Schatz wins but the Posse was tough

ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. – May 19, 2016. After the wash out of night one of the Gettysburg Clash at Lincoln the battle for Sprintcar supremacy e World of Outlaws and the PA Posse continued.The regular clash between these two giants of US Sprintcars is eagerly anticipated by fans worldwide.

At Lincoin at least Donny Schatz did none thing and that was to clearly stamping himself as the top dog .Earning pole after his strong qualifying and Dash win the seven times Outlaw Champ lead from the start and every lap of the 35 lap journey to stake the Outlaws claim for supremacy .

The win might look easy from the official results but Schatz hard to stay on his marks as Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks and Greg Hodnett chased down the Champ right to the flag and in the process burnt off any other likely Outlaw challengers. Behind Hodnett came Logan Schuchart and Lucas Wolfe. Brad Sweet was the next best across the stripe.

Schatz was clear and precise through the traffic but he needed to be as Dietrich always looked like he could threaten the lead. In taking his sixth win for the Outlaws season Schatz became the first Outlaw since 1997 to get over the top of the Posses in their backyard and claim the “Gettysburg Clash.

With Schatz giving the Outlaws some bragging rights partisan Posses fans would say 2spots on the podium probably squared up the argument so the question will now need to be resolved at the two night of the Morgan Cup at Williams Grove this Friday and Saturday night.Now with six wins in the bag Schatz has move up in second place and is making Brad Sweet’s lead of 91 points looking just a little vulnerable.

Driver quotes:

Donny Schatz: “It’s great to win here at Lincoln, especially after never winning here before,” Schatz said. “Everybody was pretty equal and you can see that because not too many cars got lapped during the race and that’s just the nature of the beast. That front-row starting spot was key, as it has been at a lot of races this year, and I am glad I could capitalize on it.

“The expectation is you want to win every night, and it’s not going to happen. We haven’t been that bad but for the standards this team has put forth the last several years, it kind of seems that way. We have tried several things, and I guess to be in the situation we are in right now where we can try these new things and make ourselves better, that’s going to pay off for us at the end of the year.”

Danny Dietrich:” This was a good run for the team,” Dietrich said. “To be able to run second out of 38 or 39 cars it’s definitely a good feeling. We’re satisfied with our finish tonight, just too bad it couldn’t be one position better.

“Donny [Schatz] is a heck of a racer, catching him and passing him was going to be a whole other problem. He was in the preferred on the start so that made things a little tougher, but congrats to him and we’re going to move on to The Grove tomorrow.”

Brent Marks :” I got to second there, got past Danny [Dietrich] in turn three, and I thought he was going to slide me back, so I drove it in too hard and just got over the ledge a little bit and he got back by me. I felt like I blew the race there because I felt like we had a good enough car that if we got some laps we could run down Donny. Don’t know if I could have done anything – maybe shown him my nose and put some pressure on him, but never got the opportunity. Other than that, I felt like we had a good run against the Outlaws and I can’t complain.”

Gettysburg Clash results:

A-Main – (35 Laps) – 1. 15-Donny Schatz [1][$10,000]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich [2][$5,500]; 3. 19M-Brent Marks [6][$3,200]; 4. 27-Greg Hodnett [5][$2,800]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart [7][$2,500]; 6. 1Z-Lucas Wolfe [4][$2,300]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet [8][$2,200]; 8. 52-Austin Hogue [17][$2,100]; 9. 41-Jason Johnson [14][$2,050]; 10. 9-Daryn Pittman [11][$2,000]; 11. 83-Joey Saldana [3][$1,500]; 12. 5-David Gravel [9][$1,200]; 13. 94-Ryan Smith [19][$1,100]; 14. 25-Aaron Ott [18][$1,050]; 15. 23-Trey Starks [10][$1,000]; 16. W20-Greg Wilson [15][$900]; 17. 87-Alan Krimes [16][$800]; 18. 16-Gerard McIntyre [24][$800]; 19. 88-Brandon Rahmer [13][$800]; 20. 51S-Stevie Smith [22][$800]; 21. 59-Jim Siegel [23][$800]; 22. 7S-Jason Sides [12][$800]; 23. 2-Shane Stewart [20][$800]; 24. 51-Freddie Rahmer [21][$800]. Lap Leaders: Donny Schatz 1-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 52-Austin Hogue [+9].

The Outlaws and the Posse now take their battle to Williams grove Speedway for two night of the Morgan Cup on Friday and Saturday night.