(Mechanicsburg) It was a night of firsts at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, as Greg Hodnett won the Morgan Hughes National Open for the first time in his career, pocketing $50,000, while Cody Darrah scored his first career World of Outlaws victory in the completion of the Cleveland Brothers Summer Nationals which was postponed by rain back in July to earn $20,000.
Hodnett dominated the 40-lap National Open from start to finish to win for the third time this season with the World of Outlaws at Williams Grove Speedway. For the veteran driver, it was his 10th career World of Outlaws A-Feature win, in the event which was broadcast live on SPEED in front of a standing room only crowd at the famed half-mile.
“This is the biggest race I have ever won,” said Hodnett. “It means a great deal. I’ve been trying to win this race for a long, long time. I’ve been decent and not nearly as good as we were tonight. I’m just thankful that I’m able to be part of it and get this elusive win and this prestigious win. I can’t say enough. I’m ecstatic.”
The race took a couple of starts to get going with first a red flag flying before the first circuit was completed and then a yellow followed on the ensuing restart, but Hodnett charged to the lead each time with Brian Montieth in tow, with Donny Schatz moving into third at the start.
By the sixth lap, Hodnett had opened a sizeable advantage in the Macri Concrete Maxim and continued to lead when the second red flag of the night flew on the 11th circuit for Montieth who was running second when he lost a tire and got in the wall and upside down. This gave the crews a chance to work on their machines.
On the restart, Schatz, who had moved into second, looked high in turns one and two and then low in turns three and four to no avail. The leaders found themselves in some light lapped traffic near the halfway point of the race. Schatz nearly took the lead on the 21st lap going low in turns three and four. On the 27th lap Schatz ran side by side with Hodnett through turns one and two with the yellow flag flying later that lap.
Hodnett used another strong restart to quickly jump out to a few car length lead on Schatz. As the laps wound down, Schatz kept pace with him and with five laps to go gained a little bit of ground, with the caution coming out with four laps to go. Another strong restart propelled Hodnett to a sizeable lead, only to have the red flag fly just after he took the white flag, leading to an open red flag which gave the crews one last chance to make adjustments on their race cars.
“They said that Donny (Schatz) was changing gears and I didn’t know if he was going high or low,” he explained. “I figured he would have to get a pretty good run on top to get by so I kept it moving. I tried to keep it going forward and not slip a lot. Fortunately for us it worked out. I just tried to stay out front all night long and not abuse my car or my tires and it worked out.”
On the final restart, Schatz looked high in turns one and two, though Hodnett was able to use a strong charge down the back straightaway to pull away and pocket the $50,000. Schatz wound up second in the Armor All J&J as he made a bid for his fifth career National Open Triumph.
“If I would have had half the car I had in that makeup deal, we wouldn’t have run second in the National Open,” said Schatz. “We brought a new car here and it was an awesome, awesome car. We didn’t have everything just right and it took us a little bit to get going. It is what it is, and we were there. We never hit lapped traffic. We were strung out and go the whole time. That’s the way it goes.”
Jason Meyers wound up third in the GLR Investments KPC, with Fred Rahmer coming all the way from 18th to finish fourth. Danny Lasoski was fifth in the Casey’s General Store JEI, with Pat Cannon sixth in the Highlands Tire & Service Center Maxim. Joey Saldana came all the way from 25th to finish seventh in the Budweiser Maxim to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award, with Steve Kinser in eighth aboard the Quaker State Maxim. Mark Smith was ninth piloting the Bricker’s French Fries Mach 1, with Alan Krimes rounding out the Top-10 in the Conestoga Valley Garage Maxim.
In the completion of the Summer Nationals finale which was postponed by rain back in July and completed on Saturday night, Darrah started on the pole and led from start to finish after winning the Crane Cams Dash to earn the top starting spot for the 30-lapper, and eventually took the checkered flag over a second ahead of Joey Saldana.
“If you are going to win one, it’s good to win a big one,” said Darrah. “My hat is off to the guys that work on this race car. They put a phenomenal car under me. As long as I keep my arms straight, the car was going forward. It’s awesome to get my first World of Outlaws win here at Williams Grove my home track and in my territory. You never forget the first one.”
The only stoppage of the event came on the 17th lap when Brian Leppo got upside down while running fifth. Darrah used a strong restart to quickly open a comfortable lead on Saldana at this point. As the laps wound down, he encountered some light lapped traffic and easily worked his way through it en route to the victory aboard the J&K Salvage Maxim.
“I just had to keep my tires under me,” noted the 20-year old. “Every time we had a caution, my tires cooled off and the track was cleaned off. We kind of made a wrong decision on (tire) compounds and the long runs kind of hurt me. Other than that, we were pretty good.”
Saldana wound up second in the completion of the Summer Nationals to pick up his finish of the season at Williams Grove Speedway and remains third in the World of Outlaws championship standings with four races remaining on the 2009 schedule.
“It was a pretty good night,” Saldana stated. “We kept working on our car and had it 100 percent better for the (first) feature and had it even better than that for the second feature. We’re definitely going in the right direction and I felt good. You want to get better and we’ll just keep working.”
Lance Dewease finished third in the Infinity Design J&J, with Danny Lasoski in fourth. Steve Kinser rounded out the Top-Five, with Donny Schatz coming all the way from 22nd to finish sixth to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award. Keith Kauffman was seventh piloting the Lelands.com J&J, with Jason Meyers in eighth. Sammy Swindell was ninth in the Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim, and Fred Rahmer rounded out the Top-10.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Saturday, October 10 at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in New York as part of Super Dirt Week.
Information used in this story was provided by World Racing Group. Video is courtesy of Lynn Schaeffer Productions and www.SportsPlusVideo.com.
