Charlotte LMS World Finals preview

Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Preview: VAULT World Finals

Concord, NC-- October 29, 2008--After nine-plus months of racing and tens of thousands of miles traveled, the 2008 Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season wraps up this weekend with the second annual VAULT World Finals at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina from October 30-November 1. Donny Schatz is on the cusp of wrapping up his third consecutive series title and has a 123-point lead on Jason Meyers with two A-Feature events on the docket this weekend.

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series first competed at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2000, with two-time series champion Mark Kinser taking the wins in those events. Steve Kinser earned his first victory at the state-of-the-art four-tenths-mile in 2002. With his win last season in the finale of the VAULT World Finals, he is now one of just two drivers that have multiple A-Feature wins at the track.

In the last nine World of Outlaws races at the facility, there have been nine different drivers visit the winner's circle. The cameras from SPEED will be on hand to capture all of the action beginning on Friday, which will be taped and aired on November 8, while the finale on Saturday night will air live on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. Over 40 drivers from across the country are pre-entered for the event, which will also feature the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

Donny Schatz heads to the VAULT World Finals having won three of the last five World of Outlaws events. He leads the series with 17 A-Feature wins this season. In his career at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the North Dakota native has won twice and has 14 Top-10 finishes. He was sixth at the track earlier this season. He is in the midst of his first season behind the wheel for Tony Stewart Racing.

Jason Meyers, who still has a mathematical chance to win the 2008 title has put together his best season on tour with the World of Outlaws, winning eight A-Feature events, along with a preliminary feature and leads the series in Top-Five finishes, laps led and fast time honors in time trials. He finished second back in the spring at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway and has six Top-10 finishes at the track in his career. He won the opener of the VAULT World Finals last season.

Steve Kinser, who won the finale of the VAULT World Finals last season has won twice in his career at the track and has finished in the Top-10 in all 17 of the races he has competed in at the four-tenths-mile. The 20-time series champion has won seven times this season and is third in points.

Joey Saldana, whose Kasey Kahne Racing team is based in nearby Mooresville, North Carolina, has 12 career Top-10 finishes at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He was sixth in the finale of the VAULT World Finals last season. He has won five times this season and is solidly in the fourth spot in points.

Jac Haudenschild finished second in the first World of Outlaws event at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2002. He has five career Top-Five finishes at the track. The veteran driver from Wooster, Ohio has won five times this season and has 46 Top-10 finishes.

Craig Dollansky, who has 12 career Top-10 finishes at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway will attend the VAULT World Finals, but probably will not compete as he continues to recover from an arm injury sustained last month at Eldora Speedway.

Kerry Madsen finished eighth earlier this season at the four-tenths-mile. The reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year led a number of laps last Saturday night at Heartland Park Topeka en route to matching his season-best finish of second. He is currently seventh in points on the strength of 37 Top-10 finishes.

Chad Kemenah, who was the series top rookie in 2006, has finished in the Top-10 in two of his last three starts at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He finished a career-best second at the track in 2006. He recently picked up his 13th Top-Five finish of the season to go along with 37 Top-10 performances.

Terry McCarl finished seventh in the finale of the VAULT World Finals last season. The six-time Knoxville Raceway and Huset's Speedway track champion picked up his 30th Top-10 finish of the season on Saturday night and is solidly in the ninth position in points. He won earlier this season at Orange County Fair Speedway in New York.

Daryn Pittman won at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2002. He has eight career Top-10 finishes at the track, including a third-place finish last season in the finale of the VAULT World Finals when he was battling Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski for the win on the last lap. Pittman has won four times this year and is solidly in the 10th spot in points.

Sam Hafertepe Jr. finished 10th back in the spring at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway. The sophomore driver from Sunnyvale, Texas recently picked up his 18th Top-10 finish of the season, as he closes in on his first career World of Outlaws win.

Kraig Kinser finished ninth earlier this season at the track. The third generation driver has won twice this season in his return to sprint car racing, and is a teammate to Donny Schatz at Tony Stewart Racing. He is currently 12th in points on the strength of 18 Top-10 finishes.

Jason Sides finished 10th earlier this season at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway. The 2003 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year has 17 Top-10 finishes.

Chad Hillier, who recently moved into the 14th spot in points, has competed a few times over the last two seasons at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway. The sophomore driver from Burlington, Washington has six Top-10 finishes this season.

Tony Bruce Jr. finished third in 2007 at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway and was just outside of the Top-10 this spring when the series made their first visit of the year to the four-tenths-mile. The native of Liberal, Kansas won his first career World of Outlaws event earlier this year at 34 Raceway in Iowa.

Lucas Wolfe was running second at the track back in the spring when a fuel line came loose on his car ended his night. He set fast time last year during the VAULT World Finals and finished eighth in the opening A-Feature of the event. The leading contender for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award has nine Top-10 finishes this season.

Paul McMahan has eight career Top-10 finishes at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway. He finished second in the spring event at the track last season. The veteran driver has 17 Top-10 finishes this season.

2008 Race Recap: Lance Dewease led all 30 laps to pick up his fifth career World of Outlaws win, with the cameras from SPEED capturing all of the action live.

Dewease lined up second for the A-Feature and quickly darted to the lead in the first turn as he battled Joey Saldana in the early going.

Lucas Wolfe, the series leading rookie this season moved into second on the opening lap and set his sights on Dewease. As the pair approached lapped traffic on the fifth lap, Wolfe began to close in, before a yellow flag flew for Daryn Pittman who lost a rear end.

On the ensuing restart, Joey Saldana used the extreme high side of the track to get a run on Wolfe and nearly move into the runner-up spot. Jac Haudenschild in fourth also closed in on the lead battle before another caution flag flew. Under yellow it was discovered that a fuel line had come loose on Wolfe's car, thus ending his night and his hopes for his first World of Outlaws win.

After an extended green flag period, Dewease began to pull away, while Jason Meyers steadily worked his way into the Top-Five, as did Jason Sides and Danny Lasoski. With 10 laps to go Dewease again got into heavy traffic, with Jac Haudenschild just behind him and closing fast. The yellow flag flew with just six laps to go after Saldana has a right rear tire explode while running fourth.

A red flag with just three laps to go for a hard flip by Jason Johnson set up a shootout between Dewease and current series point leader Jason Meyers. Jason Sides was running in the Top-Five before some engine trouble with two laps to go took him out of contention, as a number of front running cars encountered trouble over the course of the night

Meyers wound up second, with Shane Stewart third, Haudenschild fourth and Craig Dollansky fifth.

What to look for at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway:

* The cameras from SPEED rolling for both nights of racing during the VAULT World Finals. The Friday night portion will be taped for broadcast on Saturday, November 8, while the finale will air live on SPEED at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday night.

*Donny Schatz looks to wrap his third consecutive World of Outlaws title at the VAULT World Finals, which would make him just the third driver in the 30-year existence of the series to win a trio of championships.

*Jason Meyers won the opener of the VAULT World Finals last season and heads into the race this season still with a mathematical shot at winning the 2008 title. He trails Schatz by 123 points.

*Steve Kinser won a thrilling finale of the VAULT World Finals last season. The 20-time series champion has a string of 17 consecutive Top-10 finishes at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway entering this weekend.

*Lucas Wolfe set fast time last season in the VAULT World Finals and was running in the Top-three at the track back in May when a loose fuel line ended his night. The leading contender for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year Award has nine Top-10 finishes this season.

By the Numbers- The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway:

0.4- Miles around The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway

1- Lap led by Jason Meyers en route to a win in the VAULT World Finals last season

2- Consecutive seasons that the World of Outlaws have wrapped up the season at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway

4- Drivers that led laps in feature racing competition at the track last season

9- Drivers that have won an A-Feature event with the series at the track

10- Degrees of banking in the turns at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway; Drivers that have led laps in A-Feature competition this season

11.880- Track record established by Jeff Shepard on October 6, 2001 in time trials

14- Drivers that have won feature events with the World of Outlaws this season

18- Total events contested by the World of Outlaws at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway including preliminary features dating back to 2000; Drivers that have been fastest in time trials this season with the World of Outlaws

23- Drivers that have led laps in feature racing competition this season with the World of Outlaws

25- Drivers that have won a Crane Cams Dash this season to earn a pole position in 2008

30- Laps led by Lance Dewease earlier this season to win at the track; Laps led by Steve Kinser last season to win the finale of the VAULT World Finals

33- Laps led by Donny Schatz at the track last season

47- Top-Five finishes for Jason Meyers this season to lead the series

48- Drivers that competed in the inaugural VAULT World Finals at the track last fall

56- Top-10 finishes for Donny Schatz this season to lead the series

93- Laps lead by Steve Kinser at the track during his career in A-Feature and preliminary feature events to lead all drivers at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway

121.221- Track record in miles per hour established in time trials by Jeff Sheppard in 2001

123- Points that separate Donny Schatz and Jason Meyers atop the World of Outlaws standings

377- Laps led by Jason Meyers in 2008 to lead the series

472- Drivers that have competed with the World of Outlaws this season

1025- Miles from Heartland Park Topeka where the World of Outlaws compete on October 25 to The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina

10,000-Dollars the feature winner will receive on Friday, October 31; Dollars the feature winner will receive on Saturday, November 1

201,520- Dollars in the total purse for the VAULT World Finals for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series

320,845- Dollars won by Donny Schatz this season to lead the series

Tickets: On Thursday, October 30 at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motors Speedway, adult tickets will be $10, with tickets for children 12-under just $5.

* On Friday, October 31 at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway, adult tickets will be $35, with tickets for children 12-under just $10.

* On Saturday, November 1 at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway, adult tickets will be $35, with tickets for children 12-under just $10.

Three-Day ticket packages are also available for the VAULT World Finals and can be purchased online by visiting www.lowesmotorspeedway.com or by calling (800) 455-3267 for only $59 for adults and $19 for children 12 and under.

-credit: woo