CONCORD, N.C. — For 29 circuits, Donny Schatz sailed toward his second-straight World of Outlaws victory at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway. But with less than half a lap to go, Jason Meyers used traffic to make his move around the point leader and take the first night of the inaugural World Finals.
It was the second time in less than a week that Meyers made a late-race move to steal the victory from the dominant car.
Schatz, the fastest qualifier for Friday’s 30-lap event, started second in the feature and took the top spot from Meyers exiting the second turn on the first lap.
Schatz opened up a brief gap on Meyers, who faced a challenge from Steve Kinser for second place. Meyers, though, held off the 20-time champion and used lapped traffic to pull up to Schatz’s No. 15 Parker Stores J&J.
The challenge was negated by a red flag on lap 14 for a scary crash between Kerry Madsen and Paul McMahan. The two touched rear wheels, sending McMahan’s No. 20 Bass Pro Shops Eagle tumbling into the turn-two fence where it caught briefly before hitting the clay nose-first. Both drivers walked away without injury.
Meyers stayed with Schatz on the restart, but it wasn’t until the leader reached lapped traffic with three laps remaining that Meyers had a shot at regaining the point. Meyers used a strong run off turn two on the final lap to stick his No. 14 Primerica Financial Maxim beneath Schatz in turns three and four, and then won the drag race to the checkered flag.
“Donny had a great race car. To pass the 15 car is saying something,” Meyers said. “To come to Charlotte and to put that car up front is awesome.”
To get the victory, the 28-year-old Clovis, Calif., native knew that Schatz would have to have trouble.
“I knew it was going to take lapped traffic. Donny’s a good driver,” Meyers said. “We had to have lapped traffic. It just came together for us.”
Meyers’s $10,000 triumph was the fifth of 2007 and the 18th of his career. It was also his first trip to victory lane at the four-tenths-mile clay oval.
Meyers visited victory lane after a similar finish Oct. 27 in the Short Track Nationals 40-lap finale at I-30 Speedway. Meyers passed Shane Stewart with the white flag in sight to take the $20,000 score.
With his runner-up finish, Schatz clinched his second-consecutive series title with one race remaining in the 2007 campaign.
Tim Shaffer followed Schatz to the line in third. Kinser and Stewart completed the top-five finishers.