MECHANICSBURG
 Greg Hodnett continued his streak against the World of Outlaws Saturday night at Williams Grove Speedway after he led all 40 laps to bring home his first ever win in the Cleveland Brothers National Open.

 Hodnett gave Pennsylvania Posse fans something to cheer about as he kept World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz at bay during numerous restarts to capture the big $50,000 payday in the Jim and Sandy Kline owned No. 22 Maxim.

 “It feels really good,” said Hodnett after the biggest win of his career in front of a huge National Open crowd. “The car’s been good all year and the guys made good calls all night.
You have to take advantage of the spots you are given and I’m just very happy to be up here. This is a very prestigious event and it feels great to win it.”

 After winning the dash, the Thomasville driver started on the pole for the 40-lap event.

 Jac Haudenschild and Chad Layton tangled on the initial start with Haudenschild going for a wild ride down the front stretch.

 Hodnett led Brian Montieth during the early laps as Schatz settled into the third spot.

 Montieth’s run ended on lap 10 when he blew a right rear tire and flipped in turn three. He was out for the night.

 Schatz assumed the runner-up spot on the restart but Hodnett was able to stay out front as Danny Lasoski moved in to challenge Schatz for the runner-up spot.

 Schatz tried a move on Hodnett on lap 21 but was unable to take the spot as Hodnett maintained the top spot until a lap 26 yellow for Jason Sides who stopped on the track.

 Hodnett drove off from Schatz on the restart as Jason Meyers challenged for the runner-up spot but another yellow on lap 36 for a stalled Tim Shaffer slowed the action again.

 Once again, Hodnett was powerful on the restart as he opened up a several car length lead and was heading to the checkered flag when a final lap crash involved Todd Shaffer, Brooke Tatnell and Craig Dollansky brought out a red flag.

 It set up a two lap dash for the big payday and Hodnett was up to the challenge in taking his third straight win against the World of Outlaws at Williams Grove this season.

 “Schatz pulled up alongside me there during the race and I thought I better get my butt in gear,” Hodnett said after his 10th overall win of the season and fifth at the track.
“Anytime you have Donny Schatz behind you, you better be on your game. I just can’t say enough about my crew, my car owners, sponsors and the fans for coming out. I hope you enjoyed it!”

 Hodnett’s win moved him into sixth spot on the all-time track win list with 42 career wins in just nine seasons of competition at the track. He needs one more win to move into the top five.

 “As a full time driver, this is one of the races you want to win,” he added. “This is the biggest race on the east coast and it’s a race at our home track. It’s one you want to win and I’m very very proud to be standing here tonight.”

 Schatz settled for the second spot over Meyers, 18th starting Fred Rahmer, Lasoski, Pat Cannon, 25th starting Joey Saldana, Steve Kinser, 28th starting Mark Smith and Alan Krimes.

 Cannon set fast time over the 60-car field with a lap of 16.368 seconds. Heats were won by Meyers, Lasoski, Paul McMahan and Haudenschild. Brian Leppo won the B-Main, Rick Lafferty won the C-Main and AJ Michael won the D-Main.

 Cody Darrah led all 30-laps to win the makeup Summer Nationals that was rained out in July.

 Darrah won the dash and held commanding leads during the entire distance to score the biggest win of his young career and kept the Posse streak alive at Williams Grove this season as the Posse won all four sanctioned events.

 It was Darrah’s first ever World of Outlaws feature win and it came over Joey Saldana, Lance Dewease, Danny Lasoski, Steve Kinser, 22nd starting Donny Schatz, Keith Kauffman, Jason Meyers, Sammy Swindell and Fred Rahmer.


PIT STOPS..Joey Saldana and Brad Sweet took WoO provisionals and Todd Shaffer and Mark Smith took Grove provisionals. After his National Open win, Hodnett moved to third in points, just 130 out of the lead while Mark Smith just 15 points behind Shaffer, who had all sorts of problems during the night…Following the Summer Nationals, Hodnett sits just 70 points out of the top spot in points while he gave his car owners the point lead in the owner category with just two races remaining…