MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Donny Schatz always has plenty of motivation when he comes to Williams Grove Speedway, and track officials added 5,000 more reasons on Saturday, as they raised the winner’s share for the Cleveland Brothers Summer Nationals from $20,000 to $25,000 prior to the event.
The two-time defending series champion swept under Craig Dollansky on the 20th lap to take the lead and proceeded to slice his way through lapped traffic for the remaining 10 laps to earn his series- leading 11th victory of the season and the 81st of his Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws career, which places him in a tie with 2001 series champion Danny Lasoski for fifth on the all-time win list.
“It feels good to get back to victory lane,” said Schatz, who won for the 15th time at the historic half-mile oval. “It feels like it’s been a little bit since we won. We had an awesome race car tonight, especially at the end of the night. We worked on it early in the night and got going and put ourselves in a good position to get to the front.”
After leading late in the race on Friday night before being passed by Daryn Pittman with three laps remaining, Schatz and his team found a couple of things that they tried on Saturday.
“We learn stuff every time we hit the race track,” he noted. “It doesn’t matter if we have been to victory lane here or not, every time you hit the track helps. The track changed. It stayed longer and it stayed wetter throughout the night. These guys did an awesome job with the track.”
Schatz lined up fourth for the 30-lap feature and moved into second on the opening lap, while Dollansky set the pace. After losing second to Joey Saldana on the third lap, he took it back on the seventh circuit and set his sights on Dollansky. Schatz patiently shadowed Dollansky and worked lapped traffic masterfully to track him down and take the lead.
“It’s tough to pass anyone in wide- open race track anymore,” explained Schatz. “I was able cut the corner in three and four on him and keep up with him on exit to get a good run on him. I could get through traffic pretty well and maneuver around and I kept trying to see where I could go. I had a good night.”
Dollansky led the first 19 laps and finished second.
Jason Meyers followed up a fifth-place finish in the opener of the Summer Nationals with a third-place performance on Saturday.
Fred Rahmer and Saldana rounded out the top five.