NEWBERRYTOWN, Pa.: Lance Dewease had a battered nose wing and an ill-handling Sprint Car as he paced the field Saturday night at Susquehanna Speedway.
The damage was the result of contact with Logan Schuchart while battling for the lead through the middle stages of the 30-lap event. Worse, Dewease had Lucas Wolfe and Joey Saldana lurking close behind.
Maybe in the hands of a lesser experienced driver, it would have made a difference. But not Dewease, a Hall of Fame-caliber driver.
Dewease did what he had to do to get it to the finish. He cheated the corners and was never challenged in the second half the event, taking his 19th victory at the speedway and a $5,000 payday in the Sprint Showdown.
“You look at the guys who win races, they aren’t the young guys,” Dewease said. “You look at the guys winning, and there aren’t any in their 20s. Danny [Dietrich] is the only one winning a lot of races.
“It takes a lot of experience to run these things. You have to know the situations, and you have to be smart. It’s not about the right foot, it’s about the brake.”
Dewease started sixth on the grid and spent the early stages of the event dicing with Saldana, Wolfe, Danny Dietrich and Greg Hodnett. Meanwhile, pole-sitter Logan Schuchart paced the field.
Tony Fiore brought out the first caution when he spun in Turn 1 on Lap 3. Dewease blasted by Saldana and Dietrich to take third. During the shuffle, Greg Hodnett also entered the picture.
Hodnett slipped by Dietrich in the first and second corner for fourth on Lap 5. Dietrich got a run down the backstretch, and the two made contact and spun in the third corner. Freddie Rahmer and Cory Haas were also collected.
The restart featured a frontstretch flip by Fiore that brought out the red flag. Dewease struggled on the restart, falling from third to fifth.
“We are always a little tight, and our air pressure drops down under the caution,” Dewease said. “I messed up the restart and hit the berm on the inside, shot out across the track and lost a couple of spots.
“I had a good car before that, and I knew it was rubbering up in Turns 3 and 4 and knew I needed to get by those guys before they realized it.”
Mission accomplished.
Saldana slid Wolfe for second in Turn 2. Dewease followed and took third from Wolfe in the fourth corner. Meanwhile, Schuchart continued to pace the field, building a one-second lead.
That advantage started to shrink over the next five laps. Saldana closed to .697 seconds on Lap 11 and chopped the lead to .340 one lap later.
Dewease was also charging. He tip-toed under Saldana coming out of Turn 4 on the 13th circuit. One lap later, the Fayetteville driver shot to the bottom of Turn 4 and blew by Schuchart for the lead.
Schuchart got a big run off Turn 2 on Lap 15. He dove to the bottom of Turn 3, but Dewease was there, and the two drivers made contact. Both drivers kept going, but the caution flew.
An angry Dewease went to nudge Schuchart in Turn 1 but missed. Schuchart, however, rolled to a stop with a flat tire.
“I guess he can’t see,” Dewease said of Schuchart. “We passed him nice and clean, and then he ran right over me going to the bottom of Turn 3 knowing that is where we all had to be. I mean, whatever, we are in Victory Lane, and that is all that matters.
“I tried to hit him. I was mad. I’m bad at running over people, because I never did that in my life racing. Some guys are better at it than me. Then, I realized I didn’t stop, and was like, ‘let’s get back in line.’ I didn’t even know he stopped.”
Said Schuchart via Twitter, “My intentions are never to crash anyone. I’m a racer, and I anticipated wrong. Congrats to the 69K team on their win.”
Dewease’s nose wing was bent and hanging, but it was secure. Officials even contemplated sending the No. 69K to the pit area for safety reasons.
But the decision was made to let Dewease remain in the event. He responded by manhandling the car in the corners and holding a 1.144-second lead over Saldana, who passed Wolfe on the Lap 15 restart, by the time the 18th circuit was scored.
“I was really concerned with how it was going to be,” Dewease said. “I didn’t know if I could drive it good enough. I thought I would be OK by myself, but I was really concerned about lapped cars.
“The nose wing like that … the front wheels won’t stay on the ground. I had to move the top wing all the way forward so I could drive it some. You have to cheat the corners. You can’t run out higher, because it doesn’t turn.”
Continued Dewease, “We were fortunate with the rubber in Turn 4. That helped us. I could run one and two OK, and the one thing about the nose wing being like that, they drive forward. It just doesn’t turn well.”
Saldana closed to .474 seconds in lapped traffic. But Dewease was too much down the stretch and took the win by 1.141 seconds at the stripe over Saldana.
Wolfe finished second, followed by Brock Zearfoss. Brian Montieth completed the top five. Mark Smith, Anthony Macri, Cory Haas, Brandon Rahmer and Schuchart completed the top 10.
“I felt like I had shot of winning,” said Saldana, who will run the Bernie Stuebgen No. 71 at next week’s World Finals. “This is just a different track, and I haven’t learned it.
“On the one restart, I tried to run the top and slipped back to sixth in a third of a lap. I had to regroup, and I got back to second. I think we could have had a shot in one and two, but with a flat tire, it is what is. I was nursing a car like he was nursing a car, so we will take it.”
In the 25-lap 358 Sprint Car main, Chase Dietz took the lead on Lap 3 and captured the crash-filled event.
Kevin Nouse started 12th and got to second. He took a shot at Dietz in the last corner but slipped high. That allowed Brent Shearer to shoot to the bottom and take the runner-up finish at the stripe.
Chris Frank polished off a fourth-place finish. Brett Wanner held off Cody Fletcher and Tyler Ross for fifth.
410 Sprint Feature Finish, 30 Laps: 1. Lance Dewease; 2. Joey Saldana; 3. Lucas Wolfe; 4. Brock Zearfoss; 5. Brian Montieth; 6. Mark Smith; 7. Anthony Macri; 8. Cory Haas; 9. Brandon Rahmer; 10. Logan Schuchart; 11. Gerard McInytre Jr.; 12. Tyler Ross; 13. Jacob Allen; 14. Tyler Reeser; 15. Brett Michalski; 16. Joe Kata III; 17. Bradley Howard; 18. Glenndon Forsythe; 19. Greg Hodnett; 20. Danny Dietrich; 21. Freddie Rahmer; 22. Dan Shetler; 23. Tony Fiore; 24. Ryan Smith.
358 Sprint Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1. Chase Dietz; 2. Brent Shearer; 3. Kevin Nouse; 4. Chris Frank; 5. Brett Wanner; 6. Cody Fletcher; 7. Tyler Ross; 8. Mike Bittinger; 9. Troy Wagaman Jr.; 10. Dave Brown; 11. Brie Hershey; 12. Steve Wilbur; 13. Dwight Leppo; 14. CJ Tracy; 15. Bradley Howard; 16. Hank Donovan; 17. Trey Hivner; 18. Jeff Paulson; 19. Nat Tuckey; 20. Jake Eldreth; 21. Andrew Frye; 22. Steve Drevicki; 23. Tyler Walton; 24. Kenny Kuhn.