Series Minot Saturday report 2010-08-21

Perseverance Pays off for Craig Dollansky: Wins Finale of the Magic City Showdown at Nodak Speedway

Minot, ND-August 21, 2010- Craig Dollansky endured plenty of adversity on Saturday night in the finale of the Magic City Showdown at Nodak Speedway in Minot, North Dakota, though he was able to persevere and overcome it all along with his team to score his third A-Feature win of the season and his first at the high-banked 3/8-mile.

Dollansky was scheduled to start fourth in the 30-lap contest, but was penalized two positions for being late to the staging lining, thus lining him up sixth. Then during the formation lap prior to the start of the feature, contact with Brad Sweet did significant damage to the front of his machine. By way of World of Outlaws rules, the crew was allowed to fix the car, along with Dollansky retaining his position, as the entire field was stopped for a red flag, allowing all the crews to service their machines before the field was reformed. On top of that, the native of Elk River, Minnesota had a left rear tire going flat late in the going.

"Those last couple of laps I was just trying to hang on," shared Dollansky. "Our car was good. This was a great team effort. I have Kirk Dewease with me now as my crew chief and he did a great job for us, along with my brother Troy and son Luke. This is a great team and it's great to win for everyone that supports this team. I couldn't be happier for everyone."

Dollansky lined up fifth on a double file restart with six laps to go. He shot around Jason Sides and Joey Saldana to quickly move into third and just one lap later, he dove under Steve Kinser in turns one and two to take the second spot. He would take the lead coming off turn four on the 27 th lap from Kraig Kinser and jumped out to a quick lead. The caution flew with three laps to go, when Kraig Kinser suffered a flat tire while running second, while at the same time his father Steve also had a flat while in third. The younger Kinser led the first 26 laps after starting on the pole and withstood some intense challenges from both his father and Jason Sides in heavy lapped traffic.

On the final double file restart of the night with three laps to go, Dollansky chose the high side of the track and despite a rapidly deflating left rear tire was able to hold off a couple of challenge from Jason Sides over the last three circuit to score the win aboard a specially painted Aggressive Hydraulics/Big Game Treestands Maxim.

"My car took really well on that restart when we lined up fifth and we got the lead within two laps and I felt really good," said the winner. "I just had to careful with the tires and get to the end."

The Gerdau Ameristeel Magic City Showdown Presented by Sleep Inn & Suites was the World of Outlaws first visit to Nodak Speedway since a multi-million renovation of the facility, highlighted by the construction of a brand new state-of-the-art grandstand, which is located much closer to the track than the old one, providing enhanced viewing for the fans. Dollansky was quick to credit everyone involved with the Magic City Showdown for all of their hard work.

"This is a beautiful facility and they spent a lot of money on the grandstand and it looks great," he noted. "There are a lot of great fans up here and we have lot of great fans here as well. I thank all of our fans and couldn't be happier for everyone that we picked up our third win of the year. They went out and reworked the track tonight and that was the right thing to do to put on a good show."

Jason Sides battled both Kraig Kinser and Steve Kinser for much of the race in lapped traffic and then did everything he could to get a run on Dollansky late in the going. Sides ended up just a half-a-second behind the winner to cap a very strong weekend that saw him finish fourth on Friday night.

"The track was pretty racy and it was a good race," said Sides. "Kraig (Kinser) was going pretty good there and then Steve (Kinser) ran him down. It just seemed like we all got in lapped traffic and everyone caught us. For the most part it was a good race for us."

Sides lined up on the bottom of the track on the final restart of the night with Dollansky, who had the tire going down, on his outside. He looked high off turn two on the restart, but could not quite get enough of a run on Dollansky. Sides also then had to fend off a challenge from Donny Schatz late in the going on his way to his 20th Top-Five finish of the season aboard the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim.

"Rolling around there I could see that it was pretty low and I was trying to get around him on the outside," Sides stated when asked about Dollansky's tire. "It wasn't going to be done very well if we tried it too much there and it may have been like last night or something. All in all to come out with a second-place run is good for us."

Donny Schatz, who was born and raised in Minot, came home third in the Armor All/STP J&J as he continues to chase his first World of Outlaws win at Nodak Speedway. He lined up 11th and steadily worked his way to the front to score his 25th Top-Five finish of the season.

"I don't know what we needed," Schatz said. "I thought we had a pretty good run at him and you see his left rear tire going down and he used every inch of race track that he could and he did a good job. We were just biding our time. I was on a little softer tire and I didn't know if we were going to finish, so I was being cautious. To finish first, you have to first finish, so that was in my mind."

Joey Saldana, the current World of Outlaws point leader, finished fourth after winning on Friday night to earn the overall Magic City Showdown title in the Budweiser Maxim. He opened the night by turning the fourth fastest lap in time trial to earn two bonus points in the standings. Coupled with Steve Kinser's ninth-place finish, Saldana extended his lead in the series standings to 25 markers as he chases his first title. Jason Meyers, who is third in points finished seventh and is now 71 points out of the top spot as he too chases his first title.

"It was a great weekend for us," Saldana said. "I felt like we had something for them before that yellow came out at the end. I think my tires just lost a little air and I got too tight. We salvaged a good fourth-place finish and we'll go on to next weekend."

Mark Dobmeier came home fifth to score his best finish this season with the World of Outlaws in the Senske & Son J&J.

Chad Kemenah followed up a fifth-place effort on Friday night with a sixth-place performance in the finale aboard the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks Maxim, coming from the 16th starting spot to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award.

Jason Meyers was seventh in the GLR Investments KPC. Jac Haudenschild was eighth in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass XXX, with Steve Kinser working his way back after the flat tire to finish ninth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Kraig Kinser rounded out the Top-10 in the Quaker State Maxim, also gaining a few spots back after his flat tire.

The World of Outlaws return to action on Friday, August 27 and Saturday, August 28 in the Fourth Annual Oil City Cup at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

MAGIC CITY SHOWDOWN NIGHT #2 NOTES

* FAST QUALIFIER: Ben Gregg paced the 33 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 3/8-mile oval at 13.947 seconds at 96.795 mph. For his qualifying effort, Gregg earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Sam Hafertepe Jr. (4), Donny Schatz (3), Joey Saldana (2) and Jac Haudenschild (1).

* NODAK SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING WINNERS: Mark Dobmeier, Jason Meyers, Steve Kinser and Craig Dollansky won heat races. Kraig Kinser won the dash. Toni Lutar won the Last Chance Showdown.

* FEATURE WINNERS: There have been 51 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 and Nodak 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 and I-55 Raceway), Steve Kinser (Volusia Speedway Park, Jackson Speedway, River Cities Speedway, Lakeside Speedway, Eldora Speedway, Autodrome Drummond and Fulton 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), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park, The Dirt Track at Charlotte and Ohsweken Speedway), Lance Dewease (Lernerville Speedway and Williams Grove Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Paducah International Raceway and Knoxville Raceway), Sammy Swindell (Dodge City Raceway and Huset's Speedway), Brooke Tatnell (Knoxville Raceway and Junction Motor Speedway), Dale Blaney (Limaland Motorsports Park), Doug Esh (Lebanon Valley Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Chad Layton (Williams Grove Speedway), Paul McMahan (Eldora Speedway), Fred Rahmer (Williams Grove Speedway) and Tim Shaffer (I-55 Raceway).

* 3/8-MILE-WINNERS: Nodak Speedway is a high-banked 3/8-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced 12 times on a track that size this season. The winners include: Craig Dollansky (Cedar Lake Speedway and Nodak Speedway), Joey Saldana (Dodge City Raceway Park and Nodak Speedway), Sammy Swindell (Dodge City Raceway Park and Huset's Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Paducah International Raceway), Steve Kinser (Fulton Speedway), Jason Meyers (Tri-State-Okla. Speedway), Donny Schatz (Ohsweken Speedway), Jason Sides (Ohsweken Speedway) and Brooke Tatnell (Junction Motor Speedway).

-source: WoO