ATTICA, Ohio — Donny Schatz not only had 25 other drivers chasing him on Friday night, but he also had Mother Nature knocking at his door, as she tried her best to derail the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event at Attica Raceway Park.
Schatz bested the field and the weather at the third-mile oval to score his second A-Feature victory of the season and the 72nd of his World of Outlaws career.
Schatz took the lead from Paul McMahan on the 11th lap, exiting the fourth turn as he charged down the front straightaway and quickly began to pull away. He endured a couple of cautions over the course of the 40-lap contest, but strong restarts each time kept him handily in front of the field aboard the Armor All J&J for Tony Stewart Racing.
With the win, Schatz remains the only Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series driver that has finished in the top 10 in all 13 events this season.
“It was a good night for us,” said Schatz. “We keep working hard to get that feel I like back, and each day we keep making big strides. I think we have our hand on what it is, and I am very excited about that.”
Schatz lined up third and ran there for the first four laps of the race before getting around Jac Haudenschild to move into the runner-up position. He then began to reel in Paul McMahan, who led from the green flag.
“I knew we would be good when we got to traffic,” Schatz noted. “We just had to wait through our car a little bit. We had a really good car, but had to wait for the fuel load to come off. That’s something we have been working on all year, to get our car better late in the race, like it’s been the last couple of years, and we got it tonight.”
The race began with a light mist, which intensified throughout the event, though with 24 cars running all over the surface, there was not much room for the rain to actually hit the track. The checkered flag flew just around 9:30 p.m. as officials did everything they could to make sure the capacity crowd was able see the full 40-lap event.
“You could see it a little, but it wasn’t coming down real bad,” said the winner of the rain late in the event. “My car was stuck so good through the middle and the top that it didn’t really affect me. I know there are some people that probably would have wished it would have rained halfway through while they were leading, but not me. Every lap I do, I get better and I need every lap I can get. I’m glad to run all 40 laps and get away with a victory.”
Joey Saldana, who finished second, earned his seventh top-five finish of the season aboard the Budweiser-Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI.
“It was a good run for us,” said Saldana. “We had a driver error in qualifying and I had to redeem myself in the heat race. We got up through there in the (Crane Cams) Dash. In the feature, we kind of fell back and stuck with it and got going. I thought I was catching him with five to go. I was catching him off of (turn) two, but catching him is one thing and passing him is another. It was definitely a good run for us.”
Shane Stewart finished third to earn his third top-five finish in the last four events, driving a Steve Kent-built machine for the Roth Motorsports team.
Chad Kemenah and point-leader Jason Meyers rounded out the top five.