Lance Dewease outduels Donny Schatz to win the Morgan Cup at Williams Grove

Lance Dewease maneuvered around 10-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz on Lap 12 of 30 to go on and claim the Morgan Cup on Saturday night at Williams Grove Speedway.

It’s Dewease’s second World of Outlaws win of the season in just four days, which, interestingly enough, ties him for second on tour even though the Pennsylvania Posse’s trailblazer is fixated in his home state.

The win nudges the Posse ahead, 2-1, through three races of a nine-race rivalry swing in 2019.

“It means a lot for us Pennsylvania guys, born and raised in Pennsylvania,” said Dewease, who’s now won five times in seven Central Pennsylvania features this season. “We take pride in being very tough in here for those guys to beat us. It’s a great rivalry we all have. It’s a friendly rivalry but it’s a great rivalry.”

Schatz, who powered ahead early and led the first 11 laps, finished second, 1.251 seconds behind. Danny Dietrich, Daryn Pittman, and Freddie Rahmer rounded out the top five.

Dewease started on the pole, but lost control of the top spot before he could even get to first turn of the feature, as Schatz stayed side-by-side with Dewease on the start and cleared him by the time the two passed the green flag.

Schatz opened up a 1.1-second lead before catching the tail end of the field on Lap 7 and took another three laps for the Tony Stewart Racing driver to pass his first lapped car. This allowed Dewease, who found success on the bottom while Schatz ran the top, to chop a lead that was over a second to just mere car lengths.

That’s when, coming off Turn 4 on Lap 12, Dewease generated a big run on the inside and swept across the track to shut the door on Schatz for the top spot.

“I knew the top was going to slow down and I found [the bottom] before Donny did,” Dewease said. “You have to do things like that with those guys. You can’t give them a chance. If you’re going to pass them, pass them and not show them the line where you want to pass. We were fortunate enough there to get by them and make the pass work.”

“[Winning] never gets old, especially when you’re beating the Outlaws,” Dewease added.

Gio Scelzi, who won the C-Main and went from 11th to fourth in the B-Main to narrowly qualify for the main event, raced from 25th to finish seventh. David Gravel, the winner on Friday night, placed ninth.

This story will be updated.

Time trials

Kraig Kinser set the overall quicktime with a lap of 19.334. Freddie Rahmer was the fastest in Group B with a time of 19.378.

Heat 1

Lance Dewease executed a textbook slide job on Kraig Kinser with three laps remaining to take the first heat.

Kinser, whose quick-time landed him the pole, led the first four laps and maintained a 0.750-second lead before Dewease moved off the bottom to make gains on the top. Dewease bolted it into Turn 3 on Lap 5 and slid in front of Kinser to move out front.

Kinser held on to second while David Gravel, Shane Stewart and Brad Sweet rounded out the top five. Sheldon Haudenschild and Brock Zearfoss were sent to the B-Main.

Heat 2

Danny Dietrich rocketed around pole-sitter Ryan Smith out of Turn 2 on Lap 1 and cruised to a 4.378-second win in the second heat.

Brent Marks finished second and Smith slipped to third, 6.6 seconds off the pace. Logan Schuchart and Cory Eliason comprised the top five.

Heat 3

Freddie Rahmer led all eight laps from the pole to claim the Heat 3 victory by 2.766 seconds over Lucas Wolfe.

Jacob Allen, Kerry Madsen, and Anthony Macri rounded out the top five.

Last year’s National Open prelim winner Gio Scelzi, Tim Shaffer, and Dave Blaney were forced to the B-Main.

Heat 4

Donny Schatz started on the pole and led all eight laps to win the last heat of the night by 2.359 seconds over Daryn Pittman.

Steve Buckwalter and Brian Montieth finished third and fourth, respectively. Cory Haas outdueled Kyle Larson Racing’s Carson Macedo for the fifth and final transfer spot after the two swapped positions numerous of times in the eight-lap heat.

C-Main

Gio Scelzi and Dave Blaney advanced to the Last Chance Showdown with their first and second-place finishes.

Landon Myers, Gerard McIntyre, TJ Stutts, Parker Price-Miller, Brett Michalski, and Troy Fraker failed to qualify for the main event.

Dash

Lance Dewease cruised to the dash win after drawing pole, topping Donny Schatz by 3.118 seconds to land the top spot for the main event.

Kraig Kinser, Brent Marks, Daryn Pittman, Danny Dietrich, Freddie Rahmer, and Lucas Wolfe followed.

Last Chance Showdown

Carson Macedo of Kyle Larson Racing avenged mistakes in his heat to win the B-Main and ultimately qualify his way into the 30-lap feature.

Dylan Cisney and Ian Madsen finished second and third, respectively. Gio Scelzi was the last qualifier, racing his way to fourth from 11th.

Tim Shaffer, Chad Trout, Ian Madsen, Jason Sides, Adrian Shaffer, Kody Lehman, Sheldon Haudenschild, who spun out on Lap 2 of 12 and didn’t return, did not qualify.

Brock Zearfoss finished fifth and used a track provisional to make it into the event.