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Schatz Scores Fifth Silver Cup Win; Haundenschild Flips after Leading First 35 Laps

Eight-time Series Champion and current points leader Donny Schatz scored his fifth Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup win at Lernerville Speedway after a heated battle with Sheldon Haudenschild left the Rookie of the Year contender flipping off the wall on the front stretch outside turn four.

"It’s been a good week," said Schatz, fresh off his Kings Royal win at Eldora Speedway just last Saturday. "This race team is incredible, what they do. When they get the race car good, you get in that zone, and they fine tune things and just keep making strides and making it better. It’s good to have that feeling for sure."

Haudenschild dominated the first 35 laps of the 40-lap Feature, jumping to the lead right from the start and leaving pole-sitter Daryn Pittman between he and Schatz as he continued to lengthen the distance between them.

Meanwhile, Schatz had a rocky start as his front tires lurched up on the front stretch outside turn four in lap three, and he went over the cushion outside turn one in lap nine, causing him to fall back to sixth. But the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing driver regained some ground before an engine failure on the Shark Racing No. 1s of Logan Schuchart forced a restart in lap 15; and by lap 22, Schatz had his No. 15 Arctic Cat machine back in third again.

Two laps later, Schatz passed Pittman, but Haudenschild was driving hard and still had a good three-second lead on him.

It took the veteran driver another eight laps to gain enough ground to start pushing on the rookie, but on lap 33 the exchanges began. Schatz passed Haudenschild. Haudenschild took it back. Schatz did it again, and again Haudenschild took it back.

A beautiful battle transpired until another caution — this time Brent Marks spinning outside turn four — forced another restart.

With $25,000 on the line, the Feature continued with a single-file restart, Haudenschild at the helm. He did what he had to do and shot out to a strong lead again, but hit the cushion so hard in turn four, he simply ran out of cushion. The No. 93 hit the wall and flipped several times down the front stretch.

"[The cushion] was getting pretty thin," said Schatz from Victory Lane. "In case anyone didn’t notice there were crashes. That’s why we had that [caution] before [Sheldon] did it. There was two cars sitting there, and the cushion was kind of rolled up over the edge of the track. It just kept getting slower and slower. When it starts slowing down... I guess old age is making me slow down a bit too."

All was quiet when the Open Red was called. But when the Wild Child's child finally got out of his car unharmed, the crowd erupted in applause. And Schatz went on to take the checkers unchallenged, with Pittman and David Gravel rounding out the podium.

The World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series takes on the Pennsylvania Posse at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday and Saturday, July 21-22 for the Champion Racing Oil Summer Nationals before heading to Ransomville Speedway for The Big "R" Outlaw Shootout on Sunday, July 23.

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