Schatz Holds Off Larson, Wins Williams Grove 75K National Open
Freddie Rahmer Is 2020 Track Champion

Mechanicsburg – Donny Schatz won the biggest sprint car race in the nation on Saturday night, taking the 58th annual, $75,000 to win World of Outlaws Champion Racing Oil National Open at Williams Grove Speedway.

It was the North Dakota driver’s unrivaled sixth career win in the oval’s marquee event.

Schatz was the third and final leader in the hotly contested 40-lap event with Pennsylvania’s own Logan Schuchart leading at the start with Friday night winner and Saturday polesitter David Gravel falling into second.

Schuchart was lightning fast at the start of the race, bolting out to a two-turn lead in the early going before a caution flag for a stopped Brock Zearfoss slowed the pace on the fourth lap.

Gravel kept Schuchart a bit closer on the restart, not letting him get quite as far away.

Then with nine laps down another caution flag bunched the field with Gravel and Schatz restarting second and third.

However the ensuing restart turned yellow again for a blown tire on Danny Dietrich’s racer.

Dietrich was up to eighth in the field when the tire let go after starting 14th.

Only another three laps were completed before another caution flag unfurled, this time for a slowing Aaron Reutzel.

And on each of the prior double file restarts, Gravel was able to successfully jump in line directly behind Schuchart with Schatz following suit.

But on this restart, Gravel pulled the trigger for control as he raced off of the second turn cushion by ducking to the inside lane on the backstretch to blast under the leader in turn three and take over as the pacesetter.

And again, Schatz followed suit.

As it would turn out that Schatz was the man to beat as he began locking down to the low side in the third and fourth turns to reel in Gravel by lap 18.

The pair raced by the flag stand with Schatz nipping at Gravel’s heals on laps 18 and 19 and all the while the duo was closing in on the rear of the field.

And that’s when Schatz made his winning move, just as Gravel entered traffic on lap 21.

As two-time National Open champion Gravel entered the first turn with a bit of room to spare on the bottom side, Schatz motored by using that spare room to net the lead.

Schatz had a 1.171 second lead over Gravel when the race was halted for a scheduled fuel stop on lap 25.

The restart saw fifth starter Kyle Larson come to life as the final 15 laps would go non-stop.

Larson disposed of third running Schuchart when action restarted and he then drove past Gravel with 13 laps to go.

Schatz then entered lapped traffic with seven laps remaining, allowing Larson to close in for the win.

It took until the final lap for Larson to pull up on leader Schatz before going for a banzai run through the third and fourth corners as the pair raced to the checkers.

Larson blasted the outside line as he entered turn three and pulled to Schatz’s outside but just as it appeared that he might edge in front to take the 75K, his mount jumped the cushion in turn four, allowing the victory and Schatz to slip away.

“Before that race I was the only five-time National Open winner, now I’m a six-time National Open winner,” Schatz said.

“We just kept our speed up and kept rollin’. It feels great, it’s been a trying year,” the winner stated.

The victory was just the fifth of the season for the ten-time World of Outlaws champion on the 2020 series tour.

“The restarts early weren’t really working in our favor,” Kyle Larson commented after finishing second.

“We made the car better under the red and gave it all we had. I feel like we had a good car, definitely a car capable to win but just came up short,” Larson said.

Larson finished just .579 seconds behind Schatz at the finish line.

Schuchart was third followed by Gravel and Sheldon Haudenschild.

Sixth through 10th went to Daryn Pittman, Jacob Allen, Anthony Macri, defending National Open winner Brent Marks and Brad Sweet.

Heats went to Larson, Allen, Schatz and Gravel with Shane Stewart taking the B Main.

Spencer Bayston won the C Main and Chad Trout won the non-qualifiers race.

Troy Wagaman won the D Main.

Gravel earned the pole for the main event by winning the dash.

Sheldon Haudenschild set fast time over the field of 54 cars with a lap of 16.685 seconds.

Lance Dewease was the hard charger in the feature event.

Freddie Rahmer finished 12 in the feature and officially became the 2020 Williams Grove Speedway track champion.

The title is the second of the young Rahmer’s career.

Feature Finishes

410 sprints, 40 laps: 1. Donny Schatz, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Logan Schuchart, 4. David Gravel, 5. Sheldon Haudenschild, 6. Daryn Pittman,7. Jacob Allen, 8. Anthony Macri, 9. Brent Marks, 10. Brad Sweet, 11. Lance Dewease, 12. Freddie Rahmer, 13. James McFAdden, 14. Shane Stewart, 15. Cory Eliason, 16. Carson Macedo, 17. Brian Brown, 18. Danny Dietrich, 19. Dylan Cisney, 20. Kerry Madsen, 21. TJ Stutts, 22. Kyle Reinhardt, 23. Lucas Wolfe, 24. Parker Price-Miller, 25. Bill Rose, 26. Bill Balog, 27. Spencer Bayston, 28. Aaron Reutzel, 29. Brock Zearfoss

DNQ: Brent Shearer, Troy Fraker, Kyle Moody, Paul McMahan, Bradley Howard, Brett Michalski, Chad Trout, Logan Wagner, Wayne Johnson, Landon Myers, Justin Peck, Anthony Fiore, Mason Daniel, Zach Newlin, Robbie Kendall, Ian Madsen, Troy Wagaman Jr., Steve Buckwalter, Jac Haudenschild, Zach Hampton, Kraig Kinser, Zeb Wise, Jason Sides, Gio Scelzi, Nicole Bower, Brian Montieth 


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