Devin Caron [9]

Heat 3 – (8 Laps – Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature): 1. 2X-Ryan Bohlke [1]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen [2]; 3. 11-Steve Kinser [3]; 4. 8-Blake Breen [4]; 5. 747-Davey Sammons [5]; 6. G6-David Gravel [8]; 7. 4-Cody Darrah [6]; 8. O-Glenn Styres [7]; 9. 28F-Davie Franek [9]

Dash – (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature: 1. 15-Donny Schatz [2]; 2. 51-Paul McMahan [1]; 3. 11K-Kraig Kinser [3]; 4. 8-Blake Breen [4]; 5. 9-Daryn Pittman [5]; 6. 1-Sammy Swindell [8]; 7. 7-Craig Dollansky [9]; 8. 29-Kerry Madsen [7]; 9. 65-Dave Ely [6]; 10. 2X-Ryan Bohlke [10]

 A-Main – (25 Laps): 1. 15-Donny Schatz [1] [$10,000]; 2. 51-Paul McMahan [2] [$5,500]; 3. 7-Craig Dollansky [7] [$3,200]; 4. 9-Daryn Pittman [5] [$2,800]; 5. 11K-Kraig Kinser [3] [$2,500]; 6. 29-Kerry Madsen [8] [$2,300]; 7. 4-Cody Darrah [18] [$2,200]; 8. 63-Chad Kemenah [12] [$2,100]; 9. 17B-Steve Buckwalter [14] [$2,050]; 10. 65-Dave Ely [9] [$2,000]; 11. 11-Steve Kinser [11] [$1,500]; 12. 1-Sammy Swindell [6] [$1,200]; 13. 7S-Jason Sides [13] [$1,100]; 14. 5-Justin Barger [17] [$1,050]; 15. 2X-Ryan Bohlke [10] [$1,000]; 16. 1Z-Jessica Zemken [21] [$900]; 17. 747-Davey Sammons [15] [$800]; 18. 69-Ryan Smith [19] [$800]; 19. 6-Bill Rose [23] [$800]; 20. O-Glenn Styres [20] [$800]; 21. 71M-Joey Saldana [16] [$800]; 22. 28F-Davie Franek [24] [$800]; 23. 8-Blake Breen [4] [$800]; 24. G6-David Gravel [22] [$800]. Lap Leaders: Donny Schatz 1-25. KSE Hard Charger Award: 4-Cody Darrah [+11

World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series Championship Standings

Next up the final chapters in the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series will roll out at the World Finals Nov. 7-8-9 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

The Dirt Track Charlotte