Donny Schatz has won back-to-back races at 81 Speedway in Park City, KS, but he had to wait 11 years between visits to Victory Lane.

Schatz was the most recent winner on this track when the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series last visited in 2006.

On Saturday, Schatz led the Kansas Outlaw Klassic from the pole, but his night was not without drama. He tangled with Paul McMahan and Don Droud on lap 18 and damaged his sprinter.

"The (No.) 4 car [Paul McMahan] stopped, and I got into him there," Schatz said. "I thought I was going over and when I got away from him I could steer, but I knew something was bent in the front. It obviously bent the front axle, but it didn't really hurt me much. It might have actually helped me."

His second consecutive win at 81 Speedway was also his second straight victory this season. He won Friday night at the Missouri State Fairgrounds Speedway in Sedalia, MO, to snap a seven-week winless streak.

One night later, Schatz reflected in Victory Lane on how his season turned around this weekend.

"We just had the car rolling and are trying a lot of funky things right now and there are a lot of weird pieces on this race car, but we are learning," Schatz said. "Sometimes you pay the price and April was that time, so May is going a lot better."



During the only restart of the race -- following Schatz's incident with the lapped cars -- he got the jump on the competition as drivers second through fourth battled for the runner-up spot.

Jason Johnson was on the outside of the front row for that restart with David Gravel and Daryn Pittman lined up behind him.

The battle continued until the final lap of race when Pittman was finally able to get around Gravel and earn his second consecutive runner-up finish.

"We are bringing better race cars to the track," Pittman said. "Eric Prutzman is making great changes as the night goes on. Getting in the dash has been huge with the extra track time. Most of the headway we have made with our race cars the last two nights has been in the dash. That's really been key. When the car is faster, it's a lot more fun to drive.

"We had to fight hard for that one. We fell back to fourth and got by Jason after the yellow. Gravel got caught up by a few lapped cars and we were able to get back by him coming to the checkers. It was a good finish and a good weekend for us."

Gravel finished third, which was his 13th top five of the year and his third top-three finish in the past four races.

"Lapped cars were pretty tough; they were running pretty high and made it pretty difficult," Gravel said. "It was hard to tell where they were going to go. Daryn got by me, but I think we had a second-place car. I just wish we could have qualified a little better to get in the dash and get another shot at the race track. If we had started on the front two rows, I think we could have gotten the win. We'll take our podium and move on to the next race."

Johnson finished fourth on the heels of a sixth-place finish in Missouri.

Brad Sweet rounded out the top five after finishing seventh the night previous. That extends his current streak of top 10s to five.

Top 10 Finishers

1. Donny Schatz
2. Daryn Pittman
3. David Gravel
4. Jason Johnson
5. Brad Sweet
6. Shane Stewart
7. Logan Schuchart
8. Aaron Reutzel
9. Jason Sides
10. Brent Marks
Complete Results