Elite Racing Lake Odessa event summary

Six at I-96: Elite Racing Captures Sixth Victory of 2010

Coming back to a track as the defending champion carries a lot of prestige. This weekend Elite Racing was in this position as he entered I-96 Speedway on Saturday night. From the first race Jason Meyers ran there in 2000, he has been a natural on the I-96 dirt finishing fifth in his debut at the track. Since then he has not finished worse than seventh. In fact in the past three races, Meyers and his Elite Racing squad have not finished outside of the top-three there, with their first victory at the track coming there last year. After a race that saw plenty of pauses in racing action, Meyers was able to push through to collect his sixth victory of 2010 and his 41st career A-Main victory with the World of Outlaws.

After placing third in qualifying and securing a third place starting position in the Dash, Meyers started the A-Main in the third position in his GLR Investments #14 KPC. On the drop of the green flag, Meyers briefly lost the third position on the back stretch to Dean Jacobs, but by the time he recorded the first lap of the night, he was back in the third position. Up front Danny Lasoski and Donny Schatz battled for the lead, while Meyers held onto the third spot on the track. When the leaders started encountering traffic, Meyers was able close within a second of Schatz, but the caution flag flew for the first time on Lap 7 for an incident between Paul McMahan and Sam Hafertepe Jr.

On the restart, Meyers lined up behind Lasoski in the favored line which was around the top. Meyers was third coming off turn two, but skimmed around the outside of Schatz to claim the second position off of turn four.

"It was a great race track here tonight," expressed Meyers after the race. "There were a couple of grooves. I wasn't very good on my restarts unfortunately, but I got them figured out there at the end. We always enjoy these big half-miles. We've had a good set up here for the last few years, but with that being said, tonight was a lot different with the tires and the car."

When the top-two started encountering lapped traffic around the half-way point of the night's 30-lap feature event, Lasoski was able to extend his lead, but not before a second caution flag would fly for a car going over the banking. Lining up second on the restart, Meyers and Schatz would battle for second, but once again Meyers would have the upper hand. A few laps later though, Schatz would shred a tire, bringing another yellow flag out.

On the restart with just 12 laps to go, Lasoski would pull to over a second lead over Meyers, but luck would not be on Lasoski's side. Meyers would inherit the lead on Lap 25 when Lasoski pulled off the track with a rear end problem and brought out the yellow flag. On the restart, Meyers chose the high line with Joey Saldana to his left.

"The high side was the easy choice for me, "explained Meyers. "If you could get a good jump the bottom might have worked and Joey (Saldana) did get a jump on me on that one restart. I think you could have gone either way. It was a crapshoot and you had to make sure you got the roll off the corner. The car would go through the middle (of the corner) so well and once I figured that out, I knew we had something for them."

Saldana did grab the lead in turn one on the restart, but Meyers fought back and paced lap 25. Over a series of two more restarts, Meyers held on to the lead and took the checkered flag by 2.2 seconds over Craig Dollansky, Jason Sides, Joey Saldana, and Chad Kemenah.

"We had a great race car again here tonight," expressed Meyers in Victory Lane. "There are so many people that make this happen and I can't thank them all enough. I know Chris (Luck) and Guy (Stockbridge) are at home listening tonight along with Charlie (Garrett), and Rene (North). There are so many people who make nights like this happen, Elite Landscaping, GLR Investments, Tarlton and Son, Media Tile, Triquint Semiconductor. There are great race fans here and I really can't thank them enough for coming out tonight as well."

Up Next

On Memorial Day weekend the racing spotlight will be focused on Elite Racing as they first take on the World of Outlaws at The Dirt Track in Charlotte in the Circle K NOS Energy Outlaw Showdown. Those that cannot attend the event can watch it live on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday May 28th. After a night off, Elite Racing will be traveling to Franklin, PA to race at Tri-City Speedway on Sunday May 30th.

-source: ert