HammerDownUSA.com
Craig
Dollansky Earns First 2006
Craig Dollansky has been one of the strong racers on the
On Saturday night, he took another major leap toward a title when he dominated
the feature at Tri-State Speedway and powered his Karavan Trailers Maxim into
the
After surviving a contact-filled start to win his Dash, Dollansky took the
green flag for the 40-lap main event from the outside of the front row in front
of packed grandstands on both sides of the paper-clip quarter-mile oval.
But as hooked up as Dollansky was, Rob Chaney got the initial jump and led the
first nine laps in the NOS Energy Drink/Mafia Motorsports Maxim. Dollansky
caught and passed Chaney, who is most likely making his final start in the
Martin Motorsports machine, on Lap 10 and extended his advantage in heavy
traffic during a green flag run that lasted until a caution with two laps
remaining.
Dollansky charged hard into the first corner on the final restart and powered
his way down the backstretch to win.
Terry McCarl slid into second in the
Kaley Gharst turned in one
of the most impressive performances of his career. After racing to victory in
the B-main and starting 20th in the feature, Gharst
motored all the way to sixth in a Maxim-sponsored machine. Jeremy Campbell, who
one night earlier turned in an impressive non-wing top-three finish, was
seventh in the Americas Best Value Inn Maxim with Daryn Pittman in the Titan
Garages & Carports Maxim, Becca Anderson in the
Upstate Kenworth JEI and Donny Schatz in the ParkerStore J&J rounding out the top 10.
“We made a change of race cars about five races ago and things have been
getting progressively better for us,” said Dollansky, of Elk River, Minn. “We
didn’t just change personnel, we changed some shock stuff. We got some stuff
sorted out and the last five nights of racing, I have been pretty happy with
the race car and we have been gaining on it, slowly but surely. We’ve had some
good runs, and I definitely feel like we are moving in the right direction to
build some momentum.”
Lap traffic was a factor the entire night on the high-banked track perfectly
manicured by Tom Helfrich and his staff. Dollansky
lapped the field all the way up to fifth place due to an intense 33-lap
green-flag run.
“Traffic definitely produces a lot of slicing and dicing, a lot of action for
the race fans,” Dollansky said. “That’s what decides a lot of short track
races, the traffic. I was happy how our car operated through traffic. I could
run high and low, and the middle. We really could go wherever we needed at the
times we got to lapped cars.”
Dollansky and the rest of the Mean 15 will have to deal with traffic again this
Friday as they continue their assault on quarter-mile tracks at Lawrenceburg (
“I like the short tracks just as much as the big tracks,” Dollansky said. “I
really loved the big tracks a few years back, but the short tracks are a lot of
fun to race, especially when you have race cars operating like that one here
tonight. It definitely makes your job a while lot easier. It’s a total team
effort and we work hard at it.”
With his runner-up finish, McCarl benefited nearly as much as Dollansky. With
some of those ahead of him in the championship standings having trouble in the
feature, he was able to tighten in the standings.
“We’ll take the second place tonight and it’s a long season of course, but you
always want to do the best that you can,” said McCarl, of Altoona, Iowa. “The
bad luck caught up to a few of our competitors this week.”
McCarl ran a smooth and steady race all night long, and was up to second on the
last restart but could not get to Dollansky lapped cars lined up in front of
him.
“At that point, I knew we didn’t have a legitimate shot at winning, so I was
trying to stay out of trouble,” McCarl said. “The guys in front of us were
really dicing it up and banging wheels, and that’s what got Brooke spun out
with a couple to go. My goal was to hold my own and not do anything stupid. We
had a second place at Pevely (I-55 Raceway) and got crashed out late and a
fourth place or better at Eldora and got crashed out, so the point deal has
really hurt us the last couple of races, but we have been fast. It’s a little
easier to be optimistic when you fall out running top-four.”
Chaney nearly picked up his first career
“We were pretty good, and then Donny Schatz got crossed up when we tried to lap
him, and that let Dollansky slip by me,” Chaney said. “It was tight then for
awhile. I was trying to lap a car and it knocked my nose wing loose and that
really hurt me as we tried to run the curb. We struggled a little bit and a
couple of guys got by me. We were kind of just trying to hold on there at the
end.”
Chaney, and season-opening fill-in
“Anytime you can run in the top three with these guys, regardless of the
circumstances, it’s great,” Chaney said. “If it was easy out here, everyone
would be doing it. It’s definitely not.”
Schatz salvaged what could have been a dreadful night to maintain his position
atop the championship standings. After winning his heat and finishing second in
his dash, Schatz lined up third in the feature. During a caution on Lap 3, he
gave up the fourth so his crew could work on a wheel problem, dropping him to
the tail of the lead lap.
The second half
The
TRI-STATE SPEEDWAY NOTEBOOK
• HELPING HAND: In a collection taken up by
• FAST QUALIFIER: Jac Haudenschild paced the 30-car field in the Wright
One Construction Maxim with an AMB i.t.-timed lap
around the 1/4-mile oval in 11.647 seconds at 77.273 mph. For his qualifying
effort, Haudenschiled earned five bonus points. The
next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including Brooke Tatnell
(4), Donny Schatz (3), Becca Anderson (2) and Jeremy
Campbell (1). Tri-State Speedway is a high-banked, paper-clip-shaped 1/4-mile
oval. Sammy Swindell established the track record of 11.110 seconds on Oct. 8,
2004.
• MAIN-EVENT WINNERS: Craig Dollansky’s win
Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway was his first
• QUARTER-MILE WINS: Saturday night’s event at Tri-State Speedway was
the
• QUALIFYING EVENTS: Rob Chaney and Craig Dollansky were the Dash
winners. … Kaley Gharst
geared up for his incredible A-main run with a victory in the B-main. … Heat
race winners included Chad Kemenah, Daryn Pittman and Donny Schatz.
• ON TELEVISION: The Outdoor Channel will air at 8 p.m. (ET) on April 19
the
• ON THE WEB: The Official
• UP NEXT: The second half
• LISTEN ONLINE: If fans can’t get to a track to see the series, they
can experience the excitement of the
• SPONSOR SUPPORT: The
Qualifying
1) Jac Haudenschild, Wright 35, 11.647
2) Brooke Tatnell, Rush Racing 8, 11.815
3) Donny Schatz, Schatz 15, 12.002
4) Becca Anderson, Woodring 19, 12.121
5) Jeremy Campbell, Campbell 10C, 12.158
6) Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 12.162
7)
8) Rob Chaney, Martin 36, 12.275
9) Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 12.281
10) Trevor Green, Lewis-Green 11, 12.319
11) Joey Saldana, Kahne 9, 12, 359
12) Justin Henderson, Oswalt D1, 12.432
13) Chad Kemenah, Kemenah 15K, 12.447
14) Daryn Pittman, Titan Racing USA 21, 12.503
15) Bill Rose, Rose 6, 12, 528
16) Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4K, 12.566
17) Dion Hindi, Hindi 11D, 12.577
18) Kyle Thomas, Thomas 19T, 12.631
19) Randy Hannagan, TH Racing 1X, 12.667
20) Kaley Gharst, Gharst 44G, 12.875
21) Adam Jones, Jones 1A, 12.901
22) Kyle Cummins, Harp 1H, 12.902
23) Kevin Briscoe, Briscoe 5, 12.953
24) Tom Busch, Busch 4, 12.989
25) Joss Moffatt, Moffatt
5J, 12.994
26) Ty Deckard, Deckard 48, 13.099
27) Donny Brackett, Brackett 4B, 13.424
28) Eddie Lynch, Lynch 29, 13.475
29) Brady Short, Short 36S, 13.494
30) Patrick Budde, Budde
90, 13.618
First Heat Race (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Chad Kemenah
2)
3) Jac Haudenschild
4) Randy Hannagan
5) Terry McCarl
6) Justin Henderson
7) Kyle Cummins
8) Kyle Thomas
9) Eddie Lynch
10) Joss Moffatt (DNS)
Second Heat Race (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Daryn Pittman
2) Joey Saldana
3) Brooke Tatnell
4) Dion Hindi
5) Jeremy Campbell
6) Rob Chaney
7) Kaley Gharst
8) Kevin Briscoe
9) Ty Deckard
10) Brady Short
Third Heat Race (10 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Donny Schatz
2) Kelly Kinser
3) Trevor Green
4) Craig Dollansky
5) Tom Busch
6) Bill Rose
7) Adam Jones
8) Donny Brackett
9) Becca Anderson
10) Patrick Budde
First Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined inside first 6 rows of
A-feature)
1) Rob Chaney
2) Donny Schatz
3) Terry McCarl
4) Jac Haudenschild
5) Trevor Green
6) Justin Henderson
Second Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined outside first 6 rows of
A-feature)
1) Craig Dollansky
2) Brooke Tatnell
3)
4) Jeremy Campbell
5) Chad Kemenah
6) Joey Saldana
B-main (12 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Kaley Gharst
2) Kevin Briscoe
3) Kyle Cummins
4) Becca Anderson
5) Kyle Thomas
6) Eddie Lynch
7) Brady Short [$200]
8) Ty Deckard [$180]
9) Joss Moffatt [$175]
10) Donny Brackett [$160]
11) Patrick Budde [$150]
12) Adam Jones [$150]
A-main (40 laps)
1) Craig Dollansky [$10,000]
2) Terry McCarl [$5,500]
3) Rob Chaney [$3,200]
4) Jac Haudenschild [$2,800]
5) Brooke Tatnell [$2,500]
6) Kaley Gharst [$2,300]
7) Jeremy Campbell [$2,200]
8) Daryn Pittman [$2,100]
9) Becca Anderson [$2,050]
10) Donny Schatz [$2,000]
11) Dion Hindi [$1,500]
12) Trevor Green [$1,200]
13)
14) Randy Hannagan [$1,050]
15) Kelly Kinser [$1,000]
16) Bill Rose [$900]
17) Justin Henderson [$800]
18) Kyle Cummins [$800]
19) Eddie Lynch [$800]
20) Joey Saldana [$800]
21) Kyle Thomas [$800]
22) Kevin Briscoe [$800]
23) Tom Busch [$800]
24) Chad Kemenah [$800]
Lap leaders: Rob Chaney 1-9, Craig Dollansky 10-40
Rk. / Driver / Driver Points / Team Points / $ / Back
/ Wins / Top 5 / Top 10
1 / Donny Schatz / 1471 / 1471 / $56,250 / 0 / 3 / 6 / 8
2 / Joey Saldana / 1399 / 1399 / $35,200 / -72 / 1 / 5 / 8
3 / Craig Dollansky / 1385 / 1385 / $30,900 / -86 / 1 / 3 / 8
4 / Terry McCarl / 1383 / 1383 / $28,600 / -88 / 0 / 6 / 7
5 / Jac Haudenschild / 1377 / 1377 / $25,050 / -94 / 0 / 5 / 7
6 / Brooke Tatnell / 1375 / 1375 / $24,650 / -96 / 0 / 3 / 7
7 / Daryn Pittman / 1372 / 1372 / $21,850 / -99 / 0 / 4 / 8
8 / Chad Kemenah / 1278 / 1278 / $26,000 / -193 / 1 / 2 / 5
9 / Jeremy Campbell / 1241 / 1241 / $17,250 / -230 / 0 / 1 / 4
10 / Randy Hannagan / 1234 / 1234 / $14,910 / -237 / 0 / 3 / 3
11 / Justin Henderson / 1225 / 1225 / $12,800 / -246 / 0 / 0 / 2
12 / Greg Wilson / 1105 / 1105 / $11,980 / -366 / 0 / 0 / 3
13 / Kaley Gharst / 1076 /
1076 / $9,125 / -395 / 0 / 0 / 1
14 / Sammy Swindell / 1034 / 1034 / $38,350 / -437 / 2 / 3 / 7
15 / Bill Rose / 1019 / 1019 / $6,810 / -452 / 0 / 0 / 0
16 /
17 / Rob Chaney / 933 / 1203 / $13,760 / -268 / 0 / 2 / 3
18 / Dion Hindi / 926 / 926 / $4,990 / -545 / 0 / 0 /
0
19 / Becca Anderson / 881 / 881 / $4,885 / -590 / 0 /
0 / 1
20 / Kevin Swindell / 870 / 870 / $10,000 / -601 / 0 / 0 / 2
STANDINGS NOTE: The Martin Motorsports No. 36 NOS Energy
Drink/Mafia Motorsports Maxim is 12th in owner’s points. Rob Chaney is
currently replacing injured Mean 15 racer Jason Martin.