BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Donny Schatz labeled Thursday night’s O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions finale during the 37th annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park a test session.
Many may have called it a dominant performance. Schatz started on the pole and at one point led by more than five seconds en route to winning the 30-lap event for his second victory in three nights at the half-mile dirt track.
“We ran a whole different thing tonight than we have and we said we would commit to it tonight and do it, no matter if we won or lost,” said Schatz, who earned $7,000 for the victory. “I had to drive as hard as I could and some nights you have to do that. It helps me get better and you become more diversified as a driver.”
Schatz started on the pole, and ran side by side with Lance Dewease for most of the first lap and was scored the leader at the line. From there, he began to pull away and was in lapped traffic just six laps into the race.
The only thing that slowed him down was a lap-21 red flag after Kraig Kinser flipped. On the restart, he quickly pulled away from the field to earn his third career All Star victory.
Joey Saldana lined up third and battled Dewease and Jason Meyers throughout. At the halfway point of the race, he traded the third spot with Meyers a number of times. After moving into third, Saldana set his sights on Dewease and caught him late in the race to move into the runner-up position.
With three laps remaining, Schatz entered lapped traffic which gave Saldana a chance to close the gap slightly, but he ran out of laps.
“It was a good race for us,” said Saldana. “We struggled in the last two and went back to basics tonight. We’re back on the front straightaway and it’s a good place to be heading into tomorrow.”
Meyers used a last-lap pass of Dewease to snare third. Dewease and Craig Dollansky rounded out the remaining top five.
The summary:
Qualifications: 1. Donny Schatz, Stewart 15, 13.583; 2. Joey Saldana, Kahne 9, 13.738; 3. Danny Lasoski, Forbrook 5, 13.752; 4. Jason Meyers, Stockbridge 14, 13.777; 5. Cody Darrah, Darrah 89, 13.779; 6. Chad Hillier, Hillier 5c, 13.801; 7. Felmlee, Felmlee 6f, 13.823; 8. Lance Dewease, Owens 30c, 13.842; 9. Fred Rahmer, Clemens 51, 13.852; 10. Steve Kinser, Kinser 11, 13.857; 11. Lucas Wolfe, Allebach 5w, 13.887; 12. Kraig Kinser, Stewart 20, 13.889; 13. Brian Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20e, 13.898; 14. Jac Haudenschild, Solwold r19, 13.899; 15. Craig Dollanksy, Woodward 2, 13.968; 16. Greg Wilson, Warnimont w20, 13.972; 17. Randy Hannagan, Hannagan 1x, 13.975; 18. Brock Mayes, Mayes 11b, 13.995; 19. Jeff Shepard, Zemaitis 1z, 13.996; 20. Daryn Pittman, Titan 21, 14.013; 21. Brian Paulus, P& P 28, 14.016; 22. Stevie Smith, Smith 19, 14.038; 23. Tony Bruce, Jr., Bruce 18, 14.039; 24. Dale Blaney, Fisher 2, 14.050; 25. Tim Kaeding, Rolfe 10, 14.062; 26. Jason Botsford, Botsford 29a, 14.093; 27. Chad Kemenah, Hard Eight 8k, 14.150; 28. Rager Phillips, Phillips 9p, 14.176; 29. Shane Stewart, Roth 83, 14.177; 30. T.J. Stutts, Trones 39, 14.227; 31. Mark Smith, Smith 7mx, 14.228; 32. Danny Smith, Smith 4, 14.239; 33. Greg Hodnett, Cline 22, 14.245; 34. Paul McMahan, Ferkel 0, 14.259; 35. Chad Layton, Postupack 25, 14.326; 36. Dustin Morgan, Holbrook 8, 14.357; 37. Ben Gregg, Gregg 22b, 14.364; 38. Wayne Johnson, Hammers 94, 14.395; 39. Tim Shaffer, Parsons 6, 14.402; 40. Natalie Sather, Sather 94s, 14.424; 41. Paul May, May 71, 14.439; 42. Spud Gustin, Gustin 80, 14.472; 43. Ryan Myers, Myers 56r, 14.483; 44. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Hafertepe 15h, 14.532; 45. Eric Baldaccini, Baldaccini b4, 14.555; 46. Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 14.558; 47. Brandon Martin, Martin 11m, 14.602; 48. Bob Schaeffer, Schaeffer 71j, 14.621; 49. Lee Stark, Stark 16s, 14.818; 50. Geoff Dodge, Dodge 7m, 15.052; 51. Neil Shepherd, Shepherd 4n, 15.435.
First Heat: Schatz, Hannagan, Kaeding, Paulus, Rahmer, Stewart, Ellenberger, Hodnett, Darrah, Gregg, May, Stark, Baldaccini.
Second Heat: S. Smith, Haudenschild, Kinser, Saldana, Mayes, Hillier, McMahan, W. Johnson, McCarl, Stutts, Dodge, Gustin, Botsford.
Third Heat: Dollanksy, Bruce, Shepard, Lasoski, Kemenah, Wolfe, Layton, Felmlee, M. Smith, Shaffer, Martin, Myers, Shepherd.
Fourth Heat: Blaney, Pittman, K. Kinser, Meyers, Dewease, Wilson, Hafertepe, Sather, Morgan, Phillips, D. Smith, Schaeffer.
Dash: Dewease, Blaney, Hannagan, Mayes, Paulus, Rahmer.
C Main: Shaffer, McCarl, W. Johnson, May, B. Martin, Sather, Gregg, Shepherd, Myers, Dodge, Stark, Gustin, Schaeffer, Hafertepe.
B Main: Darrah, Wolfe, Stewart, Hillier, Wilson, Felmlee, M. Smith, McMahan, McCarl, Ellenberger, Hodnett, Smith, Morgan, Shaffer, Layton, W. Johnson, Stutts, Phillips, May, Botsford.
Feature: Schatz, Saldana, Meyers, Dewease, Dollanksy, Rahmer, Pittman, Lasoski, Kemenah, Wolfe, Hannagan, Haudenschild, S. Kinser, Stewart, Blaney, Kaeding, Darrah, Hillier, Paulus, S. Smith, Mayes, Bruce, K. Kinser, Shepard.