Fargo, North Dakota’s Donny Schatz laid the groundwork for Saturday night’s $15,000-to-win Western World finale by earning the pole position with a convincing triumph in Thursday night’s preliminary feature event.
Schatz finished it off in strong form, gunning into the lead at the outset and pacing all 30 rounds atop the 3/8-mile USA Raceway clay oval aboard Tony Stewart’s Bass Pro Shops No. 20 machine for his second career Western World triumph.
“The nice thing about racecars is some days they’re awesome and some days you can’t find your ass, I guess that was one of those good nights tonight,” Schatz commented.
While Schatz led throughout, until a late caution gave him open track, he had company most of the way as Friday night winner Johnny Herrera and Danny Lasoski kept the heat on as they sought any opportunity to pounce for the lead as traffic played a factor.
Schatz, who reached the tail of the field by the tenth circuit, found open track once again when the race’s only caution flew after 21 laps for Michael Dupuy’s stalled mount. Schatz checked out on the restart and raced to the checkered flag with a substantial 1.726-second advantage over Herrera’s JHR No. 45x Maxim.
“After that restart he was a lot better than me, he got away there and I couldn’t get going as good as I was before that restart,” Herrera explained.
Lasoski settled for the show position in the Kistler-powered Michael Ross Foundation No. 33 Eagle, while current Lucas Oil ASCS National points leader Jason Johnson battled his way to a fourth-place finish in the JJR Don Ott-powered Haynes/Pope Transportation No. 41 Maxim.
After dicing with Johnson much of the way, Joey Saldana rounded out the top five in the Kasey Kahne Racing Budweiser No. 9, with Cody Darrah, Jack Dover, Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Shane Stewart and Brady Bacon completing the top ten.
After Dalten Gabbard and Kyle Hirst kicked off Saturday night’s racing festivities with “C” Main wins, Lucas Wolfe and Brian Brown topped the “B” Mains.
“C” Mains (Top 4 from Each Advance to “B” Mains):
First “C” Feature (10 Laps): 1. 77-Dalten Gabbard, 2. 33v-Henry Van Dam, 3. 90-Lance Norick, 4. 98mn-Mitch Olson, 5. 15-Bud Goodwin, 6. 57x-Steve Stone, 7. 11x-Chad Corken, 8. 78-Jody Williams, 9. 45-Martin Edwards. DNS: 77T-Colt Treharn.
Second “C” Feature (10 Laps): 1. 6-Kyle Hirst, 2. 53x-Andy Gregg, 3. 10a-Ricky Logan, 4. 31-Brandon Berryman, 5. 1s-Sean McClelland, 6. 1p-Curtis Evans, 7. 20az-George Suprick, 8. 44k-Koty McGullam, 9. 41w-Joshua Williams.
“B” Mains (Top 3 from Each Advance to “A” Main):
First “B” Feature (15 Laps): 1. 57w-Lucas Wolfe, 2. 3x-Michael Dupuy, 3. 79-Calvin Landis, 4. 3s-John Carney II, 5. 95-Matt Covington, 6. 21c-Justyn Cox, 7. 33v-Henry Van Dam, 8. 50z-Zach Chappell, 9. 98m-Mitch Olson, 10. 35g-Shane Golobic, 11. 77-Dalten Gabbard, 12. 90-Lance Norick, 13. 1x-J.T. Imperial, 14. 74x-Joshua Hodges, 15. 20z-Rick Ziehl, 16. 94T-Steven Tiner,
Second “B” Feature (15 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown, 2. 35-Paul McMahan, 3. 2L-Logan Forler, 4. 88-Tim Crawley, 5. 2b-Ben Gregg, 6. 5h-Justyn Cox, 7. 3g-Darren Long, 8. 93-Dustin Morgan, 9. 97b-Aaron Berryhill, 10. 53x-Andy Gregg, 11. 55-Trey Starks, 12. 10a-Ricky Logan, 13. 6-Kyle Hirst, 14. 31-Brandon Berryman, 15. 22j-John Gaston, 16. 71-Channin Tankersley.
Lucas Oil ASCS Western World Championship Finale:
“A” Feature (30 Laps): 1. 20-Donny Schatz, 2. 45x-Johnny Herrera, 3. 33-Danny Lasoski, 4. 41-Jason Johnson, 5. 9-Joey Saldana, 6. 89-Cody Darrah, 7. 53-Jack Dover, 8. 15h-Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 9. 57-Shane Stewart, 10. 99-Brady Bacon, 11. 83-Tim Kaeding, 12. 1-Sammy Swindell, 13. 9x-Gary Wright, 14. 75-Kyle Larson, 15. 21-Brian Brown, 16. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 17. 57w-Lucas Wolfe, 18. 35-Paul McMahan, 19. 2L-Logan Forler, 20. 88-Tim Crawley, 21. 11-Roger Crockett, 22. 79-Calvin Landis, 23. 3x-Michael Dupuy, 24. 6-Kyle Hirst.