Mechanicsburg, PA — Prior to the 2009 season, it had been nearly seven years since Greg Hodnett had won a World of Outlaws race at Williams Grove Speedway. After picking up a victory back in May in the series first trip of the year to the half-mile, he made sure it would not take quite as long to follow that win up, as he dominated the opener of the Summer Nationals on Friday night at the famed track.
It was the ninth win of Hodnett’s career with the World of Outlaws and was worth $8,000. It was his third career victory with the series at Williams Grove and his third win of the 2009 campaign at the track.
“It was another great win,” said Hodnett. “I’m very fortunate. The guys did a great job on the car and I got a few breaks as well. Stevie (Smith) was all over me at the end and I just kind of got through there. It’s a good thing it wasn’t 30 laps, let’s put it that way.”
Hodnett started on the pole in the Macri Concrete Maxim for the 25-lap event and quickly shot to about a six car length lead over Jason Meyers and Brian Leppo on the opening circuit. The only stoppage of the night came on the second lap when the red flag flew for an incident involving Lucas Wolfe and Aaron Ott.
Hodnett used a strong restart to pull away from Leppo as the pair entered lapped traffic on the sixth go-around. The veteran driver worked his way through traffic for much of the remainder of the race, as the final 23 laps would go non-stop. A couple of times he had some trouble getting around lapped cars allowing first Leppo to close in and then late in the race Stevie Smith and Jason Meyers.
“It was a little tough,” Hodnett shared when asked about lapped traffic. “I wasn’t real good around the top. In (turns) one and two I really needed make my own line and my own lane. Once I didn’t have to throw it around and could pin it on one side by the way I was driving it, it all kind of worked out. In traffic I really couldn’t do that and to be honest, I was just holding on.”
After finishing second in the fourth heat race to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash, Hodnett and his team discovered a problem with their engine, which ended up being an oil leak and quickly began to work on it before the dash rolled off. He would go on to win the dash after starting second to earn the pole position for the 25-lap A-Feature.
“I wasn’t really worried,” he noted of his engine. “It did run a little hot and slowed down a little bit. We lost some oil, but fortunately for us we didn’t lose all of it. If the heat race would have lasted a lap or two more, we would have fried it. Don Ott did a great job. He came down and fixed it for us. He knew exactly what it was and went to work on it. With his efforts, we were able to stand up here in Victory Lane.”
Stevie Smith, who won the finale of the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup Twin 30’s on Wednesday night at Lernerville Speedway, made a late charge at Hodnett and came up just six-tenths of a second short, after starting in the third position aboard the Zemco Speed Equipment Maxim. It was his seventh Top-Five of the season at Williams Grove.
“I’m really happy with second,” said Smith. “These guys did a great job and gave me a great race car. We got through traffic pretty good and had a good chance of winning. We just didn’t get it done. Sometimes you have to be happy with second and I think the Zemco team is.”
Smith ran third in the early going and then began to work on Brian Leepo. He got around him on the 12th lap and set his sights on the leader. In lapped traffic he made up a lot of ground on Hodnett. With four laps to go, he got a good run on the leader and looked under him in turns and one and two, but could not make the pass. Again on the next lap he was right there, but could not get quite enough of a run to make a bid for the lead.
“Our car better in the last 10 or 15 laps,” he noted. “That was the best we were all night and that is what you shoot for. It’s hard to time that and I was really happy with that part.”
Jason Meyers finished third on Friday night to earn the second podium finish of his career at the always challenging half-mile. After falling back to fourth early in the race after starting second in the GLR Investments KPC, Meyers was able to get around Brian Leppo just past the halfway point.
“You’re always disappointed when you pull the number one (pill for the dash) at a place like this where the competition is so tough and then to give it away is disappointing,” said Meyers. “We learned some things tonight. To come out here and finish in the Top-Three, at the toughest place in the country to race is an accomplishment.”
Meyers closed in on Stevie Smith as the laps wound down and consistently had one of the fastest cars down the stretch. The strong third-place run helped him move up to second in the series championship standings, overtaking Joey Saldana for the spot. He earned five bonus points on the night for setting fast time in qualifying.
“I was a lot better at the end of the race,” said the native of Clovis, California. “I needed a 40-lap race and I think we would have had something for them. We were just a little bit too tight out of the gate and those guys got away from me a little bit. I chased them down at the end, but it was too little too late.”
Cody Darrah finished fourth on Friday night in the J&K Salvage Maxim. Lance Dewease was fifth aboard the Infinity Design J&J, with Brian Leppo sixth in the Swope Salvage & Recycling JEI. Pat Cannon was seventh, with three-time and defending World of Outlaws champion and two-time defending winner of the Summer Nationals Donny Schatz eighth in the Armor All J&J. Mark Smith was ninth in the Bricker’s French Fries Mach 1. Brian Montieth came from the 20th starting spot to finish 10th in the Premiere Auto Works Maxim to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award.
The World of Outlaws wrap-up the Summer Nationals on Saturday, July 25 at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with a full night of racing beginning with time trials and heat races, with $20,000 awaiting the winner of the 30-lap A-Feature.
Brad McClelland and Matt Boland also captured checkered flags this past weekend, respectively. McClelland took the feature at Trail-Way on Friday; while Boland, a Dover native, raced to victory Saturday at Lincoln Speedway.
Information used in this story was provided by Tony Veneziano of www.dirtcar.com. Video is courtesy of Lynn Schaeffer Productions and www.SportsPlusVideo.com.
