10/2/2010
Sprint Source
Hodnett Hauls in Opener of the National Open at Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, PA- October 1, 2010—Greg Hodnett has certainly been the man to beat at Williams Grove Speedway over the last two years, especially when the World of Outlaws have come to town. Entering the Morgan Hughes National Open this weekend at the famed half-mile in Central, Pennsylvania, the veteran had won four of the last eight races the series has sanctioned at the track. He made it five of the last nine on Friday night, winning the opener of the two-day event in front of a huge crowd.
The win for Hodnett in the Macri Concrete/J&S Fabrication Maxim was worth $8,000 and helped extend the Pennsylvania Posse’s win streak to nine over the World of Outlaws. Donny Schatz’s win in the finale of the 2008 Summer Nationals marked the last time a series driver won at Williams Grove.
“It always means a lot win, especially again competition like this,” said Hodnett. “We had a good car and a good starting spot and were in a good position. With how tough the competition is, you have to be in a good position and we were fortunate to be that this evening.”
The closest four-way championship battle in World of Outlaws history stayed tight after the first night of the National Open, as Jason Meyers finished eighth to remain on top of the standings by 60 markers over 20-time series champion Steve Kinser who rebounded from a hard wreck in the second heat race which forced him to use a provisional to start the main event. Kinser would come from the 25th starting spot to finish 13th in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award.
Joey Saldana finished a very solid seventh in his return after missing a race last weekend with a concussion and gained a couple of points on Meyers and is now 83 markers back, as he remains third, with four-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz fourth in the standings, 95 points out of the lead. Schatz worked his way back from an opening lap accident in the main event and subsequent trip to the work area to finish 11th, after initialing starting third.
Hodnett darted into second at the start, which took a couple of attempts, following a yellow on the initial start and then a red flag for a multi-car accident on the complete restart. Hodnett was all over Tim Shaffer in the early going, as the latter paced the first 14 laps of the contest.
“I had to be somewhat patient tonight,” shared the winner. “The first 10 or so laps after they had watered the track, I could pretty much run anywhere. Then I got to where I couldn’t really pass lapped cars too easy, so I moved down to the bottom. Timmy (Shaffer) was trying to pass a lapped car and just got caught out off the rubber and we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.”
Hodnett will seek his second straight National Open victory on Saturday night, which will consist of a 40-lap main event with $50,000 on the line to the winner again this year. The 1993 World of Outlaws Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award winner has led 91 laps of feature racing competition with the series at Williams Grove Speedway over the last two seasons.
“It’s going to be tough tomorrow night,” admitted Hodnett. “Tires will come into play tomorrow and we normally don’t run too hard of a tire here and I think if it’s like this tomorrow we’ll need to. It’s going to be a little bit of a guessing game, but we’re looking forward to coming back and seeing if we can be in contention again.”
The main event on Friday night began with Paul McMahan leading the field into turn one from the pole, only to have the yellow flag wave before that lap was in the books, setting up a complete restart. On the second start, a multicar accident brought out the red flag. Involved in the melee was Donny Schatz who started third. On the third start, Shaffer was able to take the lead from McMahan coming off the low side of turn two. Shaffer would lead the first 14 laps on Friday night as he looked to return to Victory Lane at Williams Grove, for the first time since 2001. He ended up second in the Kistler Engines J&J, which was his third straight Top-Five finish with the World of Outlaws.
“It was definitely a great night,” said Shaffer. “To be up front and get mad when you run second is amazing. This is a great team and it’s been an awesome three months. I really want to win bad here and that’s probably what hurt me tonight. I went a little too hard too early and used my tires up and didn’t find the rubber late, but there are no excuses. Greg (Hodnett) and Lee (Stauffer) did a great job and we’ll try again tomorrow. Hopefully we can be in contention again.”
Paul McMahan, who started on the pole ended up third in the Great Clips Maxim to score his second straight podium finish at Williams Grove and his fifth finish of third or better in the last seven World of Outlaws races as he closes in on the fifth spot in the series championship standings with just five races remaining on the season.
“I’ve been finishing on the podium a lot lately and need to get us a win,” said McMahan. “It’s kind of frustrating when we are in the Top-Two and Top-Three every night, but I’m not complaining. We had a good race car tonight and they were just a little better than us at the very beginning of the race. Once we got rolling I felt pretty good. I showed Greg (Hodnett) the bottom and wasn’t able to clear him and that’s what got him back down there and he was able to get by Tim (Shaffer). We’ll take third-place tonight and come back tomorrow for the big money.”
Mike Erdley finished fourth on Friday night in the Lisi Shell Maxim to earn his best career World of Outlaws finish. Stevie Smith was fifth in the Zemco Speed Equipment Maxim, with Kerry Madsen sixth in the Halls Haulage KPC. Joey Saldana was seventh in the Budweiser Maxim, to score the high finish of any of the title contenders. Jason Meyers was eighth in the GLR Investments KPC, with Brian Montieth coming from 19th to finish ninth in the Premiere Auto Works machine. Danny Lasoski rounded out the Top-10 in the Casey’s General Stores JEI.
The National Open at Williams Grove Speedway wraps up on Saturday, October 2 with the 40-lap $50,000 to-win finale which will be taped by SPEED for future broadcast.
NATIONAL OPEN NIGHT #1 NOTES
•FAST QUALIFIER: David Gravel paced the 58 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the semi-banked half-mile oval at 17.107 seconds at 105.228 miles per hour. For his qualifying effort Gravel earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Tim Shaffer (4), Mark Smith (3), Greg Hodnett (2) and Paul McMahan (1).
•WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING WINNERS: Joey Saldana, Tim Shaffer, Donny Schatz, Stevie Smith and Jason Meyers won heat races. Paul McMahan won the Dash. Brian Montieth won the Last Chance Showdown. Justin Henderson won the C-Main. Jessica Zemken won the D-Main.
• FEATURE WINNERS: There have been 64 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature events held in 2010. The winners include: Joey Saldana (Thunderbowl Raceway, Volunteer Speedway, I-55 Raceway, Eldora Speedway-twice, Dodge City Raceway Park, River Cities Speedway, LaSalle Speedway, Beaver Dam Raceway, Lernerville Speedway, Nodak Speedway, Castrol Raceway and Deer Creek Speedway), Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Volunteer Speedway, Tri-State (Okla.) Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway, I-96 Speedway, North Central Speedway, I-55 Raceway, Castrol Raceway and Silver Dollar Speedway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park, Jackson Speedway, River Cities Speedway, Lakeside Speedway, Eldora Speedway, Autodrome Drummond, Fulton Speedway and Skagit Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Paducah International Raceway, Knoxville Raceway, Skagit Speedway, Clay County Fair Speedway and Eldora Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park, The Dirt Track at Charlotte, Ohsweken Speedway, Silver Dollar Speedway and Lernerville Speedway), Jason Sides (Houston Raceway Park, Tri-City Speedway, Missouri State Fair Speedway and Ohsweken Speedway), Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway, Cedar Lake Speedway and Nodak Speedway), Sammy Swindell (Dodge City Raceway, Huset’s Speedway and Silver Dollar Speedway), Lance Dewease (Lernerville Speedway and Williams Grove Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway-twice), Brooke Tatnell (Knoxville Raceway and Junction Motor Speedway), Dale Blaney (Limaland Motorsports Park), Doug Esh (Lebanon Valley Speedway), Danny Lasoski (Cottage Grove Speedway), Chad Layton (Williams Grove Speedway), Paul McMahan (Eldora Speedway), Fred Rahmer (Williams Grove Speedway) and Tim Shaffer (I-55 Raceway).
•HALF-MILE-WINNERS: Williams Grove Speedway is a semi-banked half-mile. The World of Outlaws have raced 23 times at a track that size in 2010. The winners include: Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park, Jackson Speedway, Lakeside Speedway and Eldora Speedway), Jason Meyers (The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway and I-96 Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Knoxville Raceway and Eldora Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway-twice), Joey Saldana (Eldora Speedway-twice), Jason Sides (Tri-City Speedway and Missouri State Fair Speedway), Lance Dewease (Williams Grove Speedway), Craig Dollansky (Lone Star Speedway), Doug Esh (Lebanon Valley Speedway), Chad Layton (Williams Grove Speedway), Paul McMahan (Eldora Speedway), Fred Rahmer (Williams Grove Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park) and Brooke Tatnell (Knoxville Raceway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Williams Grove Speedway; Mechanicsburg, PA; October 1, 2010
Qualifying
89G-David Gravel 17.107
83-Tim Shaffer 17.128
7M-Mark Smith 17.238
22H-Greg Hodnett 17.239
91-Paul McMahan 17.258
3-Kerry Madsen 17.274
7L-Chad Layton 17.362
15-Donny Schatz 17.409
7S-Jason Sides 17.412
15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 17.434
51-Fred Rahmer 17.488
11-Steve Kinser 17.511
11E-Mike Erdley 17.522
1Z-Stevie Smith 17.526
14-Jason Meyers 17.561
9-Joey Saldana 17.574
63-Chad Kemenah 17.589
15X-Adam Wilt 17.622
6-Danny Lasoski 17.625
D4-Danny Holtgraver 17.644
48-Danny Dietrich 17.645
71-Brian Leppo 17.666
5W-Lucas Wolfe 17.703
21-Brian Montieth 17.718
55-Jason Solwald 17.772
11C-Cory Haas 17.823
59-Jim Siegel 17.854
1-Sammy Swindell 17.921
39-Keith Kauffman 17.922
11K-Kraig Kinser 17.946
2B-Ben Gregg 17.959
R19-Jac Haudenschild 17.997
30C-Lance Dewease 18.001
87-Alan Krimes 18.003
35-Justin Henderson 18.008
17-Tyler Walker 18.031
7-Craig Dollansky 18.039
4X-Toni Lutar 18.085
O-Rick Lafferty 18.112
2L-Ed Lynch Jr. 18.117
99K-Cody Keller 18.135
93-Doug Esh 18.154
22-Brian Ellenberger 18.155
49-Brad Sweet 18.165
46-T.J. Winegardner 18.166
38N-Nick Schauch Jr. 18.191
69K-Donald Kreitz Jr. 18.202
19M-Brent Marks 18.237
25-Aaron Ott 18.252
27-Daryn Pittman 18.298
14Z-Jessica Zemken 18.572
66-Ryan Kissinger 18.623
14D-Doug Dodson 18.722
6W-Josh Wells 19.012
20S-Derek Sell 19.137
O7-Mark Coldren 19.148
12W-Troy Fraker 19.396
33-Brian Ehrenzeller 20.065
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
9-Joey Saldana[1]
3-Kerry Madsen[3]
51-Fred Rahmer[2]
17-Tyler Walker[8]
48-Danny Dietrich[5]
89G-David Gravel[4]
2B-Ben Gregg[7]
11C-Cory Haas[6]
14Z-Jessica Zemken[11]
38N-Nick Schauch Jr.[10]
99K-Cody Keller[9]
O7-Mark Coldren[12]
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
83-Tim Shaffer[4]
63-Chad Kemenah[1]
7L-Chad Layton[3]
7-Craig Dollansky[8]
93-Doug Esh[9]
69K-Donald Kreitz Jr.[10]
71-Brian Leppo[5]
59-Jim Siegel[6]
R19-Jac Haudenschild[7]
66-Ryan Kissinger[11]
12W-Troy Fraker[12]
11-Steve Kinser[2]
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
15-Donny Schatz[3]
11E-Mike Erdley[2]
5W-Lucas Wolfe[5]
1-Sammy Swindell[6]
15X-Adam Wilt[1]
7M-Mark Smith[4]
30C-Lance Dewease[7]
19M-Brent Marks[10]
22-Brian Ellenberger[9]
4X-Toni Lutar[8]
14D-Doug Dodson[11]
33-Brian Ehrenzeller[12]
Heat 4 (8 Laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
1Z-Stevie Smith[2]
6-Danny Lasoski[1]
22H-Greg Hodnett[4]
87-Alan Krimes[7]
7S-Jason Sides[3]
21-Brian Montieth[5]
39-Keith Kauffman[6]
O-Rick Lafferty[8]
49-Brad Sweet[9]
6W-Josh Wells[11]
25-Aaron Ott[10]
Heat 5 (8 Laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
14-Jason Meyers[2]
15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[3]
D4-Danny Holtgraver[1]
91-Paul McMahan[4]
55-Jason Solwald[5]
27-Daryn Pittman[10]
35-Justin Henderson[7]
11K-Kraig Kinser[6]
20S-Derek Sell[11]
46-T.J. Winegardner[9]
Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
91-Paul McMahan[2]
83-Tim Shaffer[4]
15-Donny Schatz[5]
22H-Greg Hodnett[3]
1Z-Stevie Smith[8]
3-Kerry Madsen[1]
11E-Mike Erdley[7]
15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[6]
9-Joey Saldana[10]
14-Jason Meyers[9]
6-Danny Lasoski[12]
63-Chad Kemenah[11]
D-Main 8 Laps top 2 tranfser to C-Main- Starting Position [#]
1)14Z-Jessica Zempken [2]
27-Daryn Pittman[1]
4D-Doug Dodson[4] [$100]
6W-Josh Wells[5] [$100]
66-Ryan Kissinger[3] [$100]
20S-Derek Sell[6] [$100]
O7-Mark Coldren[7] [$100]
12W-Troy Fraker[8] [$100]
33-Brian Ehrenzeller[9] [$100]
2L-Ed Lynch Jr.[10] [$100]
C-main (10 laps, top 2 finishers transferred to B-main) - Starting Position [#]
35-Justin Henderson[1]
69K-Donald Kreitz Jr.[10]
27-Daryn Pittman[14] [$125]
4X-Toni Lutar[2] [$125]
49-Brad Sweet[7] [$125]
25-Aaron Ott[12] [$100]
99K-Cody Keller[4] [$100]
19M-Brent Marks[11] [$100]
22-Brian Ellenberger[6] [$100]
14Z-Jessica Zemken[13] [$100]
46-T J Winegardner[8] [$100]
38N-Nick Schauch Jr.[9] [$100]
93-Doug Esh[5] [$100]
O-Rick Lafferty[3] [$100]
14D-Doug Dodson[16] [$100]
6W-Josh Wells[17] [$100]
66-Ryan Kissinger[15] [$100]
20S-Derek Sell[18] [$100]
O7-Mark Coldren[19] [$100]
12W-Troy Fraker[20] [$100]
33-Brian Ehrenzeller[21] [$100]
2L-Ed Lynch Jr.[22] [$100]
B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]
21-Brian Montieth[8]
89G-David Gravel[1]
48-Danny Dietrich[6]
55-Jason Solwald[9]
69K-Donald Kreitz Jr.[18] [$200]
11C-Cory Haas[10] [$180]
71-Brian Leppo[7] [$175]
39-Keith Kauffman[12] [$160]
35-Justin Henderson[17] [$150]
30C-Lance Dewease[16] [$150]
11K-Kraig Kinser[13] [$150]
2B-Ben Gregg[14] [$150]
7M-Mark Smith[2] [$150]
R19-Jac Haudenschild[15] [$150]
7S-Jason Sides[3] [$150]
15X-Adam Wilt[5] [$150]
59-Jim Siegel[11] [$150]
11-Steve Kinser[4] [$150]
A-main (25 laps) - Starting Position [#]- Starting Position [#]
22H-Greg Hodnett[4] [$8,000]
83-Tim Shaffer[2] [$4,000]
91-Paul McMahan[1] [$2,500]
11E-Mike Erdley[7] [$2,200]
1Z-Stevie Smith[5] [$2,100]
3-Kerry Madsen[6] [$2,000]
9-Joey Saldana[9] [$1,800]
14-Jason Meyers[10] [$1,600]
21-Brian Montieth[19] [$1,500]
6-Danny Lasoski[11] [$1,300]
15-Donny Schatz[3] [$1,200]
63-Chad Kemenah[12] [$1,100]
11-Steve Kinser[25] [$400]
89G-David Gravel[13] [$700]
17-Tyler Walker[23] [$600]
15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[8] [$600]
48-Danny Dietrich[17] [$600]
51-Fred Rahmer[15] [$600]
7S-Jason Sides[27] [$600]
7L-Chad Layton[14] [$600]
87-Alan Krimes[22] [$600]
7M-Mark Smith[26] [$600]
1-Sammy Swindell[21] [$600]
D4-Danny Holtgraver[16] [$600]
7-Craig Dollansky[24] [$600]
55-Jason Solwald[20] [$600]
5W-Lucas Wolfe[18] [$600]
69K-Donald Kreitz Jr.[28] [$0]
Lap Leaders: Tim Shaffer 1-14, Greg Hodnett 15-25
KSE Hard Charger Award: Steve Kinser
Penske Power Position Award: Greg Hodnett
Note: Steve Kinser and Jason Sides used World of Outlaws Provisionals to start the A-Feature. Mark Smith and Don Kreitz Jr. used Williams Grove Speedway Provisionals to start the A-Feature.
World of Outlaws Championship Standings through October 1
- Jason Meyers 8597
- Steve Kinser 8537 -60
- Joey Saldana 8514 -83
- Donny Schatz 8502 -95
- Jason Sides 8364 -233
- Paul McMahan 8355 -242
- Craig Dollansky 7935 -662
- Lucas Wolfe 7869 -728
- Danny Lasoski 7849 -748
- Kraig Kinser 7721 -876
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Chizmark & Larson Insurance, Goodyear Tires (Official Tire), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, Jake’s Custom Golf Carts, KSE Race Products, Penske Shocks, R2C Performance, Racing Electronics, S&S Volvo; Engine Builder's Challenge participants Don Ott Racing Engines, Kistler Engines, Shaver Specialties and Speedway Engines; and Chassis Builder’s Challenge participants J&J Auto Racing, Maxim Racing and XXX Race Company.
[i Photo by Chris Dolack]
Submitted By: Tony Veneziano
