Lake Odessa, MI — Meyers Masters I-96: Wins Third Race of 2009
Lake Odessa, MI— May 30, 2009—Jason Meyers had been close to winning in each of his last two visits to I-96 Speedway in Michigan leading into Saturday night’s event. He also had been close to winning a couple times over the last week in World of Outlaws action.
After picking up his second win of the season last month, the California native returned to Victory Lane on Saturday night at the half-mile, earning his second win in state of Michigan and the 28th of his career with the World of Outlaws.
Meyers started on the pole in the 30-lap contest and withstood a number of challenges from Kraig Kinser throughout the race to pick up the $10,000 check.
“I can’t thank everyone enough, especially everyone back home,” said Meyers. “My wife and my little girl for putting up with me lately. The whole crew did a fantastic job. These guys built a new race car this week and are just working hard every single day to be able to come out and put on a show for these fans. They gave me an awesome hot rod here tonight. I’m just glad to get this win for them.”
Meyers battled Kraig Kinser from the drop of the green flag, with Kinser taking the lead in turns one and two on the opening circuit, with Meyers getting a run on the back straightaway and retaking the top spot and officially being scored the leader at the line. Early in the race, Kinser ran the high side of the track and got several runs on Meyers as the pair entered the turns. He inched ahead a couple of time, but Meyers would charge back ahead on the straightaways to be officially credited with leading those laps.
A restart with five laps to go set up a shootout behind Meyers and Kraig Kinser along with Steve Kinser who was running third. Meyers used a strong start to open a slight lead while the father/son duo battled for the second spot. Meyers weathered six caution periods and tried a couple of different approaches on the restarts.
“Kraig (Kinser) was real good on the restarts and he just about got me a couple of times,” he noted. “It was real important on that last restart to get off the corner good. I was waiting a little too long to restart and he was getting a good run on me. Charlie Garrett builds us amazing engines and they restart very well and get into the corner.”
Meyers used the win to move to within 49 points of three-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz in the championship standings. Meyers has three wins to go along with 16 Top-10 finishes aboard the GLR Investments KPC this season as he chases his first career World of Outlaws title.
“We’re getting better each and every night and continue to work on things,” he stated. “There have been a few tracks this year where we weren’t worth a darn, and I think we are now getting where we need to be. My hat is off to these guys that work on this thing every day, because they make my job look easy. They do a great job and I can’t thank them enough.”
Steve Kinser, the 20-time World of Outlaws champion, wound up second in the Quaker State Maxim. He lined up seventh and used a strong start and gained a couple of positions on the opening lap before battling with Jason Sides and Jac Haudenschild. Late in the race he was able to snag the runner-up spot from his son Kraig on a restart. He moved to within 14 points of Donny Schatz in the series championship standings as he chases his record 21sth title.
Kraig Kinser ran in the Top-Three all night en route to a third-place finish in the Bass Prop Shops Maxim. He ran side-by-side with Meyers for a large portion of the race and unofficially took the lead quite a few times, but was never able to make the pass stick at the line.
“I couldn’t run right behind him, so I had to get out of his air,” he noted. “With these wings, they punch such a big hole in the air that you can’t run behind someone at a place like this. We had to run where he wasn’t. We had a couple of good runs on him and a couple of good opportunities and just didn’t get the job done. I feel good and the car was rolling pretty good tonight.”
The third generation gave it everything he had on the final restart with five laps to go as he looked for a way around Meyers. He also had his hands full as his father Steve was right on him. It was his 10th Top-10 finish of the season in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim.
“I probably should have been running the high side off the restarts,” said the younger Kinser. “I was just trying to get to Jason (Meyers) and the car running third, which was my dad (Steve Kinser) was getting a run on us down the back straightaway and in (turns) three and four. We got passed for second just trying to race for the win.”
Danny Lasoski, the 2001 series champion, wound up fourth on Saturday night in the Casey’s General Store Maxim. He started eighth and got around Jason Sides, Steve Kinser and Jac Haudenschild in the early going. He battled Donny Schatz for a number of laps.
“It’s really nice to be in contention,” said the 2001 series champion. “We had a really good start and went from eighth to fourth. We had third and thought we were really going to be a contender and then we had that red flag. Everyone was told them where I was running and went to block. I had to go somewhere else and when I was trying something else ‘The King’ got by me and put me back to fourth. A fourth place car is where we are at, but its way better than having to take a provisional.”
Joey Saldana was fifth in the Budweiser Maxim, with Jac Haudenschild, who was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on Saturday in sixth aboard the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim. Sam Hafertepe Jr. was seventh in the Fusion Energy J&J. Schatz recovered from a lap-17 spin while running third to work his way from the back of the field back to eighth in the Armor All J&J. Craig Dollansky was ninth in the DirecTV Maxim, and Brian Ellenberger scored the best finish of his career with the World of Outlaws, coming home 10th in the Ti-22 Performance J&J.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6 at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana.
I-96 SPEEDWAY NOTES
• FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Sides paced the 26 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the semi-banked 1/2-mile oval at 15.270 seconds at 117.878 mph. For his qualifying effort, Sides earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Jac Haudenschild (4), Steve Kinser (3), Chad Kemenah (2), and Kraig Kinser (1).
• QUALIFYING WINNERS: Jason Meyers, Danny Lasoski and Craig Dollansky won heat races. Jason Meyers won the Crane Cams Dash. Sean Robinson won the B-Main.
There has been 23 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature event held in 2009. The winners include: Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Silver Dollar Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Lone Star Speedway, Houston Raceway Park, The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Virginia Motor Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway, Eldora Speedway and Canandaigua Speedway), Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway, Paducah International Raceway and I-96 Speedway), Dale Blaney (Attica Raceway Park), Randy Hannagan (Thunderbowl Raceway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Tim Kaeding (Riverside International Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway), (Tri-State Speedway) and Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway).
• HALF–MILE WINNERS: I-96 Speedway is a semi-banked half-mile oval. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series has raced 12 times this season on a track that size. The winners include: Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway and Eldora Speedway), Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Lone Star Speedway and Virginia Motor Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway), Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway) and Jason Meyers (I-96 Speedway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; I-96; Lake Odessa, MI; May 30, 2009
Qualifying
1) 7S-Jason Sides 15.270
2) R19-Jac Haudenschild 15.500
3) 11-Steve Kinser 15.510
4) 63-Chad Kemenah 15.521
5) 20-Kraig Kinser 15.577
6) 5-Byron Reed 15.688
7) 9-Joey Saldana 15.706
8) 6-Danny Lasoski 15.720
9) 22-Brian Ellenberger 15.743
10) 14-Jason Meyers 15.808
11) 15-Donny Schatz 15.811
12) 19-Craig Dollansky 15.923
13) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 16.008
14) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 16.180
15) OO-Ryan Grubaugh 16.272
16) 25M-Ken Mackey 16.294
17) 1-Sean Robinson 16.453
18) 26-Gary Fast 16.540
19) 60-Jody Keegan 16.601
20) 2M-Dustin Daggett 16.765
21) 12M-Mike Daggett 17.045
22) 19X-Brett Mann 17.103
23) 6N-Dain Naida 17.216
24) 9E-Tim Evilsizer 17.687
25) 48B-William Shaw 18.108
26) 10-Davey Brown 18.117
27) 30-Steve Irwin -.—
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 14-Jason Meyers
2) 9-Joey Saldana
3) 63-Chad Kemenah
4) 7S-Jason Sides
5) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
6) 25M-Ken Mackey
7) 60-Jody Keegan
8) 19X-Brett Mann
9) 48B-William Shaw
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 6-Danny Lasoski
2) 15-Donny Schatz
3) R19-Jac Haudenschild
4) 20-Kraig Kinser
5) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
6) 2M-Dustin Daggett
7) 1-Sean Robinson
8) 10-Davey Brown
9) 6N-Dain Naida
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 19-Craig Dollansky
2) 11-Steve Kinser
3) 22-Brian Ellenberger
4) 5-Byron Reed
5) OO-Ryan Grubaugh
6) 26-Gary Fast
7) 12M-Mike Daggett
8) 9E-Tim Evilsizer
Crane Cams Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
1) 14-Jason Meyers
2) 20-Kraig Kinser
3) R19-Jac Haudenschild
4) 15-Donny Schatz
5) 9-Joey Saldana
6) 7S-Jason Sides
7) 11-Steve Kinser
8) 6-Danny Lasoski
9) 19-Craig Dollansky
10) 63-Chad Kemenah
B-main (12 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 1-Sean Robinson
2) 60-Jody Keegan
3) 19X-Brett Mann
4) 12M-Mike Daggett
5) 6N-Dain Naida
6) 9E-Tim Evilsizer
7) 48B-William Shaw [$200]
8) 10-Davey Brown [$180]
A-main (30 laps) – Starting Position [#]
1) 14-Jason Meyers[1] [$10,000]
2) 11-Steve Kinser[7] [$5,500]
3) 20-Kraig Kinser[2] [$3,200]
4) 6-Danny Lasoski[8] [$2,800]
5) 9-Joey Saldana[5] [$2,500]
6) R19-Jac Haudenschild[3] [$2,300]
7) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[13] [$2,200]
8) 15-Donny Schatz[4] [$2,100]
9) 19-Craig Dollansky[9] [$2,050]
10) 22-Brian Ellenberger[12] [$2,000]
11) 63-Chad Kemenah[10] [$1,500]
12) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[14] [$1,200]
13) 25M-Ken Mackey[16] [$1,100]
14) 2M-Dustin Daggett[20] [$1,050]
15) 60-Jody Keegan[19] [$1,000]
16) OO-Ryan Grubaugh[15] [$900]
17) 26-Gary Fast[18] [$800]
18) 1-Sean Robinson[17] [$800]
19) 7S-Jason Sides[6] [$800]
20) 5-Byron Reed[11] [$800]
21) 6N-Dain Naida[23] [$800]
22) 12M-Mike Daggett[21] [$800]
23) 19X-Brett Mann[22] [$800]
24) 9E-Tim Evilsizer[24] [$800]
Lap Leaders: Jason Meyers 1-30
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Danny Lasoski
Penske Power Position Award: Kraig Kinser
KSE Hard Charger Award: Dustin Daggett
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), Quaker State (Official Motor Oil), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, Jake’s Custom Golf Carts, KSE Race Products, Penske Shocks, Racing Electronics, S&S Volvo; Engine Builder’s Challenge participants Don Ott Racing Engines, Kistler Engines, Shaver Specialties and Speedway Engines; and Chassis Builder’s Challenge participants J&J Auto Racing, Maxim Racing and XXX Race Company.
