Schatz rebounds with Cornwall victory
The World of Outlaws made their first visit to Cornwall Motor Speedway this evening. The high banked 4/10 mile track would hold many surprises for the drivers of the Greatest Show on Dirt; some would be pleasant and some would be not so pleasant. But at the end of the night all would leave with a new respect not only for the track but for the winner as well.
On Saturday Night during the A Main, teammates Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser got into a vicious tangle that would send Donny head on into the end of an inside retaining wall. The impact would send his winged sprint car into a series of wild and vicious flips leaving him in the infield. Schatz who climbed from the car under his own power took a few steps and then went down to his knees on the ground a short distance from the car. Although Schatz would be released by paramedics the impact and the flips were incredibly hard and bone jarring. Late Saturday night Schatz’s True Speed Communications representative would give the following update on his condition, “Donny is a little sore. But he is racing tonight.” During the broadcast by the World of Outlaws it would be reported that Schatz was competing with a shoulder injury. His performance through out the night would not give any indication that 4 time Outlaws Champion Donny Schatz was anything but on his A game.
Qualifying went quickly with the 22 cars turning 10 and 11 second laps. With this being a debut date the quick time would be the new track record and that time would be set by Lucas Wolfe with a lap of 10.246. The top 13 cars would all turn laps within the 10 second range with only .633 seconds separating first from 13th.
The Qualifying would prove eventful for the two female drivers in the field Jessica Zemken and April Wilson. Zemken would experience engine difficulties and have to change engines over to a 360 cu in rather than the 410 cu in engine she began the night with. April Wilson would scratch for the evening before even taking a lap on the track.
The three heat races were exciting and brought surprises of their own. With everyone transferring to the A Main the need to finish as far up as possible became critical to try to capture one of the 4 remaining dash positions to get in that precious top 10 starting spots of the A.
The first heat race was won by Joey Saldana but not without a hard fight from Australian Sprint Car Champion James McFadden. It would be a hard fought race that Saldana would win with no breathing room. McFadden didn’t have any either as he had 20 time World of Outlaws Champion Steve Kinser on his heels. The first big surprise came on lap 6 of the heat. Cody Darrah and McFadden would get together when McFadden would attempt a poorly timed slide job sending Darrah flipping wildly and coming to rest on the top of the back stretch retaining wall. Darrah would walk away but the car would not be so lucky. With massive front and rear damage the team went to the tree house for the back up. Pulling the back up would mean surrendering Darrah’s Dash spot and relegate him to the last starting spot in the A main. McFadden would somehow never come to a stop and continue on putting him back in the second spot that he was challenging Darrah for at the time of the wreck. When the checkers flew, it would be Joey Saldana holding off McFadden and Kinser but Saldana would hurt the engine on the final restart and have to change engines going into the dash his second such surprise of the day.
The second heat would start 4 time Champion Donny Schatz on the front row with Bill Rose. Schatz would pull to the lead and never look back. He would be challenged late in the heat by points leader Craig Dollansky but would hang on for the win. Finishing in third was Sammy Swindell.
The third heat would be the hardest fought of the heat battles. With Kraig Kinser holding off a hard charging Kerry Madsen and Chad Kemenah. Jessica Zemken would start the heat but would pull off at half way with more engine difficulties.
The Dash inversion draw was an 8. This started Schatz and Kraig Kinser on the front row with Kinser taking the pole. Schatz was on a mission and took the lead going into 3 on lap 2. Kinser would have his hands full with a hard charging Kerry Madsen for the entire 8 laps. Joey Saldana whose engine was changed in time to start the dash would pull off the track before half way with a broken rear end. Schatz would win the Dash to start on the pole and set up one of the hardest fought battles of the year with Kraig Kinser.
The A Main was a 40 lap hold your breath sit on the edge of your seat and yell for your favorite kind of race. Donny Schatz took the early lead but Kraig Kinser wasn’t going quietly. He charged at Schatz from the high side and Schatz held him off. He went to the bottom and slid up on Schatz but Schatz turned back under him. He got side by side. He tried everything short of contact to get around Donny Schatz to no avail. Schatz held on in traffic, on clear race track on the straights in the corners. With 8 laps to go Kerry Madsen would spin in 4 and Sammy Swindell would spin in 2 bringing out the only yellow flag of the evening. But not before Kraig Kinser would do a perfect 360 and drop to 5th. On the restart it would be Schatz and Dollansky with a hungry Steve Kinser in third. The green would be a drag race to 1 with Schatz going to the cushion and Dollansky to the inside Kinser would slide high and challenge Dollansky for the second spot and Dollansky would hold him off. All the while Schatz was getting away. Finally coming out of the 4th turn Steve Kinser pulled a perfect slider onto the straight to pass Dollansky and clear him at the line. The game had just changed. Schatz and his teammate would settle this feature. Who would it be, The King or his 4 time champion teammate. It didn’t take long to find out with 2 laps to go Schatz put a lapped car between he and Kinser and pulled out to a second lead. When the checkers fell Kinser would be just 3 car lengths off his bumper with Dollansky right on his and Sammy Swindell looking to Dollansky’s inside. . After the worst possible night on Saturday, Donny Schatz came back to win the debut appearance at Cornwall with the Outlaws. Shoulder pain is no laughing matter for a race car driver no matter what kind of car you drive but for a sprint car driver it’s twice as difficult. But Donny Schatz was there to win. He had the wing pulled all the way back and he was ready to fly. And fly he did. Schatz won every race he drove tonight and won it in convincing style. Proof that heroes are those among us that do what the rest of us don’t believe can be done no matter how bad it hurts or what the risks are.
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Qualifying Results 1) Lucas Wolfe 10.246 New Track Record, 2) Craig Dollansky, 3) Kerry Madsen, 4) James McFadden, 5) Sammy Swindell, 6) Chad Kemenah, 7) Cody Darrah, 8) Donny Schatz, 9) Kraig Kinser, 10) Joey Saldana 11) Bill Rose, 12) Michael Parent, 13) Steve Kinser, 14) Devin Caron, 15) Kayle Robidoux, 16) Mike Stetler, 17) Lee Ladouceur, 18) Warren Mahoney, 19) Tyler Rand, 20) Curtis Bradshaw, 21) Jessica Zemken No time posted, 22) April Wilson No time posted.
Heat 1 Results: 1) Joey Saldana 2) James McFadden 3) Steve Kinser 4) Lucas Wolfe 5) James Stelter 6) Tyler Rand 7) Cody Darrah
Heat 2 Results: 1) Donny Schatz 2) Craig Dollansky 3) Sammy Swindell 4) Devin Caron 5) Lee Ladourceur 6) Bill Rose 7) Curtis Bradshaw
Heat 3 Results: 1) Kraig Kinser 2) Kerry Madsen 3) Chad Kemenah 4) Michael Parent 5) Warren Mahoney 6) Jessica Zemken 7) Kayle Robidoux
Dash Results: 1) Donny Schatz 2) Kraig Kinser 3) Kerry Madsen 4) Chad Kemenah 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Craig Dollansky 7) Sammy Swindell 8) James McFadden 9) Bill Rose 10) Joey Saldana
A Main Results: 1) Donny Schatz 2) Steve Kinser 3) Craig Dollansky 4) Sammy Swindell 5) Lucas Wolfe 6) Chad Kemenah 7) Kraig Kinser 8) Joey Saldana 9) Michael Parent 10) Cody Darrah 11) James McFadden 12) Bill Rose 13) Kerry Madsen 14) Lee Ladouceur 15) Devin Caron 16) Jim Stelter 17) Warren Mahoney 18) Tyler Rand 19) Jessica Zemken 20) Kayle Robidoux 21) Curtis Bradshaw
KSE Hardcharger of the Race was Cody Darrah coming from 21st to 10th.
World of Outlaw Points standings as of Cornwall.
| Pos. | Driver | Total | Diff | Wins | Top 5’s | Top 10’s | QT |
| 1 | Craig Dollansky | 6059 | 0 | 6 | 22 | 32 | 8 |
| 2 | Steve Kinser | 6045 | -14 | 3 | 20 | 33 | 0 |
| 3 | Sammy Swindell | 6020 | -39 | 8 | 19 | 30 | 7 |
| 4 | Joey Saldana | 6018 | -41 | 5 | 16 | 32 | 6 |
| 5 | Donny Schatz | 6010 | -49 | 4 | 16 | 35 | 0 |
| 6 | Kraig Kinser | 5912 | -147 | 4 | 16 | 31 | 4 |
| 7 | Cody Darrah | 5633 | -426 | 1 | 13 | 21 | 2 |
| 8 | Kerry Madsen | 5601 | -458 | 3 | 8 | 22 | 1 |
| 9 | Chad Kemenah | 5549 | -510 | 2 | 8 | 21 | 2 |
| 10 | Lucas Wolfe | 5267 | -792 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 1 |
| 11 | Bill Rose | 4816 | -1243 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| 12 | Jason Sides | 4006 | -2053 | 0 | 11 | 18 | 0 |
| 13 | Daryn Pittman | 2462 | -3597 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 1 |
| 14 | Danny Lasoski | 2356 | -3703 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| 15 | David Gravel | 2310 | -3749 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 4 |
| 16 | Tim Kaeding | 2301 | -3758 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
| 17 | Paul McMahan | 2221 | -3838 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 18 | Jac Haudenschild | 2054 | -4005 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 19 | Austen Wheatley | 1818 | -4241 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 20 | Brad Sweet | 1779 | -4280 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
Earnhardt Jr. takes point lead but will ‘have to wait until next year’ to win Indianapolis
[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”224″]
[/media-credit]Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to accomplish firsts in the 2012 season. Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway he added another, becoming the point leader for the first time since September of 2004.
Finishing fourth in the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard – with Matt Kenseth being caught up in an accident and finishing 35th – the new man on top is the most popular one. The standings now reverse as Earnhardt Jr. holds a 14-point advantage.
Just a month ago he won a points paying race for the first time in four years. With six races before the Chase begins at Chicago, the No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard team has both momentum and plenty confidence on their side as they look for their first championship. And they firmly believe they can accomplish that feat.
“We were really excited about our car the first run,” said Earnhardt Jr. afterwards. “Happy with how it was driving. Don’t know how fast the leaders were, but I thought the car had excellent speed and drive-ability. We messed with the balance a little bit throughout the race.
“It wasn’t perfect at the end. I think we got the best we could with the car, and the speed we had. I’m happy about that. My teammate got the win. We had a good run. I would like to win here but I’m going to have to wait until next year.”
Before the green flag flew crew chief Steve Letarte felt they could win the race if they played their strategy right. Strategy a recurring theme and race side note as many teams attempted to play the right hand. One that would get them to the front as Earnhardt Jr. needed to starting 20th.
But as they’ve done many times this year the team slowly worked their way towards the front. Knocking down the door to the top 10 and soon the top five, where he remained for the second half of the event. Indianapolis has never been a statistically great track for Earnhardt Jr. but he performs well at the speedway. Something he was plenty confident would happen again on Sunday.
Fourth would be as high as he would get, a career best finish at Indianapolis with teammate Jimmie Johnson dominating the event and appearing untouchable to the competition. Knowing he wasn’t going to gain much, Earnhardt Jr. told himself to stay smooth and bring the car home in once piece.
He was then one of the first to congratulate his teammate on his historic fourth win at the Brickyard.
As he congratulated Johnson many sent some his way as well. September 19, 2004 was the last time he held the point lead. A year that seemed to be shaping up to be Earnhardt Jr.’s He won six races, made the Chase and had his own destiny in his hands.
He let it slip through his fingers late in the Chase. First came a 25 point penalty after uttering a four-letter word in Talladega’s Victory Lane, then a wreck in Atlanta as he tried to take third place. He eventually finished fifth in the standings and hasn’t had a solid Chase since.
But those times are far-gone. Now Earnhardt Jr. leads the series in top 10s and has finished on the lead lap in the last 21 races, dating back to Homestead last November. He’s tied with another teammate, Jeff Gordon, for that record.
Something he holds to himself: having completed every one of the 5,648 laps in the 2012 season. It’s all enough to have Earnhardt Jr. thinking about what could be in terms of the championship, saying he wouldn’t mind having it come down to himself and Johnson.
Pocono next weekend comes first, the newly repaved triangle, which hosted a race earlier this season. As Earnhardt Jr. looks for more wins, something he and many others want, Pocono wouldn’t be a surprise. He led 36 laps on the way to an eighth place finish – a finished considered unacceptable but necessary as the team pitted for fuel instead of taking a gamble.
Those days may have pasted the team says. With a win in the bank, a Chase spot nearly locked up, it’s about maximum points. Speaking before Sunday’s race, Earnhardt Jr. said he was looking forward to heading back to Pocono, where he’s never won before. But his consistency might again lead to another first.
“I’m proud of that because it says a lot about our body of work,” Earnhardt Jr. said about the first 19 races of the season. “All season long we’ve been working hard and finishing well. That is symbolic of how well we’ve done. I’m proud of that.
“I have felt that way about our position in points all season long. We need to win more races. If we want to win the championship, we have to. I imagine we can win a couple races in the Chase. I don’t know if finishing fourth or fifth is going to do it. We’ll just have to see. We’d like to step it up just a little bit more.”
Zack Jarrell Saving the Ocean One FASCAR Lap at a Time
[media-credit name=”Photo Credit: Barry Vaught/Sea Shepherd” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]Nineteen year old FASCAR (Florida Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) racer Zack Jarrell has two passions, driving his race car and saving the ocean, both important parts of his life.
So, it was natural for Jarrell to marry those passions on the race track, flying the conservation organization Sea Shepherd’s Jolly Roger logo on his No. 18 Chevrolet Impala at a recent FASCAR Pro Late Models race at New Smyrna Speedway in his home state of Florida.
“My passion for the ocean really started in high school, “Jarrell said. “I was a little bit of a science major in high school, taking environmental science and marine biology.”
“I actually knew of Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, before I ever knew about the movement against whalers and marine poachers,” Jarrell continued. “So, I learned about his work at the Cove and his documentaries.”
“Later on I saw the TV show Whale Wars, the Animal Planet TV Series, so that interest continued,” Jarrell said. “I live right on the beach and this is something that is close to home to me.”
This young racer sees absolutely nothing strange about his ocean and race car marriage. In fact, he thinks the two actually go hand in hand.
“Race cars these days are very scientific and very technical,” Jarrell said. “The science side of racing is something I’ve always enjoyed.”
“So, having Sea Shepherd on the car was the perfect combination of my passion for racing with my interest in science, all combined into one.”
Jarrell also believes that racing and being out on the ocean, especially enjoying his ocean passion of surfing, engender similar feelings.
“Being on the ocean, it’s a calming feeling,” Jarrell said. “I have the feeling like I belong there.”
“When I’m behind the wheel of the race car, it’s like I’m at home and I belong there,” Jarrell continued. “I feel like it’s meant for me to be there and it comes very naturally to me.”
Jarrell has been racing for quite some time, in fact since 2005 where he started in quarter midgets. In 2007, he started racing stock cars and then trucks at New Smyrna, racing 27 times with one win.
“It was a big culture shock, coming from a quarter midget to a full-size stock car with 450 horse power,” Jarrell said. “I ended up second in points for my first season and was Rookie of the Year.”
“That was a really big deal for me and I really tried hard for that, especially competing against some of the bigger name and bigger budget teams.”
Jarrell continued racing trucks in 2009, however, was unable to run the full season because of sponsorship. In spite of that, he ran sixteen select races and won seven of them.
“It was an amazing feeling showing up at race tracks and having great equipment,” Jarrell said. “But then we had to take the year off for 2010 because we didn’t have the sponsorship and I had a racing injury, a broken leg.”
“So, we decided to let my leg heal and focus on 2011,” Jarrell continued. “We were able to put sponsorship together and went racing in late models for the first time that year.”
“That was a different beast too but I was the happiest kid in the world being back in a race car,” Jarrell said. “I felt like I was back home.”
Jarrell was ‘home’ indeed, proving to many that he still had the ability to get behind the wheel of a race car and win. And this year, Jarrell has seen even more success.
“This year, I couldn’t ask for much more,” Jarrell said. “It’s been the best racing year I’ve ever had.”
“Even though I haven’t won yet, I’m racing in this new series, the Pro Late Model Series, against some of the best drivers I’ve ever seen,” Jarrell continued. “To be able to compete with them and even be mentioned in the same sentence as them, I’m so fortunate.”
“This last race, when I had the Sea Shepherd on board, I finished third, which was an amazing feeling,” Jarrell said. “It gave me a calming sense and I showed everyone I deserved to be out there driving a race car.”
“I was so happy that the race was able to go so well.”
Jarrell has big plans for next year’s season, which includes hopes for either a NASCAR K&N Pro Series ride or competing in the ARCA Series.
“Some new people have been approaching us this week because we are a low budget team and they have been impressed with what we have done in spite of that,” Jarrell said. “I’m proving to people that I can take a low budget car and finish up front with it.”
“I’m very happy,” Jarrell continued. “My only thing is to prove that I deserve to be out there.”
The youngster definitely fashions himself as a NASCAR up and comer, particularly dreaming of one day driving for one of the major teams.
“Growing up, my favorite race car drivers were the whole Hendrick Motorsports team, including Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson,” Jarrell said. “Drivers I’d like to follow are Joey Logano and also the Dillons (Ty and Austin).”
“They are closer to my age and I’ve seen them race at short tracks,” Jarrell continued. “Just to have an opportunity to start in a NASCAR Truck or Nationwide race ultimately, that’s my goal.”
Until he achieves that goal, Jarrell is content to race hard and also do all he can to save the ocean, one lap at a time.
“My career has paralleled the ocean,” Jarrell said. “I feel like when you’re surfing and you have that momentum and you’re getting ready to stand up and ride the wave in.”
“That’s the point I feel that my career is at right now,” Jarrell continued. “I’m just catching the wave and all I need to do is stand up.”
Johnson Dominates the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard
Edwards started in 2nd place and on lap 13 had to make an unscheduled pit stop for a possible valve spring or plug wire problem. Edwards would lose four laps and finished in 29th place. “We think it was some issue with the ECU. We changed that along with the spark plugs and the engine started running better” said Edwards after the race.
Jimmie Johnson’s win was his 4th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, tying him with teammate Jeff Gordon, his 3rd victory of the season, and 58th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. Jimmie won the event by 4.758 seconds and led a total of 99 of the 160 laps. It was the 8th win for Hendrick Motorsports at the Brickyard. Johnson knew he would have a good car for the race and said, “I knew second or third lap yesterday on the track that we were going to have an awfully good chance at winning. That confidence that I had helped us through practice yesterday. There were a couple moments where maybe an adjustment didn’t work and we lost a little pace, but I just had a feeling, and I just knew we were going to be fine. We qualified well and then went out there today and put it on them, so solid performance.”
Kyle Busch finished in 2nd place after starting in 7th. It was Kyle’s 6th top 10 finish in eight starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Can’t say enough about the effort the guys put in for our best finish here and our best run. If it wasn’t for the 48, we were probably in our own zip code on the rest of the field, but Jimmie Johnson was in his own country today, so we just couldn’t keep up with him”, Kyle said when asked about his #18 M & M’s Toyota.
Greg Biffle, driving the #16 3M Ford for Jack Roush, finished the race in 3rd place after starting in 5th and led four laps on the day. “It was a pretty good day for us. We were just super loose all day long. It made difficult after about four or five laps my car just started to get real loose”.
Jeff Gordon finished in 5th place, putting all three Hendrick cars in the top 5 for the day. The rest of the top 10 was Denny Hamlin in 6th, Ryan Newman 7th, Martin Truex Jr. in 8th, Brad Keselowski 9th, and Tony Stewart finished in the 10th position.
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #17 Fifth Third Bank Ford entered the race with the points lead but on lap 134 Joey Logano and Trevor Bayne got together, collecting Kenseth in the wreck. Kenseth fell out of the race, finishing 35th, 28 laps behind the leaders. It was Kenseth’s first DNF of the season. When asked about the incident, Kenseth replied, “We got back there and some guys were driving pretty crazy. I guess at the very end of it the 21 and 78 were mad at each other and running into each other and then the 20 was trying to pass the 21 and just lost control of his car.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. now leads Kenseth by14 points in the series standings. There were 5 cautions for 25 laps and 17 lead changes among 9 drivers.
