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World of Outlaws makes its first visit to speedway MOTORSPORTS By JOE LINDHOLM Sports Writer BARROWS - The 2008 season at North Central Speedway officially came to a close on Friday evening with the first visit ever from the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars.
The World of Outlaws is in its 30th year this season with events from coast to coast during an eight month season.
Fans at North Central were looking forward to seeing Elk River's Craig Dollansky, who has seven feature victories this year. However, Dollansky was in the crowd with a broken arm watching Brooke Tatnell drive his number two car.
Donny Schatz currently leads in the points standings with 14 victories on the season and $305,185 in earnings. The series also has two car owners in Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne that drive in the Nextel Cup Series.
In the qualifying laps, California's Jason Meyers shattered the track record with a time of 93 miles per hour. Joey Saldana, Danny Lasoski, and Kraig Kinser each won heat races to earn a spot in the six lap dash for cash. Saldana ran a lap time of 91.121 miles per hour to take the checkered flag in the dash.
In the feature event, Saldana got off to a strong start and looked to be distancing himself from the field. That was until lap 16 of the 35 lap feature when Saldana's car broke. On the WOL series, drivers have two minutes in the pit area to repair there car, but Saldana could not get his car running and didn't return.
Kinser moved into the No. 1 spot on the reestart. Kinser, who drives for Tony Stewart racing, was sitting in 12th in the points standings coming into the evening with one feature win in 2008. He didn't give up the lead after getting it and held off Lucas Wolfe, and his father Steve Kinser to take the checkered flag.
"Saldana was working pretty well and both Lucas and I were having problems with lapped traffic," said Kinser. "We got held up in the lapped traffic a little more then Joey did. If it would have kept going we would never have caught him. I lost track of him there when I was working to get by Lucas."
It was Kinser's first visit to the track with the World of Outlaws. "It was definitely narrow early," he said. "For the heat race you didn't know what to expect. Everyone said it was going to be a dry slick track coming here and then you show up and it is completely different, but we adapted pretty good in the heat race. From my point of view we put on a pretty good show out there and I am thankful to get away with the win."
The Pure Stock class also had one more opportunity to showcase their talents, and Max Dondelinger rose to the challenge with his first feature win of the season. The race was scary in the early going as Gary Ohnstad Jr. and Robert Mueller crashed on the front straight away. Ohnstad Jr. had a fire underneath his car, but the track crew put the flames out and both drivers walked away unhurt.
Dondelinger had his own bit of misfortune earlier in the year as he was involved in a wreck on the front straightaway with his car ending up on its roof. His experience on Friday night was better.
"It was a lot more fun tonight," said Dondelinger. "Putting the car on its roof - it looks like a big deal but it really wasn't. It was a lot of hard work. I have to thank my buddy Jesse Pugh for all the crew work he has done for me and my parents for supporting me and the Lord for giving me all the help and I finally got the win."
"I actually almost missed the race because I wasn't prepared, but once I got out there I started battling. Mike Smude had a really fast car and I think he and I would have been up there battling if he hadn't got the flat tire but I'm not going to complain."
Max, who is 16, will not be walking away with all of the $500 prize money due to a business arrangement with his father D.J.
"Me and my dad have a deal," he said. "Since he bought the car he gets a little bit of the winnings to take away so he will get a portion and I will, too."
NCS PURE STOCK
Feature-1-Max Dondelinger, 2-Mike Japp, 3-Derek Olson
Heat 1-1-Mike Japp, 2-Bill Nelson, 3-Brad Nelson
Heat 2-1-Cody Przybilla, 2-Allen Brehmer, 3-Derek Olson
Heat 3-1-Dan Bartick, 2-Mike Smude, 3-Brian Boser
World of Outlaws Sprints
Feature- 1-Kraig Kinser, 2-Lucas Wolfe, 3-Steve Kinser
B Feature-1-Paul McMahan, 2-Davey Heskin, 3-Bill Balog
Dash-1-Joey Saldana, 2-Larry Wolfe, 3-Steve Kinser
Heat 1-1-Joey Saldana, 2-Terry McCarl, 3-Jason Meyers
Heat 2-1-Danny Lasoski, 2-Steve Kinser, 3-Chad Kemenah
Heat 3-1-Kraig Kinser, 2-Lucas Wolfe, 3-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
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