Meyers & Mother Nature Capture Wins

First of all, there's a new look to the blog as the black was getting a little old. Second, thanks to all 14 of you who stopped in and voted on the Knoxville poll at the bottom. The winner of the poll was Dusty Zomer with 35% of the vote. It should be a very interesting year down in Knoxville as its wide open with Zomer, Mark Dobmeier, Brian Brown, Skip Jackson, Billy Alley, Johnny Herrera and possibly (still holding out hope) Wayne Johnson running the entire year. I can't wait to see how things shake down Saturday for the opener, and the weather is looking phenominal to open things up.

Jason Meyers and the Elite Landscaping/DDNI #14 entered victory lane for the second time on the season at the always racy Paducah International Raceway last Friday night. The thing that made this one incredible, like his other victory, was that Meyers timed like shit in time trials and came forward in the heat to make the dash by finishing top 2 in his heat. Now granted the front row for his heat (Ellenberger, Moughan) was pretty lack-luster, he was still able to redeem that 22nd fastest lap in qualifcations by getting into the dash and then winning that.

He would lead all 30 laps in the feature which was also his 29th career WoO and thats tied for 14th on the all-time list. And wouldn't you know who finished 2nd, yet again, that was one Donny Schatz to extend his point lead to 28 over the King and 40 over Meyers. Joey Saldana was having a great run in the top 5 when he had a right rear go down which resulted in him flipping and finishing in a disappointing 18th as he lost valuable points to the drivers afformentioned. Randy Hannagan was coming in a hurry at the end and charged from 10th to 3rd for another impressive run with the Outlaws. Chad Kemenah showed up in a #6K and finished a very surprising and well-earned 5th after starting 16th; he also earned the KSE Hard Charger award. The points are updated on the right and there was a healthy car count for Friday with 35 cars signing in. Its just too bad Mother Nature won the 2nd night by raining out the race at I-55 especially since there will not be a makeup date for that race.

Friday's Race Rundown
A-main (30 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 14-Jason Meyers[1] [$10,000]
2) 15-Donny Schatz[3] [$5,500]
3) 1X-Randy Hannagan[10] [$3,200]
4) 11-Steve Kinser[7] [$2,800]
5) 6K-Chad Kemenah[16] [$2,500]
6) 10-Sammy Swindell[4] [$2,300]
7) 7S-Jason Sides[13] [$2,200]
8) 19-Craig Dollansky[9] [$2,100]
9) 24-Terry McCarl[8] [$2,050]
10) 4-Danny Smith[15] [$2,000]
11) 14AJ-Wayne Johnson[18] [$1,500]
12) 55-Kerry Madsen[5] [$1,200]
13) R19-Jac Haudenschild[6] [$1,100]
14) 6-Danny Lasoski[17] [$1,050]
15) 20-Kraig Kinser[19] [$1,000]
16) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[20] [$900]
17) 22-Brian Ellenberger[14] [$800]
18) 9-Joey Saldana[2] [$800]
19) 83-Tim Kaeding[12] [$800]
20) 92-Daron Clayton[21] [$800]
21) 3D-Paul McMahan[22] [$800]
22) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[11] [$800]
23) 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[23] [$800]
24) 97-Tommy Worley[24] [$800]

Lap Leaders: Jason Meyers 1-30

Hopefully there's a blog before Saturday with predictions for the Knoxville Raceway, so keep checking up with the blog and don't be scared to comment on it with your predictions as well.

Texas Two-Step

Not gonna have much of a recap as its late from last weeks races, but Joey Saldana in the Budweiser KKR #9 dominated both nights. There was a huge crowd Friday night infront of the newly acquired Lonestar Speedway purchased by the Hafertepe family. I seen a video on youtube of the feature and the track is friggin fast and could be compared to an Eldora minus all that banking.

Then onto Houtson Raceway Park the next night where Saldana dominated again, but he was going to have company if the race went another lap or two with company coming from Donny Schatz and KKR stablemate Craig Dollansky.

Tough weekend for drivers residing in Iowa as T-Mac had 2 DNF's, that coming after it was announced by the WoO he would be running the tour the rest of the way. Then as Wayne Johnson was running 3rd at Lonestar he found trouble as Jac Haudenschild hit a rut, and got into the wall as the wheel literally came out of his hands when he hit the rut. Wayne got upside down in the ordeal and the video is on youtube as well.

Also sad to see that Chad Kemenah is now off-tour after being told by owner Jon Kantor to sell everything following the team's first WoO victory at Manzanita.

Should be a decent amount of followers this weekend (hopefully the rain stays away) at Paducah and Pevely with TK headed back to the midwest for a month, WJ heading back south, Brooke Tatnell making his WoO debut for the 21AU car, and Randy Hannagan trying to capture his 2nd win of the year with the traveling circus.

Friday at Lonestar's Rundown:
A-main (30 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 9-Joey Saldana[2] [$10,000]
2) 15-Donny Schatz[6] [$5,500]
3) 11-Steve Kinser[5] [$3,200]
4) 14-Jason Meyers[9] [$2,800]
5) 6-Danny Lasoski[7] [$2,500]
6) 7S-Jason Sides[4] [$2,300]
7) 19-Craig Dollansky[19] [$2,200]
8) 45X-Johnny Herrera[12] [$2,100]
9) 41-Jason Johnson[15] [$2,050]
10) 20-Kraig Kinser[8] [$2,000]
11) 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[16] [$1,500]
12) 10-Sammy Swindell[18] [$1,200]
13) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[10] [$1,100]
14) 55-Kerry Madsen[13] [$1,050]
15) 4X-Toni Lutar[25] [$1,000]
16) 96-Bronson Maeschen[22] [$900]
17) 29-Travis Rilat[17] [$800]
18) 24-Terry McCarl[11] [$800]
19) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[20] [$800]
20) R19-Jac Haudenschild[1] [$800]
21) 14AJ-Wayne Johnson[3] [$800]
22) 22-Brian Ellenberger[14] [$800]
23) 51-Wes Miller[24] [$800]
24) 9X-Gary Wright[21] [$800]
25) 12-Lynton Jeffrey[23] [$800]

Lap Leaders: Joey Saldana 1-30

Saturday's Rundown at HRP:
A-main (40 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 9-Joey Saldana[4] [$10,000]
2) 15-Donny Schatz[14] [$5,500]
3) 19-Craig Dollansky[3] [$3,200]
4) 6-Danny Lasoski[9] [$2,800]
5) 11-Steve Kinser[2] [$2,500]
6) 45X-Johnny Herrera[5] [$2,300]
7) 10-Sammy Swindell[18] [$2,200]
8) R19-Jac Haudenschild[1] [$2,100]
9) 7S-Jason Sides[17] [$2,050]
10) 14-Jason Meyers[11] [$2,000]
11) 41-Jason Johnson[6] [$1,500]
12) 55-Kerry Madsen[15] [$1,200]
13) 18-Tony Bruce Jr.[10] [$1,100]
14) 20-Kraig Kinser[8] [$1,050]
15) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[12] [$1,000]
16) 14AJ-Wayne Johnson[16] [$900]
17) 22-Brian Ellenberger[20] [$800]
18) 29-Travis Rilat[23] [$800]
19) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[13] [$800]
20) 4X-Toni Lutar[21] [$800]
21) 24-Terry McCarl[7] [$800]
22) 96-Bronson Maeschen[19] [$800]
23) 71-Channin Tankersley[22] [$800]
24) 51-Wes Miller[24] [$800]
25) 12-Lynton Jeffrey[25] [$800]

Lap Leaders: Johnny Herrera 1-2; Joey Saldana 3-40

Next blog: Maybe next week, but definitely will have something up before the WoO double dip at Huset's and Knoxville.