Dollansky takes his third win at Tri-State

World of Outlaws veteran Craig Dollansky continued his winning ways at Tri-State Speedway on Saturday night, winning a thriller over Joey Saldana to score his third career win at the Indiana venue.

For Dollansky the $10,000 win was his fourth of the season and the 35th of his career with the series. He is one of just two active World of Outlaws drivers that have won at the track, as he and 20-time series champion Steve Kinser have alternated wins at Haubstadt in each of the last six years.

“I just love racing this track,” said Dollansky in Victory Lane.

“It’s so much fun. They do such a good job preparing the track and put on a good show for the fans. There are great fans here and this turnout tonight says it all with this packed house. I’m so happy for this team. It’s always a total team effort and everyone is working very hard.”

Dollansky took the lead from Donny Schatz on the 22nd lap on the low side of turns one and two, with Joey Saldana moving into second at the same time as the leaders negotiated lapped traffic. Saldana would chase Dollansky for the remainder of the 40-lap contest, taking the lead on a lap-38 double file restart, with the caution coming out before that lap was completed leading to another double file restart.

Dollansky chose the low line of the track and led on the restart, with the caution coming out on the 39th lap, setting up a two-lap shootout. On the following restart Saldana took the lead in turns one and two with Dollansky battling back with yet another caution flying, this time for a crash which by way of rules led to a single file restart.

On the final restart of the night, Dollansky would bring the field to the green with Saldana looking to the high side of turns one and two and then diving low in turns three and four to take the lead, with Dollansky battling back on the front straightaway to surge back ahead as the pair took the white flag. Saldana used the high side of the track coming off turns three and four as the duo charged to checkered flag, with Dollansky winning by just 0.123 seconds.

“Joey (Saldana) was throwing a lot at us on those last few restarts,” said Dollansky.

“I just had to adjust my line a little bit. I felt like I was getting through lapped traffic pretty good. You have to race hard and to win races out here, you have to give it everything you got.”

Paul McMahan started sixth and steadily worked his way to the front on his way to a third-place finish ahead of early race leader Schatz, who moved into second in the points standings with two races remaining.

Jason Meyers, the current World of Outlaws point leader finished ninth in the GLR Investments KPC as he continues to chase his first series title. He has a 96-point lead on Schatz and a 100-point advantage on Steve Kinser.

Kinser came home tenth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim after getting caught up in a four-car accident with two laps remaining.

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series
Tri-State Speedway; Haubstadt, IN
A-main (40 laps)

World of Outlaws Championship Standings