Schatz crowned again

ROSSBURG - A year ago, Donny Schatz became the first driver to ever win the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway in back-to-back years. Saturday night, the nine-time World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series champion made it three-in-a-row by holding off a charging Brad Sweet in the closing laps to capture the $50,000 top prize.

The Fargo, North Dakota, driver has now captured five Kings Royal crowns and has won four of the five World of Outlaw Craftsman Sprint Car Series events at the high-banked, one-half mile oval in 2018. Schatz now has 13 career wins at Eldora, which moves him to third on the all-time WoO/Eldora win list behind only Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell.

Trey Starks started from the pole position and led the first 14 laps of the main event before Schatz, who had just won an intense battle with Cory Eliason for second-place, drove under Starks going coming off turn two to take the lead.

Schatz immediately began to stretch his lead while Sweet, who had started in fifth, worked around Eliason and Starks in the middle stages and began chasing down Schatz. With just 10 laps remaining Sweet, who trailed by nearly three seconds when he took the runner-up position, was visibly closing the gap on Schatz only to get held up by lapped cars on several occasions, including once by Kasey Kahne Racing (KKR) teammate Daryn Pittman.

"Somebody had to be coming," said Schatz of his struggles in the closing laps with Sweet closing in. "When you feel that bad, I couldn't get the tire caught up on the exit. I was trying to move down on the bottom of one and two and I'd have to go clear to the top and try to get a little bit of that meat. Just wasted so much time it felt off. When you are leading, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain."

Once clear of the lapped traffic with only a few laps remaining, Sweet again chased down Schatz and brought the record Kings Royal crowd to its feet at the white flag when he closed to within 10 car lengths. Sweet blasted around turns one and two on the final lap and cut the deficit to five car-lengths going down the backstretch and drove inches from the outside wall through turns three and four but came up .189 seconds (or 1 car length) short at the checkered flag.

"I was surprised, but I'm not mad at Daryn," Sweet, the 2013 Kings Royal winner, said of his teammate holding him up. "He probably didn't know where I was running. I'm just frustrated with the situation. I feel like if that would've went a little better, I could've just ripped three and four instead of going back and following him. I feel like it gets me to Donny on the white-flag lap instead of the checker. I feel like Donny didn't know I was coming, and it was going to be a clean shot to the checkered, and it would've been a hell of a finish. It's how you dream of winning. We laid it all on the line and ran second by a tenth of a second to Donny Schatz at the Kings Royal, so I'm not going to be too pissed off tonight."

Schatz had mentioned after his win on Friday night, the key to Saturday would be to have a good car for the final 10 laps, despite struggling the final 10 laps, Schatz held on in an event that ran 40 caution-free laps.

"That's what won us the race," Schatz said. "We didn't have any yellows. We didn't have any reds. If we would've had the yellows and reds, we might have been in trouble. I don't know. Starks set a pretty good pace and was doing pretty good. You didn't expect him to, and I said, 'Damn, I better pick up the pace.' Maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe, I should've stayed slow and kept my tires underneath me. I'm not so sure I didn't abuse them and use them up too much through the middle of the race. That might have been the determining factor on being slow at the end, but I guess we will never know. We are sitting here, and we are going to enjoy it. We won the Kings Royal 35, and I'm a lucky person."

Eliason, who failed to qualify for the main events on both Thursday and Friday, was thrilled to hang on and finish third.

"That was a great learning experience. I got to follow and watch Donny and Brad tonight and they are the two best out here right now. There is a huge learning curve coming to these tracks and to go out and be competitive is awesome. After not making the first two shows of the weekend, to finish third behind Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet feels like a win for this team."

Second-generation drivers Lee Jacobs, who charged from 16th starting position, Kraig Kinser and Jacob Allen finished fourth through sixth. Paul McMahan, David Gravel, 24th starter Rico Abreu and 23rd starter Ian Madsen completed the top 10.

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Christopher Bell came to Eldora after having won at Kentucky Speedway on Friday night and was the fastest qualifier (13.144 seconds) of the 51 entrants. Heat races were won by Eliason, Sweet, Schatz, Parker Price-Miller, McMahan and Starks. Brian Brown won the C-main, while Greg Wilson won the B-main.

Schatz is usually happy to win but quickly looks forward to the next race, but he was going to savor Saturday's historic win. A month ago the World of Outlaw Series was devastated when Jason Johnson lost his life following a crash in Wisconsin. The tragic event has caused Schatz to enjoy the moment more than maybe he has in the past.

"Whether it's three, five, whatever, count your blessings on this," Schatz said. "Jason lost his life not too long ago. It could have been any one of us at any time at any moment. I'm going to look past the fifth one, third in a row, and just enjoy it for today."

Eldora returns right back to action on Tuesday with the annual Tuesday Night Tailgate that kicks off the Eldora Dirt Derby, which features the only dirt race in NASCAR. Tuesday's schedule calls for two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice sessions as well as the Eldora Stock Cars and the UMP Modifieds. The Stock Cars will be racing for a $2,500 top prize, while the Modifieds will battle for a $3,000 top prize.