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Dollansky And Schatz Take WoO Closers At Volusia

Barberville, Fla. – The World of Outlaws wound up their run at the Volusia Speedway Park with a double-header on a breezy and cool Sunday. Four-time champion Donnie Schatz captured the day-time event and Craig Dollansky raced to victory under the lights. When rain postponed the WoO season opener on Friday night, the event was re-scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

The WoO ran three events on Volusia’s fast half-mile and the UNOH All-Star Circuit of Champions ran a pair of races, all part of the 41st UNOH DIRTcar Nationals presented by Summit Racing Equipment.

Points were accumulated for the five open-wheel programs at Volusia, and Sammy Swindell took home the championship honors.

Going into Sunday’s events, Schatz had been having a rough go of it but he made up for it with victories in a heat, the dash and the main event.

“The conditions were about as bad as you could get with the win, sun and heat,” he said. “You just have to be smart, and sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.”

Sammy Swindell finished second with Jason Sides third.

Fast qualifier Jason Meyers took fourth followed by Dollansky.

In the evening event, Dollansky powered into the lead at the drop of the green flag and was never headed en route to victory. All 30 laps were run without a caution flag.

Schatz challenged him for several laps and pulled alongside once but couldn’t make the pass. He ended up in second place with Connecticut’s David Gravel in third.

“When you win two races on a weekend, it is a good weekend,” Dollansky said. “We blew an engine two nights ago and we rebounded from that. When you open the season with a couple of wins, it is a great way to start the season.”

Regarding the race, he said, “To get the lead at the start was good because I knew Donnie was back there. Once in the lead, I was trying to watch the track to see how it was going to change and it did. I thought it would rubber up on the bottom and it did so.”

Schatz gave it his all but couldn’t muster enough to sweep the day’s program. “We all expect wins, as that is what we strive for,” he said. “We gave it everything we had today, but we had to wait to see what the race track was going to do. I tried moving around to see what could happen. It was a good race but second is all we could do. We had a second-place car.”

The former champion thought the track held up well with all the laps that were run throughout the long day of racing. “With the conditions we had, the track held up well and they did a good job. Not every day will be cheery but you have to take what you can get. We got out of here with a win, a second and a fourth, and we will try more when we get to Las Vegas (the next WoO race).”

Teenager Gravel said, “I got by Donnie for a bit but then he got back by me. We can’t complain where we finished, as we were very strong tonight.”

The young driver will focus on the All-Star Circuit of Champions and run about 30 WoO shows.

Kraig Kinser ran fourth and Swindell got fifth place.

NASCAR champion Tony Stewart took 11th in the feature.

In UMP modified action, Kenny Wallace won for the third time and he was trailed by Ty Dillon and Kenny Schrader.

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