Joe Gibbs Driven

His car got faster as the 30-lap event wore on, which went green-to-checkers non-stop.

On the 27th lap while running third, Schatz dove under Kinser who was leading and also second-place runner Joey Saldana to take the lead in lapped traffic exiting the second turn, as the trio charged down the back straightaway. By the time they reached turns three and four, Schatz was in command en route to the $10,000 win which was the 84th A-Feature triumph of his Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series career, as he led a one-two finish for Tony Stewart Racing.

“It was a good night for us and we needed that,” said the winner. “It’s bittersweet to have to beat your teammate, but it is racing. My job is to win and his job is to win. It’s pretty cool to have a TSR (Tony Stewart Racing) one-two night. I’m pretty sure the boss will be happy tonight. I’ll let those guys call him and maybe we all won’t be in trouble tomorrow.”

Kinser started on the pole and led from the drop of the green flag, with Brian Brown and Saldana chasing him early on. The leaders were in lapped traffic by just the sixth lap and would have to negotiate it for the majority of the 30-lap contest. Traffic would give first Saldana a chance to close in on Kinser and then Schatz.

“It’s fun racing in lapped traffic,” Schatz said with a smile. “Kraig (Kinser) was doing a hell of a job. I guess when you are in second, you are sitting in the cat bird’s seat in that situation. I was good on the bottom and the top and his car just wouldn’t stay on the bottom. I went where they weren’t and I went on the bottom and they got bottled up. It got me a good run and I was able to get by them.”

Schatz, aboard the Armor All J&J, fell back to fifth near the halfway point of the race, as Jason Meyers shot around him. He would battle back, and at one point, went three-wide into the second turn with Meyers and Brian Brown as the trio battled for the third spot. Meyers took the position with Schatz getting around Brown to move into fourth. Just a couple of laps later, Meyers was held up by a lapped car, giving Schatz the opening he needed to dive under him to move into third exiting turn two. He then began to track down the lead pair.

“You don’t give up,” Schatz pointed out. “Sometimes you have to lose some to gain some. When your car is decent you can lose that spot and when you get back by easily you know you have a decent car. We just kept on trucking and we had to run those guys down. The race was definitely different at the end than it was at the beginning. You have to keep the car underneath you and this is where these guys do wonders with my race cars. I would have liked to have seen 40 laps, but all it took us was 30. I’m just glad to get a victory.”

With less than 10 laps to go, Kinser had pulled away to a slight lead, but impending traffic gave Saldana and Schatz the opportunity they needed to battle for the win. Schatz took full advantage of this as he was able to get around both drivers ahead of him while in traffic.

“You had a good caliber of cars here,” said Schatz, who is a North Dakota native. “There weren’t a ton of cars, but the ones that were here are not guys that cause a lot of drama. They just go out and race and that’s good to see. It’s fun to go out and not have to play the yellow game. That’s part of racing. The yellows have helped us win some races, but all in all we feel we are better off without them. “

Kinser led the first 26 laps of the race in his first career start at Clay County Fair Speedway en route to his fifth consecutive Top-10 finish aboard the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. After Schatz took the lead from him, he battled his teammate back by using the high side of the track.

“It was a good night for the team,” said Kinser. “It feels good to get to second, but even with a teammate ahead of you, it still stings. We had a good car tonight and they had a good car as well. “

Saldana lined up fourth for the main event and got around Schatz on the opening lap to move into third. He then battled Brian Brown for a number of laps before taking over the second spot. After closing in on Kraig Kinser several times during the race and battling him for the lead when Schatz slipped underneath the pair, Saldana wound up third in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI to earn his 29th Top-Five finish of the season.

“It was a good run for us,” said Saldana. “We have struggled the last few races since we won at Skagit (Speedway). It was nice to come here and get on a really good race track that we were able to race on. We worked on our car all night and were pretty solid. We were second quick and were second in our heat and then advanced in the dash. We put ourselves in a good position. We got a little free at the end of the night. We were fast enough to win”

Jason Meyers wound up fourth in the GLR Investments KPC, after setting a new track record to begin the night in time trials.

Brian Brown was fifth in the SuperClean Maxim, with Paul McMahan in sixth driving the Casey’s General Store Maxim. Sam Hafertepe Jr. was seventh in the Fusion Energy Boost J&J, with Terry McCarl in eighth piloting the Big Game Treestands Maxim. Jac Haudenschild lined up 17th and finished ninth to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award aboard the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim. Kerry Madsen rounded out the Top-10 in the TK Concrete Maxim.

Like Schatz, Kinser was not surprised that the race went green-to-checkers without any interruptions. Late in the race he was battling a couple of cars very hard trying to put them a lap down, as he chased his second win of the season.

“Traffic tonight was our Achilles heel,” explained the third generation driver. “I got to traffic first and they were able to close in there. I wish I would have gotten to the bottom sooner, but it was still a very good run.”

Kinser began the night by winning the first heat race in his debut at the 3/8-mile. He followed that up with his second win of the season in the Crane Cams Dash to earn a pole position. He will visit two more tracks this weekend for the first time in his career as the World of Outlaws continue a busy string in the Midwest that will see them compete four times in a five day period.

“You run with the Outlaws so much that you get used to running at all kinds of different tracks,” he shared. “We really never see the same track twice very often. A lot of it just goes back to experience. I have raced on a lot of different tracks over the years.”

Saldana earned his second consecutive podium finish at Clay County Fair Speedway as he looks to break into the winner’s circle at the 3/8-mile located in Northwest Iowa. With another capacity crowd in attendance, Saldana was thrilled that the fans got to see such a good race, which was promoted by fellow driver Craig Dollansky and his wife Julie, who originally is from Spencer, Iowa.

“The track was really racy last season as well,” said Saldana. “It’s very well lit and a good racing surface and often when you have that you have less caution flags. There was a good turn out and some great fans here. Hopefully we come back here again.”

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Friday, September 12 at U.S. 36 Raceway for the Third Annual Missouri High-Banked Nationals.