WILMOT, Wis. — Daryn Pittman led 32 of the 40 laps en route to his third Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory of the season Friday night at Wilmot Speedway.
Pittman pocketed $10,000 for the 28th victory of his WoO career, holding off two-time defending series champion Donny Schatz and Jason Meyers for the victory. It was his fourth-career victory in the state of Wisconsin and first at Wilmot Speedway.
“Wins are tough to get and you hate to give them away and we gave that one away two years ago,” said Pittman. “We were confident coming back in here that we could do it. This is a unique race track and probably one of the flattest places we go and generally makes for some good racing. You hate to lose them, so this is a special win.”
The race began on Friday night with Pittman leading from the pole, with Chad Kemenah pressuring him on the high side of the track. For each of the first three laps, Kemenah looked high on Pittman exiting turn four as the pair charged down the front straightaway. Pittman maintained a couple of car length lead and had pulled away a little bit, when the first caution of the night flew on the fourth lap.
On the restart, Pittman led, while Kemenah had his hands full with Donny Schatz and Joey Saldana as the pair battled for third just behind him. Schatz took third on the fifth lap and quickly began to pressure Kemenah.
At the same time, Kemenah was able to close in on Pittman as he worked lapped traffic. The final caution of the night waved on the 10th lap, giving the leaders open race track.
On the restart, Kemenah kept pace with Pittman, again looking high off the fourth turn a couple of times for the lead. On the 13th lap, Kemenah used a strong run through turns one and two to power his way past Pittman on the backstraightaway and pull away.
A couple of laps later, the leaders were in traffic, allowing Pittman and Schatz to close in on Kemenah. At one point, Kemenah and Pittman were three-wide with a lapped car, with Kemenah retaining the lead.
 On the 22nd lap, Pittman was able to get back around Kemenah in turns three and four for the lead.
“I think it was the key move that he (Kemenah) got around me and I am glad he did,” Pittman explained. “I knew the bottom slowed up a bit, but when you are out front it’s hard to move off the line that got you there. He basically proved to me that the top was fast and made me move up there and get up on the wheel and start driving harder. I felt like my car was better on top in (turns) one and two and the bottom in (turns) three and four. Sometimes its better to be running second and that was definitely the case tonight.”
Schatz, the two-time defending series champion lined up fifth and finished second.
“We changed a few things and actually got ourselves in a good position,” said Schatz. “It was very untypical of my race car to get slower as the race went on. It doesn’t normally do that. We did a few things tonight and learned some things and that’s a bonus.”
Jason Meyers started seventh and finished third to earn his 30th top-five finish of the season. Craig Dollansky and Joey Saldana rounded out the top five.