7/10/2014
Sprint Source
Josh Schneiderman – Hometown Wins Are the Sweetest!
Josh Schneiderman and the Deuce Motorsports team were hoping to put a show on for the hometown fans at 34 Raceway near West Burlington, Iowa on Friday, June 27. Pulling double duty, Josh won the 305 feature and performed well with the World of Outlaws on the 410 side. He followed that up with a charge from 16th to third last Thursday night at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines with the Sprint Invaders. The team is looking forward to competing Friday at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton, Iowa with the Sprint Invaders Friday before returning to Knoxville Raceway on Saturday with the 410.
Josh piloted his #2 305 sprint car to a heat race win after starting fourth at 34 Raceway. “Even in the 305 class, it benefits us knowing the track,” he says of the 3/8-mile oval. “The bottom started coming in, and the car was rolling really nice. We had just got it fixed from being crashed. Everything was falling into place at that point.”
The redraw would see him pull a starting spot outside row two for the 20-lap main event. “We had a good battle for second for a while, and we were able to get by,” says Josh. “(Leader) Dillan Roth showed us the line a little bit in three and four. He was struggling in one and two, and we were able to get by him there. From there, we set sail and were able to stay out of trouble.”
The win gave Josh an opportunity to win in his hometown. “That class has come so far from where it started a few years ago,” he says of the 305’s. “They’ve picked up a lot of quality cars. It was really a great opportunity to be a part of. It was good for our sponsors who are in the area, and good to run well for your hometown fans too. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.”
On the WoO side, Josh timed just two spots out of the heat invert. It was a blow on his hopes of improving on his career-best third place finish with the Outlaws there a few years ago. “We qualified poorly (18th),” he says. “We missed a little bit car-wise there. The experience we have there really benefited us in the heat. Most of the guys were having trouble getting through one and two. We were able to come off the bottom of two there when they weren’t. I was hoping for one more yellow, because I think we had a shot at winning it (he would move up from fifth to third). If you want to win with those boys, you need to get in the Dash.”
He would checker 19th in the feature. “We were really pretty nice with the car,” says Josh. “We weren’t able to maneuver around quite as well as we hoped, but when you’re with the Outlaws and the caliber of field we had there, your goal is to make the show. We would have liked to run a few spots better, but ultimately, we were tickled with the way the night went in front of the hometown fans.”
After Knoxville rained out on June 31, it was on to Des Moines last Thursday. “With all the rain Des Moines has had, it was tough to pass early,” says Josh of his heat. “We drew in the back of a tough heat race. Doing that with the Sprint Invaders where the competition is tough…we just couldn’t get out of there and we finished sixth. Fortunately, we were able to start on the front row of the B and win that.”
Starting sixteenth, Josh would charge to a podium finish. “As the night went on, the track widened out a little bit,” he says. “We were able to move forward. We actually were running four wheels above the cushion in a groove that no one else had found yet. I think we may have had second with another lap, but we needed a yellow to try and catch (winner Don) Droud. We had one of the better cars there, we just needed a better heat race.”
Article Credit: Bill Wright