Dirt racing fans got treated to one of the best races of the season, courtesy of Donny Schatz, at Lernerville Speedway on Tuesday night as the 15 car crossed the finish line ahead of both the 49 and 57.
Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson gave everything they had for Schatz, but the 10-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car champion flexed his knowledge to slide Sweet going into turn one on the final lap.
The entirety of the last 10 laps can be found below.
Check out the last 10 laps of tonight's race at Lernerville and tell me this isn't a kickass sport. #WoOSprint #SilverCup
🎥 @DIRTVision pic.twitter.com/8YbgDPpjne
— Connor Ferguson (@cfchangs9) July 22, 2020
Three of the most dominant, modern racers in the sport that is sprint car racing went at it, fighting with every inch of dirt they could, producing perhaps the best race all season.
“It’s fun to race like that,” Schatz said on the DirtVision broadcast. “Those guys are good. That’s what you guys pay to see, right. I think what won us that race was figuring out how to run the race track early. I got hanging there at the end and we got to traffic, I was just not that good around the bottom. Ultimately those guys weren’t good there (either) and that’s what won it for us.”
The race was setting up to be a great one, all evening, as each of the podium finishers in Sweet, Schatz, and Larson won their respective heat races.
After some early cautions that allowed the field to shuffle around for a bit, it became clear that it was going to be those three fighting for first at the end of the night.
“It was an exciting race,” Larson said. “The track changed a ton. It was hard to keep up with. It seemed like all the restarts didn’t work out for me on the bottom. I’d fall back and I’d have to work my way back up.”
Sweet was able to avenge his poor luck from a week ago on Tuesday, a big story that shortened up the points standings and had the top six drivers within 104 points of the No. 49 team.
They finished 19th or worse three events in a row.
“It’s nice to be back up here on the podium,” Sweet said. “We had a rough weekend last weekend, so we’ll try to build off of this. We’ve got a couple of big nights coming up ahead of us. We’ll try to stay focused on that.”
Although Sweet got back to the podium, the pass on the last lap allowed Schatz to take the lead back in the World of Outlaws points standings.
The No. 15 is ahead by two points – one position on the race track.
“I think I just needed to do a little better job of protecting there,” Sweet said. “My car wasn’t getting off of (turn) two and I wasn’t getting into (turn) one fast enough. It’s not necessarily the car, just something I have to do better as a driver. You know, you have two of the best in the world right behind you.”
For Schatz, the win was his third victory of the season, and first since Lake Ozark Speedway at the end of May.
That’s not a typical season for the Tony Stewart Racing team, however the points lead has got to feel good.
“I feel good about it,” Schatz said. “It’s awesome to win the Silver Cup and get the third win of the year. Normally we like to (have) a little bit more, but we’re not going to be greedy. We’re just going to keep racing the way we are and keep going.”
The World of Outlaws will return to the track for three straight nights of racing, starting on Thursday with the Gettysburg Clash at Lincoln Speedway. As always, all of the action can be seen on DirtVision.
2020 Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup Results
1. Donny Schatz
2. Kyle Larson
3. Brad Sweet
4. Sheldon Haudenschild
5. David Gravel
6. Carson Macedo
7. Jason Sides
8. Parker Price-Miller
9. Logan Schuchart
10. Tim Shaffer
11. Brent Marks
12. Chad Kemenah
13. Kraig Kinser
14. Kerry Madsen
15. Daryn Pittman
16. Sye Lynch
17. Kasey Kahne
18. Michael Bauer
19. Mason Daniel
20. Gio Scelzi
21. Jac Haudenschild
22. Carl Bowser
23. Lucas Wolfe
24. Wayne Johnson
25. Jacob Allen
26. Hunter Schuerenburg
| World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Donny Schatz | 3184 | -0 | |
| 2 | Brad Sweet | 3180 | -4 | |
| 3 | Logan Schuchart | 3154 | -30 | |
| 4 | Carson Macedo | 3118 | -66 | |
| 5 | S. Haudenschild | 3104 | -80 | |
| 6 | Daryn Pittman | 3052 | -132 | |
| 7 | David Gravel | 3016 | -168 | |
| 8 | Parker Price-Miller | 2860 | -324 | |
| 9 | Jacob Allen | 2758 | -426 | |
| 10 | Kerry Madsen | 2612 | -572 | |