Kemenah Earns
His First
For
Kemenah, a three-time champion with the All Stars, it was the first
Stewart
tried to recover, especially to keep pace in the March to the Mean 15, but one
lap later he looped his car in Turn 2 just as Solwold surged in front of
Kemenah for the lead. With the lap not complete, Solwold was moved back to
second and on the restart Kemenah shot to the front as a wild scramble for
second ensued. Solwold fended off Schatz, Steve Kinser and Brooke Tatnell, but
the slicing and dicing never let up.
Kemenah,
who surprised everyone by going high on that final restart, quickly moved back
down when he realized the peril of challenging the wall and began to pull away.
Schatz raced his way along the bottom and was strong enough to catch and pass
Solwold for second. Then Tatnell moved down to a middle groove and got Solwold
for the third on the final lap with Kinser hanging on for fifth in the 40-lap
feature.
“This
is probably my biggest win,” said Kemenah, who has been the fastest qualifier
on three nights this season with the Outlaws before collecting $10,000 for
winning Saturday night.
“Knoxville
was really cool last year to run second, but when you can say you won your
first Outlaws race, that’s in the elite there. “Me and Shane got going there
for a while and it was really good for the fans. I had to stay on the bottom
because I didn’t think I could get around the outside of him. I saw him get
tangled up with the fence. I didn’t want to see that. I wanted to try to beat
him while he was running but I’ll take it whenever I can get it.”
Nobody
was more surprised than Schatz when Kemenah went high on the final restart, but
without any mirrors in a sprint car, Kemenah had no idea who was running directly
behind him, only knowing that most of the cars were trying to get around on the
top of the track.
“When
you’re leading you don’t have any idea where you’re at,” said Kemenah, of
Schatz’s
second-place run, one night after winning at Route 66 Raceway, signals that he
definitely has his program turned around as the series heads into the Month of
Money.
“We
just need to put up good finishes,” said Schatz, a four-time feature winner
this season. “I guess at the end we were there. There were a lot of cars better
than us, but they made mistakes on the last couple of laps. I really thought I
was going to get him there. With two laps to go I got to second and started to
catch him a little bit and he got off the bottom and that’s where I was good. I
just got overdriving it, I guess. That happens from time to time.”
What
benefited Schatz the most is the knowledge he can’t run on the top at a track
like I-55 Raceway. He never even considered running that line during the night.
“I know I can’t run up there and do it smoothly on a track like this so I just
don’t do it,” said Schatz, a Mean 15 racer from
By
sneaking into third, Brooke Tatnell extended his advantage in the March to the
Mean 15, a five-race challenge to determine the newest member of the Mean 15.
Tatnell now owns a 16-point lead over Solwold, a 26-point lead on Stewart and a
32-point lead on Terry McCarl. “It was cut and dice,” said Tatnell, a native of
Solwold
posted his most impressive run since he finished second in a preliminary
feature in April at Eldora Speedway. Solwold was clearly determined to push his
to the front, and had the cautions not worked against him, he might have been
the one celebrating his first Outlaws victory. Instead, Solwold will settle for
knowing that he jumped from fourth to second in the March to the Mean 15 with
three races to go. “That last yellow with 11 to go, I was actually catching up
to Kemenah and I had a pretty good rhythm going,” said Solwold, a former track
champion at Skagit Speedway and native of Mt. Vernon, Wash. “Then we had the
restart and I drove it in hard a couple of times trying to catch him and backed
up to fourth, but that was the closest we felt to winning all year. I felt we
had something for him. I liked the feeling so hopefully it will come back
around.“ The cushion was hard. If you didn’t hit it just right, something was
going to happen to you. You’d bounce the front end over and into the wall. I
got a little antsy after that last yellow. But we made it home in fourth. It’s
another good top 10 finish and that’s what we need right now.”
Points-leader
Steve Kinser earned his 28th top-five finish this season, riding the cushion
and surviving the wild finish. “It had a real bad cushion on it,” said Kinser,
a Mean 15 racer from
I-55
RACEWAY NOTEBOOK• I-55 Raceway is a 1/3-mile oval. Last
night’s race was the 10th this season on a track that size, including
preliminaries, with five different winners. Chad Kemenah earned the first
•
In the second Dash that set the outside top six rows of the A-main, Kraig
Kinser began his quest for a repeat at I-55 by easily taking the checkered
flag. Craig Dollansky, a feature winner on Wednesday at
•
In the B-main, fast-qualifier Joey Saldana quickly powered to the lead as Jesse
Hockett cut into second. Saldana was too strong for the field, motoring back
into the lead after three cautions. Hockett held onto second with Terry McCarl
settling for third and Jimmy Hurley earning the final transfer spot to the
feature.
•
In the first heat, Jac Haudenschild raced the Dennis Roth-owned No. 83jr to the
front in Turn 2 and held off Jason Sides to the checkered flag. Kraig Kinser
cruised to the finish in third with Shane Stewart in fourth. The race for the
fifth and final transfer spot was intense as Joey Moughan fought off the night’s
fastest qualifier, Joey Saldana.
•
In the second heat, Tim Shaffer shot to the front as Steve Kinser dove from
fourth to second. Pole-sitter Jesse Hockett then blew a motor, moving Chad
Kemenah up a spot. On the restart, Shaffer rushed back to the lead and held off
Kinser as the field raced the rest of the way single-file. Wimmer finished
third, Danny Lasoski was fourth and Kemenah fifth.
•
In the third heat,
•
In the fourth heat, Jeff Shepard and
•
Joey Saldana paced the 32 cars that went through time trials with a lap around
the 1/3-mile oval in 10.509 seconds at 114.187 mph. Stevie Smith owns the track
record in an Outlaws event after turning a 10.189-second lap on March 30, 2002.
“It’s good because our motor still isn’t running very good,” Saldana said. “I
know we qualified fast time, but I don’t think Pevely is a track where you know
if your motor really runs. We just ran a nice clean lap and we went out early,
but I think we’re still fighting some motor issues and hopefully we can get it
figured out before Eldora.”
•
The Outlaws next head July 13 to the
•
The Outdoor Channel will air at
•
Dirtvision will offer July 13 On-Demand coverage of the
•
If fans can’t get to a track to see the series, they can experience the
excitement of the
Qualifying1) Joey Saldana, Woodward 2,
10.5092) Chad Kemenah, Harble 15K, 10.6183) Paul McMahan, Helm 11H, 10.6464)
Brooke Tatnell, Rush Racing 8, 10.7295) Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 10.753 6)
Jason Solwold, Carnahan R19, 10.766 7) Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20, 10.7918)
Shane Stewart, Rudeen Racing 26, 10.7989) Kraig Kinser, Kinser 11K, 10.80610)
Steve Kinser, Kinser 11, 10.80811) Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 10.81912) Daryn
Pittman, Titan Racing USA 21, 10.86913)
First Heat Race (10 laps, top 5
finishers transferred to A-feature)1) Jac Haudenschild2) Jason Sides3) Kraig Kinser4) Shane
Stewart5) Joey Moughan6) Joey Saldana7) Lance Gullo8) Chris Sloan
Second Heat Race (10 laps, top 5
finishers transferred to A-feature)1) Tim Shaffer2) Steve Kinser3) Brandon Wimmer4) Danny
Lasoski5) Chad Kemenah6) Jimmy Hurley7) Adam Jones8) Jesse Hockett
Third Heat Race (10 laps, top 5
finishers transferred to A-feature)1)
Fourth Heat Race (10 laps, top 5
finishers transferred to A-feature)1)
Stacker 2 Dash (6 laps, finishing
order determined inside first 6 rows of A-feature)1) Shane Stewart2) Jason Solwold3)
Chad Kemenah4) Brooke Tatnell5)
Second Dash (6 laps, finishing order
determined outside first 6 rows of A-feature)1) Kraig Kinser2) Craig Dollansky3) Danny Lasoski4)
Donny Schatz5) Daryn Pittman6) Paul McMahan
B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers
transferred to A-feature)1) Joey Saldana [$20]2) Jesse Hockett [$20]3) Terry McCarl [$20]4) Jimmy
Hurley [$20]5) Daniel Adler [$200]6) Jimmy Brayton, Jr. [$180]7) Chris Sloan
[$175]8) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.[$160]9) Jason Keith [$150]10) Lance Gullo
[$150]11) Adam Jones [$150]12) Kent Buckley (DNS) [$150]
A-main (40 laps)1) Chad Kemenah [$10,000]2) Donny
Schatz [$5,750]3) Brooke Tatnell [$3,500]4) Jason Solwold [$3,000]5) Steve
Kinser [$2,750]6) Daryn Pittman [$2,500]7) Tim Shaffer [$2,300]8) Joey Saldana
[$2,250]9) Danny Lasoski [$2,150]10) Paul McMahan [$2,100]11)
Notes: Jesse Hockett was running 3rd in
heat race #2 when he stopped in turn 3.Hockett was unable to restart. … Paul
McMahan changed engines after his heat race. … Daryn Pittman changed engines
after his heat race