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Meyers guns down field of ‘Outlaws’ at Volunteer Speedway to win finale of ‘Kasey’s King of Bulls Gap presented by Budweiser’

BULLS GAP, Tenn. (March 20) — Jason Meyers feels like he let a victory slip through his grasp three years ago at Volunteer Speedway when the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series made its first-ever visit to the high banked East Tennessee speedplant, leading the first 20 laps of the A-main before suffering a flat tire.

Meyers has had one of the most consistent starts of any driver on the World of Outlaws circuit this season and on Saturday night that consistency paid off as he not only picked up his third win of the year but also took the lead in the series championship standings as well, as he was victorious in the finale of “Kasey’s King of Bulls Gap presented by Budweiser” before a large crowd of spectators.

Meyers opened the two-day event which was co-sanctioned with the All Star Circuit of Champions by finishing seventh on Friday night and used a number of items that he and his team learned in that 35-lapper to prepare for Saturday night. For Meyers it was his 38th career A-main win with the World of Outlaws, as he looks to become just the 12th driver in series history to eclipse the 40-win plateau.

“After last night we dug down deep,” said Meyers. “I’ve got to have one of the best teams in the pit area, if not the best. They work so hard and everyone is pulling together and working together to give me the best race car that they can. My hat is off to them. They make my job look easy.”

Meyers took the lead in the GLR Investments KPC from Lance Dewease on the 14th lap as the front-running duo worked lapped traffic, and once out front Meyers cruised to his series-leading third A-main win of the season. He now has a five point lead in the standings over 20-time series champion Steve Kinser.

Meyers lined up fourth and quickly moved into third on the opening lap before taking the second spot from Craig Dollansky on the third circuit. He then chased Lance Dewease for a couple of laps before a lap-five caution led to three restarts, the first one double file, followed by two single file restarts. Meyers then kept pace with Dewease over the next eight laps as the pair began to navigate lapped traffic. On the 14th lap, he went high in turn two and charged around Dewease to take the top spot and quickly began to pull away – never looking back once out front.

“It kind of worked to my advantage,” Meyers noted of the restarts. “I wasn’t getting off the bottom very well and I got two or three chances to do it a little bit differently. Those restarts are always tough. Once it goes single file that makes it a little easier. It certainly was nerve wracking and I imagine it was even more so for Lance (Dewease).”

Meyers began Saturday night by setting quick time in qualifying and followed that up with a third-place finish in the first heat race to earn a spot in the dash. Every driver received points each time they took to the track during Kasey’s King of Bulls Gap presented by Budweiser for time trials, a heat race and a feature event. Coupled with his seventh-place finish on Friday night, Meyers is currently fourth in the overall standings for the four-race Showdown for the Bud Crown, with $15,000 going to the Top-Three in points after the fourth event in July. All four events will be promoted by NASCAR racer Kasey Kahne in partnership with the World Racing Group.

“For Kasey Kahne and Budweiser to put this together and not only bring four races to the series, but the point fund as well, we can’t thank them enough,” shared Meyers, who is a native of Clovis, California “It’s great to see companies like that involved and hopefully we can continue to put the GLR car on the podium and win the points for these four races.”

After not qualifying for the main event on Friday night in his debut at “The Gap,” Lance Dewease rebounded on Saturday night to lead the first 13 laps of the feature before finishing second aboard the Advanced Development Services J&J. Dewease took the lead on the initial start from Craig Dollansky who started on the pole.

“We had a different car for today and I couldn’t ask for much better of a race car,” said Dewease. “We chased it all night long and kept getting it a little bit better and were just a little off there in the feature. Anytime you can run second with these guys it’s a good job.”

Brad Sweet finished third in the finale of Kasey’s King of Bulls Gap presented by Budweiser to earn his second consecutive Top-Five finish at the blazing fast and ultra high-banked track. He was piloting the Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Maxim for Kasey Kahne Racing.

“The car was good all weekend,” said Sweet. “Tonight we were really good. We qualified good and ran well in the heat. We really got going in the dash and were fine-tuning for the main event. A couple of yellows didn’t go our way, but my hat is off to Jason (Meyers). He did a great job. It was a great weekend for KKR. All the cars ran strong.”

Paul McMahan finished fourth in the Great Clips Maxim to earn his second straight Top-Five at Volunteer Speedway and his sixth consecutive finish of eighth or better.

Steve Kinser came home fifth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim and moved to within just five points of Meyers in the standings as he chases his record 21st series title.

Tim Shaffer was sixth in the Kistler Engines J&J, with Dale Blaney seventh aboard the Ti-22 Performance Maxim. Danny Lasoski was eighth piloting the Casey’s General Stores JEI, with Jac Haudenschild ninth in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim. Donny Schatz came from 17th to finish 10th in the Armor All/STP J&J.

After jumping out to an early lead, Dewease endured two yellow flags and a red flag on the fifth lap after Friday night’s winner Joey Saldana got upside down. On the initial double file restart after the caution flew, he chose the high side of the track to restart and shot back out to the lead. He also would pace the field on each of the subsequent single file restarts as a red flag and then another yellow flew before another full lap was completed.

“I really wanted to get going and get in a good rhythm and try to get some lapped cars between us,” explained Dewease. “Jason (Meyers) is a real good competitor and has been fast the last few years. We just wanted to get some good runs and good starts. We were pretty decent on the restarts, but once we ran a few laps we would slow down. We weren’t great, but second against these guys is very good.”

Sweet had never seen Volunteer Speedway until Friday afternoon and had one of the fastest cars both nights. He challenged Jason Meyers early in the race on Saturday for the second spot and then Lance Dewease late in the going again for the runner-up position.

“This is just one of those tracks that you have to attack” stated Sweet. “There are no local guys here, so it’s a place that nobody has really ever been to a lot. It’s one of those tracks that we were all fresh going into and it was about who could adapt quickest and we got going pretty good. This place is definitely fast, probably the fastest track I’ve ever raced at.”

KASEY’S KING OF BULLS GAP NIGHT #2 NOTES

• FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Meyers paced the 34 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked four-tenths-mile oval at 11.660 seconds at 123.288 mph. For his qualifying effort, Meyers earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Steve Kinser (4), Chad Kemenah (3), Danny Lasoski (2) and Brad Sweet (1).

• VOLUNTEER SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING WINNERS: Jac Haudenschild, Paul McMahan, Dale Blaney and Bill Rose won heat races. Craig Dollansky won the dash. Rob Chaney won the B-Main.
WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINT CAR SERIES – VOLUNTEER SPEEDWAY – BULLS GAP, TN – MARCH 20, 2010

Qualifying
1) 14-Jason Meyers 11.680
2) 11-Steve Kinser 11.697
3) 63-Chad Kemenah 11.890
4) 6-Danny Lasoski 11.916
5) 49-Brad Sweet 11.920
6) 11K-Kraig Kinser 11.933
7) 24-Terry McCarl 11.965
8) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 11.979
9) 3C-Cale Conley 12.010
10) 91-Paul McMahan 12.014
11) 7-Craig Dollansky 12.036
12) 30C-Lance Dewease 12.037
13) R19-Jac Haudenschild 12.037
14) 83X-Tim Shaffer 12.056
15) 2-Dale Blaney 12.063
16) 6R-Bill Rose 12.071
17) 15-Donny Schatz 12.072
18) 17-Daryn Pittman 12.100
19) 45-Rob Chaney 12.123
20) O4-Cap Henry III 12.127
21) W20-Greg Wilson 12.132
22) 7S-Jason Sides 12.255
23) 9-Joey Saldana 12.263
24) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 12.417
25) 12X-Jared Ridge 12.487
26) 4K-Kody Kinser 12.534
27) 89G-David Gravel 12.534
28) 6W-Brad Wickham 12.637
29) 2B-Ben Gregg 12.645
30) 312-Mike Linder 12.668
31) 1-Bronson Maeschen 12.714
32) 22-Brian Ellenberger 12.716
33) 4X-Toni Lutar 12.838
34) 83-Tim Kaeding 12.839

Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]

1) R19-Jac Haudenschild [1]
2) 49-Brad Sweet [3]
3) 14-Jason Meyers [4]
4) 15-Donny Schatz [5]
5) 3C-Cale Conley [2]
6) W20-Greg Wilson [6]
7) 12X-Jared Ridge [7]
8) 2B-Ben Gregg [8]
9) 4X-Toni Lutar [9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]

1) 91-Paul McMahan [2]
2) 83X-Tim Shaffer [1]
3) 11K-Kraig Kinser [3]
4) 11-Steve Kinser [4]
5) 17-Daryn Pittman [5]
6) 7S-Jason Sides [6]
7) 312-Mike Linder [8]
8) 83-Tim Kaeding [9]
9) 4K-Kody Kinser [7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]

1) 2-Dale Blaney [1]
2) 7-Craig Dollansky [2]
3) 63-Chad Kemenah [4]
4) 24-Terry McCarl [3]
5) 9-Joey Saldana [6]
6) 45-Rob Chaney [5]
7) 89G-David Gravel [7]
8) 1-Bronson Maeschen [8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]

1) 6R-Bill Rose [1]
2) 30C-Lance Dewease [2]
3) 5W-Lucas Wolfe [3]
4) 6-Danny Lasoski [4]
5) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [6]
6) 22-Brian Ellenberger [8]
7 O4-Cap Henry III [5]
8) 6W-Brad Wickham [7]

Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature) - Starting Position [#]

1) 7-Craig Dollansky [2]
2) 30C-Lance Dewease [1]
3) 49-Brad Sweet [4]
4) 14-Jason Meyers [6]
5) 91-Paul McMahan [3]
6) 83X-Tim Shaffer [8]
7) 2-Dale Blaney [9]
8) 11-Steve Kinser [5]
9) 6R-Bill Rose [10]
10) R19-Jac Haudenschild [7]

B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature) - Starting Position [#]

1) 45-Rob Chaney [1]
2) O4-Cap Henry III [2]
3) 7S-Jason Sides [4]
4) W20-Greg Wilson [3]
5) 4K-Kody Kinser [6] [$200]
6) 12X-Jared Ridge [5] [$180]
7) 89G-David Gravel [7] [$175]
8) 22-Brian Ellenberger [12] [$160]
9) 83-Tim Kaeding [14] [$150]
10) 312-Mike Linder [10] [$150]
11) 2B-Ben Gregg [9] [$150]
12) 1-Bronson Maeschen [11] [$150]
13) 6W-Brad Wickham [8] [$150]
14) 4X-Toni Lutar [13] [$150]

A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#]

1) 14-Jason Meyers [4] [$10,000]
2) 30C-Lance Dewease [2] [$5,000]
3) 49-Brad Sweet [3] [$3,000]
4) 91-Paul McMahan [5] [$2,700]
5) 11-Steve Kinser [8] [$2,500]
6) 83X-Tim Shaffer [6] [$2,200]
7) 2-Dale Blaney [7] [$2,000]
8) 6-Danny Lasoski [12] [$1,800]
9) R19-Jac Haudenschild [10] [$1,600]
10) 15-Donny Schatz [17] [$1,450]
11) 63-Chad Kemenah [11] [$1,300]
12) 7S-Jason Sides [22] [$1,200]
13) 6R-Bill Rose [9] [$1,100]
14) 2B-Ben Gregg [26] [$300]
15) O4-Cap Henry III [20] [$950]
16) 17-Daryn Pittman [18] [$900]
17) 11K-Kraig Kinser [13] [$850]
18) 3C-Cale Conley [16] [$750]
19) 24-Terry McCarl [14] [$725]
20) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [24] [$700]
21) 5W-Lucas Wolfe [15] [$700]
22) 7-Craig Dollansky [1] [$700]
23) W20-Greg Wilson [21] [$700]
24) 9-Joey Saldana [23] [$700]
25) 45-Rob Chaney [19] [$700]
26) 83-Tim Kaeding [25] [$]

Lap Leaders: Lance Dewease 1-13, Jason Meyers 14-35
KSE Hard Charger Award: Ben Gregg
Penske Power Position Award: Ben Gregg

Notes: Tim Kaeding and Ben Gregg used World of Outlaws Provisionals to start the main event. Following the race Joey Saldana was transported to a local hospital for treatment of a hand injury.

World of Outlaws Championship Standings through March 20

1.      Jason Meyers 1293
2.      Steve Kinser 1288 (-5)
3.      Joey Saldana 1273 (-20)
4.      Donny Schatz 1236 (-57)
5.      Jason Sides 1235 (-58)
6.      Danny Lasoski 1190 (-103)
7.      Kraig Kinser 1173 (-120)
8.      Paul McMahan 1134 (-159)
9.      Jac Haudenschild 1126 (-167)
10. Tim Kaeding 1107 (-186)

Just call Morristown’s Shanon Buckingham “Mr. Perfect,” as he sped to his third straight Pro (Crate) Late Model feature win to begin the 2010 racing season at Volunteer Speedway. Buckingham led green-to-checkers in winning over Vic Chandler, John King II, Jerry Broyles and Ricky Moore. Buckingham and King each won heat races.

PRO (CRATE) LATE MODEL (25 laps)

1) Shanon Buckingham #50; 2) Vic Chandler #88; 3) John King II #21; 4) Jerry Broyles #72; 5) Ricky Moore #75; 6) Todd Brooks #T1; 7) Tim Byrd #24; 8) Brent Hensley #70; 9) Dale Ball #2; 10) McCarter #71; 11) Joey Steele #97; 12) Mac McCarter #51; 13) James Cole #5; 14) Chris Chandler #8