Donny Schatz dominated the 24-car field as he picked up his sixth victory in the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway.
The Fargo, North Dakota native led all 40 laps around the half-mile dirt oval to pick up a cool $US175,000 ahead of Brent Marks in second and David Gravel in third.
Schatz was extremely stoic in victory lane. With wins coming fewer and fewer, each trip to victory lane means that much more to the 10-time World of Outlaws champion.
“I think it’s just the adversity lately,” an emotional Schatz said. “We’re not performing the way we want and tonight we did. These guys, they pulled a car down from upstairs with a two-year-old motor there and obviously runs pretty damn good, so it’s really them.”
Schatz led at the start from pole position over outside front row starter Parker Price-Miller. The action stopped almost immediately as Landon Myers and Justin Peck both flipped in Turn 2 on the second lap of the race. Both drivers were responsive to the safety crews.
After the race restarted, Brady Bacon was in 11th place when he tumbled hard in Turn 2 on Lap 3 after hitting a rut in Turn 2. Bacon left his car under his own power.
Gravel got by Price-Miller shortly after racing resumed but the yellow flag came out on Lap 11 after Giovanni Scelzi hit a rut in Turn 1, breaking a left rear suspension arm on the car and causing a spin.
Schatz led on the restart with Gravel on his tail as Brent Marks took third place from Price-Miller and kept the lead until the fuel break on Lap 23.
Because the cars in the heat races were using a gallon per lap, the World of Outlaws officials decided after listening to driver feedback to call for a fuel stop around halfway so teams could refuel their cars and make adjustments.
Schatz led at the restart but the yellow came out almost immediately as Shane Stewart slid to a stop after hitting the rut in Turn 1 that caused some earlier issues. Rico Abreu also slid to a near-stop in the corner.
The field did not complete a lap on the upcoming restart before fifth place-running Price-Miller hit the Turn 4 wall and went upside down. The Kokomo, Indiana native got out of the car under his own power.
The race resumed one more time with Schatz leading over Gravel and Marks. Marks soon picked up second place from the Connecticut native and set off after the leader.
However that chase was all in vain as Schatz won by nearly four seconds, his first win since May. Consistency has been hard to find for the Tony Stewart Racing team, but a mix of speed and luck being seeded in the sixth heat race worked in Schatz’s favor.
“We want to be consistent every night, that’s the goal,” Schatz said. “We want to race for championships. I’m nowhere near the ability to race for a championship, you’ve just got to be consistent and it’s nice to be able to be in a good spot at these big races.”
Winning the sixth heat race put Schatz on pole position in the feature alongside Price-Miller who won the fifth heat race.
“We did it qualifying in 24th,” Schatz said. “We did have to pass some cars in the heat race, which, if it would’ve been any other heat race but the sixth, I don’t think that would’ve happened because the race track finally started to move around just a little bit.”
Alice Springs’s James McFadden led the Australian charge, finishing seventh after starting 16th. 2014 Kings Royal winner Kerry Madsen from St. Marys finished 17th after starting sixth.
Gold Coast natives Lachlan McHugh and Cody Maroske had short nights as McHugh finished sixth in the second heat race and eighth in the B-Main while Maroske finished seventh in the sixth heat race and scratched from the C-Main.
Cardup’s Trent Pigdon finished ninth in the second heat race and 11th in the C-Main.
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