Daryn Pittman (center) edged out Donny Schatz (left) and Brad Sweet (right) for the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car victory Thursday night at Volusia Speedway Park. Photo by Paul Arch
Daryn Pittman recently gave one of his prized gator trophies to a friend who is battling an illness. His daughter demanded he get another and he did just that at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, FL Thursday.
Pittman held off a charging Donnie Schatz the final four laps following a caution to score his ninth career University of Northwestern Ohio All Star Circuit of Champions victory. Pittman’s victory was by .078 seconds. Schatz, who started 15th, had the crowd on their feet the final handful of laps as he continuously challenged for the win.
“If you didn’t enjoy that don’t bother even coming back because that’s about as good as it gets,” said Pittman beside his Kasey Kahn/Mike Curb owned machine.
“This is pretty special. I have a good buddy of mine back in Brownsburg, Indiana named Ben that’s battling some illness right now and I gave him the one gator that I had this winter. And my wife Mandy said ‘you know your daughter loves that, it’s a pretty special trophy…the first one you got here.’ I said ‘you know what I have five chances to come down here and win one of these.’ My daughter watched it on TV and she’s upset that she’s not here in victory lane. She recognizes this place as the gator race track. So this is going back to here.
“I have to thank my guys. Kale (Kahne)…I didn’t believe him…he kept telling me to run around the top down there (in turns one and two) and I’m thinking ‘I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not.’ Just stuck with it and I’m glad we stuck with our line and won it that way. Hats off to Donny (Schatz). He raced me clean. He could have definitely ate me up there on the back stretch. Hats off to the entire team, Giggles (Josh Heidcamp, Willie (Kahne) and Kolten (Gouse). This is a big win to get the year started off right.”
Schatz also put on the show from his 15th starting position.
“I have a great race team…these guys do a phenomenal job,” said Schatz. “It was a good enough race car to win, I just gave it everything I had…I just probably didn’t use up enough race track there. It’s fun to be able to race two wide and race clean and battle to the checkers and give the fans a great race.”
In the second third of the race it looked like Brad Sweet might power to the victory. But, the California driver could not chase down his teammate and Schatz.
“I probably burned my tire up there a little bit but I can’t really complain,” Sweet said. “It was a great race and a great race track. Daryn and Donnie had a pretty good battle up there…probably two of the best in the business.
“My guys are working really hard on we’re gaining on it. I really appreciate Mike Carber, Austin Wenrich, Red Cat (Rob Beattie), Ty Sipes and Justin Adams…we have a pretty good crew here. It was good to come out here and run good as we start our season tomorrow.”
Pittman and Danny Lasoski would bring the field to green for the fifth UNOH All Star feature of 2015. Pittman would drive into the lead over Lasoski, Kerry Madsen, Lucas Wolfe, the previous night’s winner Greg Hodnett and Sweet.
Lasoski would slip up the track on lap four allowing Madsen to drive into second as the leaders found the back of the pack by lap six. By lap 10 Pittman was in heavy lapped traffic as Sweet powered into second utilizing the extreme high line while Madsen, Lasoski and Hodnett gave chase.
At the half-way point Sweet was closing rapidly on Pittman and drove around the leader to take the point as they crossed the start-finish line on lap 17. However, Pittman would drive the bottom grove in turns one and two to regain the lead.
The first caution would fly on lap 22 with Pittman leading Sweet, Madsen, Lasoski, Hodnett and a closing Schatz who was working the bottom line to perfection. On the restart Schatz would drive under three cars to take third.
Another caution would fly on lap 23 and the crowed was eagerly anticipating the restart to see if Schatz could take the lead. When the race resumed Schatz would blast under Sweet for second and drove right to the rear bumper of Pittman. But the caution would fly on lap 25 for Wolfe who had a flat tire and would retire from the race.
When the green flew again Pittman had his hands full with Schatz as Sweet and Madsen battled for third, but Lasoski would experience problems and spin to bring out the final caution with just four laps to go.
Pittman would not budge from his high line in turns one and two on the restart and Schatz pulled beside him. But, Pittman’s momentum would keep him in the lead. The lead duo would race nose to tail over the next three laps.
When they exited turn four coming to the finish, Schatz gave it one final try and came up just a fraction of a second short.
Behind Pittman, Schatz and Sweet were Hodnett, Madsen, Joey Saldana, David Gravel, Cody Darrah, Jason Sides and Terry McCarl.
In other action, David Stremme followed by dominating the DIRTcar UMP Modified nightcap, holding off Austin Dillon, Nick Hoffman, Ty Dillon and hard charger Kyle Strickler.
Stremme, who also competes in NASCAR, started on the outside of the front row for the UMP Modified feature and charged to the front and stayed there, winning for the first time at Volusia Speedway Park. Austin Dillon, Hoffman and Ty Dillon ran a similar line trying to run down Stremme but to no avail. Strickler, who won on Wednesday night at Volusia, came from 19th to round out the top five in what might have been the most impressive run in the UMP Modified event.
“First and foremost we had a really great starting spot,” Stremme said. “It was really hard to pass and I was screwing up there. I haven’t raced without the spoilers. It’s a little different. We had to tune our car a little bit different but it was fun. It was slick, that’s how I like it. I knew Austin and those guys were there, they are tough. I’ve watched them year after down here. Same with Nick and Kyle and Kenny Wallace and Schrader and all them guys.
“It’s really Kenny Wallace’s fault that I got into this dirt racing but I love it … I think I got barely 50 dirt races under my belt in four years so it’s really hard to come down here and win this. It’s pretty big.”
Nightly doubleheaders at Volusia run Friday through Saturday, Feb. 21. On Friday night the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series makes its season debut along with the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds.
Meanwhile, The New UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions will begin their battle for the $100,000 point fund on March 28 at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio.
For more info on the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions, visit AllStarSprint.com.
For more information on the DIRTcar Nationals, visit DIRTcarNationals.com.
(DIRTCar Nationals Event PR contributed to the DIRTcar UMP Modified portion of this story.)
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Volusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL
Race Results – Feb. 12, 2015
UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions
1. 9-Daryn Pittman
2. 15-Donny Schatz
3. 49-Brad Sweet
4. 27-Greg Hodnett
5. 29-Kerry Madsen
6. 71M-Joey Saldana
7. 83-David Gravel
8. 4-Cody Darrah
9. 7S-Jason Sides
10. 24-Terry McCarl
11. 98H-Dave Blaney
12. 41-Jason Johnson
13. 1S-Logan Schuchart
14. 11K-Kraig Kinser
15. 59-Danny Holtgraver
16. 63-Kody Swanson
17. 12-Robbie Stillwaggon
18. 2L-Danny Lasoski
19. 1-Lucas Wolfe
20. 11-Steve Kinser
21. 51-Paul McMahan
22. 7-Craig Dollansky
23. 15H-Sam Hafertepe, Jr.
24. 45-Tim Shaffer
DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
1. 35-David Stremme
2. 3-Austin Dillon
3. 2-Nick Hoffman
4. 41-Ty Dillon
5. 8-Kyle Strickler
6. 16C-Josh Harris
7. 77-Ray Bollinger
8. 67-Garret Stewart
9. 1G-Devin Gilpin
10. 13-Jake Hawkins
11. 96-Cory Daugherty
12. 36-Kenny Wallace
13. 65-Bruce Takach
14. 25-Tyler Nicely
15. 64JR-Billy Workman, Jr.
16. 9-Ken Schrader
17. 9M-Dale Mathison
18. 22T-Tony Anderson
19. D4-Dave Jamison
20. 7-Evan Taylor
21. OO-Bobby Rose
22. K9-Will Krup
23. 78-Rick Pratt
24. 85S-Mike Smith
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