Tatnell Wins Opener of VAULT World Finals: Schatz Clinches Third
Consecutive Title
Concord, NC-- October 31, 2008--The last time that Brooke
Tatnell was leading an Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car
Series event with the cameras from SPEED rolling, he had an engine let go
back in June. For a while on Friday night in the opening feature of the
second annual VAULT World Finals at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor
Speedway, it appeared that history may repeat itself, as Tatnell's
car let off a heavy and steady stream of smoke early in the event, that
doused the inside of the car with oil.
Following a red flag on the seventh lap, the car stopped smoking and
Tatnell would go on to lead the remainder of the 30-lap contest to pick
up the ninth A-Feature win of his World of Outlaws career, which was
worth $10,000.
The native of San Souci, NSW, Australia, is filling in again this
weekend for Craig Dollansky who continues to recover from an arm injury
sustained at Eldora Speedway last month.
"This really means a lot to us," said Tatnell. "We
should have gotten one earlier this year with basically our own team and
it didn't happen that way. These guys have believed in me. Whether
I have made mistakes or things have gone wrong, everyone has patted each
other on the back said not to worry about it that we would get it the
next time and would be all right. To have Craig (Dollansky) and Larry
(Woodward) and everyone on this team to have faith in me and for me to be
the driver they wanted in the car, to win is a great payback for
them."
Tatnell jumped to a quick lead in the Aggressive Hydraulics Maxim, when
pole sitter Terry McCarl's car did not take off at the start. It
was Tatnell's fourth Top-10 finishes in his substitute roll with
the team. He has had a couple of strong runs cut short by back luck,
while running at the front of the field, and made up for that on Friday
night, leading all 30 laps from start-to-finish.
"We've been thrown a lifeline here with Craig's
(Dollansky) misfortune," Tatnell shared. "It's been a
lifeline for us to get out here and show people that we can do
this."
Early in the race, Tatnell's car was emitting smoke in turns one
and two and again in the third and fourth corners, though it did not seem
to affect the performance of his car, as he opened a healthy lead on
young Pennsylvania driver Cody Darrah, who jumped into second in the
early going.
"I was a little nervous there for a while," admitted the
winner. "It was hard to see for one thing. It just seemed to be
getting worse and worse. We then had that red (flag) and it just stopped.
I don't know what it was. The floor is all covered in oil, but if
that's what it takes, I'll do it again."
After falling back to fourth on the start, Terry McCarl was engaged in an
epic battle with Donny Schatz. The pair traded the third spot four times
in the first 15 laps of the 30-lap event. In lapped traffic, the duo was
able to gain ground on second-place Darrah, while Tatnell continues to
pull away.
After battling Darrah for over five laps, Schatz moved into the runner-up
spot on the 16th circuit in heavy lapped traffic, and set his sights on
Tatnell. The leader was held up by a couple of lapped cars, giving Schatz
a chance to close to within a couple of car lengths of him. The final
caution of the night flew with 10 laps remaining, giving Tatnell a clear
track ahead of him to finish the race.
"I think we were pretty good in open track and the track was so
fast," explained the veteran driver. "Even in lapped cars we
were pretty good and I got by a couple up high and they were in the
middle and bottom. It obviously helped to have clean track. It's
always a handy helper, especially when you have (Donny) Schatz behind
you."
Lapped traffic with five laps remaining gave Schatz one more chance at
Tatnell. As the laps wound down, he was able to reel in the leader, but
could not quite get enough of a run on him to attempt a pass. The final
margin of victory was just over four-tenths of a second. The runner-up
finish helped Schatz claim his third consecutive World of Outlaws
championship, joining Steve Kinser as the only driver to win three titles
in a row, in his first season driving the Armor All J&J for Tony Stewart
Racing.
"We're happy we got the title, but we were here to win the
race tonight," said Schatz. "I thought we had a good chance
to. The car was awesome before that yellow came out. I didn't do my
job after the yellow. The last ten laps, I didn't run the car
right. I let the tires cool off and never got them back, and that's
my fault. We're pumped to have the championship, but we gave away a
race and that's not what our job is and we are disappointed with
that."
McCarl wound up third in the Big Game Treestands Maxim, to pick up his
10th finish of eighth or better in the last 11 races. Since his win at
Orange County Fair Speedway in New York last month, the six-time
Knoxville Raceway and Huset's Speedway track champion has finished
outside the Top-10 just once.
"We're a little disappointed," admitted McCarl.
"I feel like we had the fastest car here. We thought we had a motor
problem on the last lap of the dash and Don Ott came over and checked
everything out and everything looked ok. On the start, we just
didn't take off. We started it before the race and got plenty of
heat in it and did everything we could do. Once we got going, I think we
were the fastest car."
Steve Kinser, the 20-time series champion started eighth and finished
fourth in the Q Oil Maxim. Cody Darrah was fifth aboard the J&K Salvage
Maxim to record his best career World of Outlaws finish.
Daryn Pittman finished sixth in the Titan Garages Maxim, with Jac
Haudenschild in seventh, piloting the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim.
Jason Meyers, who won the inaugural 'Breaking the VAULT'
dashes on Thursday night, finished eighth in the GLR Investments KPC.
Fred Rahmer was ninth aboard the Miller Bros. J&J. Wayne Johnson rounded
out the Top-10 in the Iriquois Poker machine.
Schatz and McCarl were battling tooth and nail for the third spot during
the first half of the race. They nearly made contact entering turn three
just past the halfway point, with Schatz backing out of the throttle to
avoid contact.
"We were going back and forth with Terry (McCarl) and he wanted the
spot pretty bad," noted the North Dakota native. "He has been
running pretty good the last month and I had no choice. I guess I could
have clobbered him, but that's not the way I do it. You deal with
and get over it. We got past it and found a way to get back around him
and kept going."
Schatz would like nothing more than to cap his championship winning
season with a win on Saturday night. He turned the fifth quickest lap on
Thursday night in the second round of time trials which set the field for
Saturday night's event.
"We have to be just a little better than we were tonight,"
said Schatz, when asked what it would take to win the finale of the VAULT
World Finals. "We were awesome before that yellow. You have to be
in the right place at the right time. You have to be in the dash and this
place is really fast and it's tough to come through (the field)
here. Hopefully we'll put ourselves in the Top-two of the heat race
and the rest will come on its own."
Like Tatnell, McCarl's engine was letting off a great deal of smoke
in the early laps as well. Just like the winners engine, it stopped
smoking as well after the lap 7 red flag.
"These motors kind of do that," explained the Iowa native.
"Brooke (Tatnell) was blowing some smoke too and I thought if
Brooke blows up, it might be both of us blowing up in a minute. I'm
happy for Brooke. He needed that win and with Craig's team going
through a tough time with his injury. If you have to lose one,
that's a good team to win. Brooke did a great job."
McCarl didn't really want to see the final caution with 10 flags,
mainly because his engine was not quite taking off on the starts. After a
couple of laps on the restarts, McCarl would get back up to speed.
"If we could have got out front in clean air, I don't think
anyone could have touched us, like the dash or the heat race," said
McCarl. "We're happy to run third, but disappointed since we
had the car to beat. I am a rhythm driver and the longer runs are good
for me. I wish it would have gone non-stop, because if it had, I think we
could have won the thing."
The second annual VAULT World Finals continue on Saturday night with the
finale of the third-day event, with all the action being televised live
on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. Friday's portion of the event
was taped for broadcast and will air on Saturday, November 8.
VAULT WORLD FINALS NOTEBOOK
* FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Meyers paced the 47 cars that took time
with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the semi-banked four-tenths-mile oval
at 12.293 seconds at 117.140 mph. For his qualifying effort, Meyers
earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned
bonus points, including: Daryn Pittman (4), Steve Kinser (3), Ed Lynch
Jr. (2), and Fred Rahmer (1).
* QUALIFYING WINNERS: Terry McCarl, Donny Schatz, Brooke Tatnell
and Chad Kemenah won heat races... Terry McCarl won the Crane Cams
Dash.... Wayne Johnson won the B-Main...Mark Smith won the
C-Main.
* UP NEXT: The finale of the second annual VAULT World Finals at
The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway, which will conclude the
2008 season for the World of Outlaws live on SPEED at 8 p.m. Eastern on
Saturday night.
Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report;
VAULT World Finals; Concord, NC; October 31, 2008
Qualifying (Held on October 30)
1) 14-Jason Meyers 12.293
2) 21-Daryn Pittman 12.403
3) 11-Steve Kinser 12.404
4) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr. 12.444
5) 51-Fred Rahmer 12.478
6) 77X-Wayne Johnson 12.489
7) 83A-Tim Shaffer 12.497
8) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 12.508
9) 24-Terry McCarl 12.524
10) 15-Donny Schatz 12.527
11) 2-Brooke Tatnell 12.531
12) 89-Cody Darrah 12.581
13) R19-Jac Haudenschild 12.585
14) 22-Greg Hodnett 12.600
15) 24H-Rob Chaney 12.622
16) 8K-Chad Kemenah 12.633
17) 6N-Danny Lasoski 12.659
18) 20-Kraig Kinser 12.662
19) 7S-Jason Sides 12.670
20) 51S-Lee Sowell 12.693
21) 5C-Chad Hillier 12.694
22) 35-Alan Cole 12.695
23) 55-Kerry Madsen 12.710
24) 6-Paul McMahan 12.719
25) 59-Lee Jacobs 12.725
26) 9-Joey Saldana 12.739
27) 10N-Niki Young 12.740
28) 30C-Lance Dewease 12.749
29) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 12.840
30) 4-Danny Smith 12.857
31) 63-Josh Weller 12.888
32) 84-Jimmy Stinson 12.901
33) 1Z-Jessica Zemken 12.915
34) 71-Brian Leppo 12.925
35) 18-Tony Bruce Jr. 12.934
36) 37-Scott Flammer 12.951
37) 7M-Mark Smith 12.975
38) 11M-Brandon Martin 12.988
39) O-Glenn Styres 12.994
40) W20-Greg Wilson 13.019
41) 11T-T J Winegardner 13.028
42) 12-Lynton Jeffrey 13.126
43) 20E-Brian Ellenberger 13.151
44) 81-Craig Folmar 13.248
45) 11S-Brian Smith 13.273
46) 47X-Louie Carufel 13.571
47) 4M-John Memmer 13.732
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 24-Terry McCarl
2) R19-Jac Haudenschild
3) 14-Jason Meyers
4) 51-Fred Rahmer
5) 5C-Chad Hillier
6) 7M-Mark Smith
7) 6N-Danny Lasoski
8) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
9) 59-Lee Jacobs
10) 1Z-Jessica Zemken
11) 11T-T J Winegardner
12) 11S-Brian Smith
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 15-Donny Schatz
2) 21-Daryn Pittman
3) 22-Greg Hodnett
4) 9-Joey Saldana
5) 4-Danny Smith
6) 12-Lynton Jeffrey
7) 20-Kraig Kinser
8) 11M-Brandon Martin
9) 35-Alan Cole
10) 71-Brian Leppo
11) 77X-Wayne Johnson
12) 47X-Louie Carufel
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 2-Brooke Tatnell
2) 7S-Jason Sides
3) 83A-Tim Shaffer
4) 11-Steve Kinser
5) 24H-Rob Chaney
6) 10N-Niki Young
7) 55-Kerry Madsen
8) 18-Tony Bruce Jr.
9) 20E-Brian Ellenberger
10) 63-Josh Weller
11) O-Glenn Styres
Heat 4 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 8K-Chad Kemenah
2) 89-Cody Darrah
3) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.
4) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
5) 6-Paul McMahan
6) 30C-Lance Dewease
7) 84-Jimmy Stinson
8) W20-Greg Wilson
9) 51S-Lee Sowell
10) 37-Scott Flammer
11) 81-Craig Folmar
Crane Cams Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting
positions of A-feature)
1) 24-Terry McCarl
2) 2-Brooke Tatnell
3) 15-Donny Schatz
4) 89-Cody Darrah
5) 21-Daryn Pittman
6) R19-Jac Haudenschild
7) 14-Jason Meyers
8) 11-Steve Kinser
9) 7S-Jason Sides
10) 8K-Chad Kemenah
C-main (10 laps, top 2 finishers transferred to B-main)
1) 7M-Mark Smith
2) 11M-Brandon Martin
3) 12-Lynton Jeffrey [$125]
4) W20-Greg Wilson [$125]
5) 20E-Brian Ellenberger [$125]
6) 11T-TJ Winegardner [$100]
7) O-Glenn Styres [$100]
8) 47X-Louie Carufel [$100]
9) 11S-Brian Smith [$100]
10) 81-Craig Folmar [$100]
11) John Memmer [$100]
B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 77X-Wayne Johnson
2) 6N-Danny Lasoski
3) 20-Kraig Kinser
4) 51S-Lee Sowell
5) 35-Alan Cole [$200]
6) 55-Kerry Madsen [$180]
7) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [$175]
8) 30C-Lance Dewease [$160]
9) 18-Tony Bruce Jr. [$150]
10) 10N-Niki Young [$150]
11) 71-Brian Leppo [$150]
12) 1Z-Jessica Zemken [$150]
13) 63-Josh Weller [$150]
14) 37-Scott Flammer [$150]
15) 59-Lee Jacobs [$150]
16) 84-Jimmy Stinson [$150]
17) 11M-Brandon Martin [$150]
18) 7M-Mark Smith [$150]
A-main (30 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 2-Brooke Tatnell[2] [$10,000]
2) 15-Donny Schatz[3] [$5,000]
3) 24-Terry McCarl[1] [$3,000]
4) 11-Steve Kinser[8] [$2,700]
5) 89-Cody Darrah[4] [$2,500]
6) 21-Daryn Pittman[5] [$2,200]
7) R19-Jac Haudenschild[6] [$2,000]
8) 14-Jason Meyers[7] [$1,800]
9) 51-Fred Rahmer[12] [$1,600]
10) 77X-Wayne Johnson[13] [$1,450]
11) 83A-Tim Shaffer[14] [$1,300]
12) 8K-Chad Kemenah[10] [$1,200]
13) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.[11] [$1,100]
14) 6-Paul McMahan[22] [$1,000]
15) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[15] [$950]
16) 55-Kerry Madsen[25] [$200]
17) 4-Danny Smith[24] [$850]
18) 20-Kraig Kinser[19] [$750]
19) 9-Joey Saldana[23] [$725]
20) 22-Greg Hodnett[16] [$700]
21) 24H-Rob Chaney[17] [$700]
22) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[26] [$0]
23) 51S-Lee Sowell[20] [$700]
24) 5C-Chad Hillier[21] [$700]
25) 7S-Jason Sides[9] [$700]
26) 6N-Danny Lasoski[18] [$700]
Lap Leaders: Brooke Tatnell, 1-30
Note: Kerry Madsen and Sam Hafertepe Jr. used World of Outlaws
provisionals to start the A-Feature.
Chicken Hawk Hot Lap Award: Brooke Tatnell
Penske Power Position Award: Terry McCarl
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Joey Saldana
KSE Hard Charger Award: Kerry Madsen
-credit: woo
