BRANDON, S.D. — Huset’s Speedway may be 249 miles from Fargo, N.D., where he lives, but Donny Schatz considers the three-eighths-mile oval a home track. He raced at the track many times when he was cutting his teeth and climbing the sprint-car racing ladder.
On July 3, Schatz won his second World of Outlaws feature at the track. It was his ninth victory of the season.
“Huset’s is one of the places that I grew up racing at,” said Schatz, driver of the Snap-on Tools J&J. “It has been near and dear to my heart for a long time. I feel liked it has robbed me a few times, so tonight was a great night to get back to victory lane.”
The race began with a false start that moved Terry McCarl to the outside of the front row beside Schatz. A second start was negated by an accident. On the third try, Schatz ran the low groove, with McCarl taking the lead at the top of the track.
The six-time Huset’s champion led the first six laps before Schatz caught him in lapped traffic. On the seventh lap, Schatz dove low in turn three to take the lead. He was never headed the rest of the way.
Craig Dollansky came on strong to finish second.
“We felt like we had a pretty good line working out there,” said Dollansky. “The (No.) 15 car has been strong all year. Our team has been working to get a few things sorted out with our cars and our motors.
“It’s a good run for us, though we don’t like coming home second. We had a shot at the win a couple of times. If he would have bobbled we definitely had a run on him on that one restart.”
McCarl, who is the winningest driver in Huset’s Speedway history, finished third.