MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – Lance Dewease did what has made him so good for so long on Friday with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series at Williams Grove Speedway.
Though elusive win No. 100 at the historic half-mile clay oval didn’t happen, Dewease still made something decent out of less-than-desirable circumstances.
The 55-year-old finished second, just .361 seconds shy of winner Carson Macedo. He fought a fickle track, one that created a lot of power around the top, which made it hard for Dewease to use his hallmark bottom groove, let alone make moves.
The National Sprint Car Hall of Famer has battled discomfort this year as he and the Kreitz Racing No. 69k crew search for the right feeling with his car.
“We just have to be better,” Dewease said.
“We’re not very good yet, so we’ll see,” he later added. “The place is really hard to pass on. It’s been that way for about a year now. I don’t know. You still have to time good. We’ve been doing that good everywhere.”
Dewease led the way in flight one of qualifying with a lap of 16.666 seconds, doing the heavy-lifting for the Pennsylvania Posse from the outset.
Brent Marks joined Dewease on the podium in third, but outside that, Dewease carried the load. Danny Dietrich (12th), Anthony Macri (15th), Freddie Rahmer (16th), TJ Stutts (18th), and Tim Shaffer in Mike Heffner’s No. 72 (19th) were all non-factors.
If there was a familiar key to success that Dewease found throughout the feature, it was the way he exploited turn three. As the 25-lap main event wore on, the harder Dewease sent it into that corner and the more ground he made up on Macedo.
“I thought I could get there,” Dewease said in trying to erase a two-second deficit. “I honestly thought I was close enough to pass him.”
He did, however, clip the berm on the bottom of the track one too many times, which hurt his chances on the final lap.
“If I hadn’t done that, Iwould have been lower and more across, and more off the corner in front of [Macedo],” Dewease said.
– Devon Borden, the 18-year-old from Raymond, Wash., making just his sixth start in a 410 on Friday, experienced the rude awakening of Williams Grove.
After qualifying third in flight one and being surrounded by Dewease, Marks, and Larson in his heat, he eventually failed to qualify for the main event.
“Williams Grove is a different animal, and I mean different animal,” Borden posted on Twitter. “Place is tough. I learned a lot and [we’ll] get ‘em [tomorrow].”
– A flat right rear in heat one made Freddie Rahmer play catch-up the rest of the night. The 25-year-old and 14-time Williams Grove winner started fifth in his heat but fell to last on the opening lap.
He took a provisional for the main event, where he raced from 25th to 16th.
– Logan Schuchart’s struggles continued into hot laps on Friday, taking a vicious tumble in turns three and four that required some lengthy attention.
The driver of the No. 1s Shark Racing machine raced his way in from the B-Main and finished 17th in the feature. He remains seventh in the series points.
– Kerry Madsen finished sixth in another fill-in performance in the Tony Racing Racing No. 14.
The 49-year-old recently left central Pennsylvania-based Barshinger Racing for a more flexible schedule that helps him stay closer to his Knoxville, Iowa home.
– Donny Schatz placed eighth. He’s now 29 races removed from his last victory with the World of Outlaws, which was the Williams Grove National Open last October.
– Sheldon Haudenschild led the way in qualifying with a lap of 16.666 seconds but slipped to ninth in the main event by the end of the night.
– Danny Dietrich finished 12th in the feature after qualifying 15th of 20 cars in flight one.
– Series point leader Brad Sweet was a non-factor all night long and finished 14th in the feature.
– Jacob Allen and Brock Zearfoss both failed to qualify for the main event. Zearfoss placed ninth in the B-Main, while Allen finished 10th.
– World of Outlaws regular Parker Price-Miller didn’t race on Friday for undisclosed reasons.