Pa. Posse’s finest Lance Dewease takes down the Outlaws, wins at Lincoln
Lance Dewease gets it done for the Pennsylvania Posse faithful yet again.
Dewease of Fayetteville, Pa., took the lead from David Gravel on Lap 18 of 35 and never looked back to win the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Gettysburg Clash at the Fabulous Lincoln Speedway on Wednesday night.
It’s Dewease’s 16th career Outlaw win — which ties him for 31st all-time — and marks the fourth straight victory in just five Central Pennsylvania races this season.
“This win means a lot to us,” Dewease, 54, said. “It keeps our winning streak going. … It means everything [to win against the World of Outlaws]. It’s a good rivalry, [the Posse versus the Outlaws]. To me, it’s friendly. It’s not like we hate each other, but we want to beat each other pretty bad.”
Dewease wasn’t the fastest car off the truck, but like they’ve done so many times before, Don Kreitz Jr. and “The Dream Team” levitated with tactical strategy.
He laid down the second fastest lap in Group A time trials — a 13.129 compared to Brad Sweet’s 13.116 — and led all eight laps to win Heat 2. Dewease then drew pole for the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash, but Gravel powered out front on the top by the dash’s second turn.
While Gravel outworked Dewease, who used the bottom, on the top, Dewease knew sooner later the bottom would eventually pay dividends.
“The top was good early. I knew the bottom would come in sooner or later,” Dewease said. “In the dash, the top was better. Then once I moved up behind him, I could run his pace and might have been a hair better than him. In six laps, you never know.”
“I knew there watching the B-Main, the top in [Turns] 1 and 2 got way up,” Dewease added. “I knew sooner or later it was going to balance itself out.
By Lap 7, Gravel had caught the tail end of the field, and it took three laps for the Jason Johnson Racing driver to pass a lapped car. Dewease then sliced a one-second deficit to just three car lengths, as Gravel and Dewease cut in and out of traffic, passing high and low, to navigate the trickiest aspect of racing.
Dewease stalked Gravel patiently, knowing the top and inside would balance out soon enough. With 17 laps to go, Gravel missed his mark in the middle of Turns 1 and 2, allowing Dewease skirt by.
From there, Dewease staved off two late-race restarts with eight and six laps left to give the Posse a 1-0 advantage over the Outlaws. Eight races remain in the series.
“I stayed patient,” Dewease said. “It was a really good racetrack all night long. The line kept changing. It was a fun racetrack to race on.”
Ryan Smith charged from 12th to finish second, giving the Posse a 1-2 finish. Gravel, who started on the pole and led the first 17 laps, held on to third.
Sweet of Kasey Kahne Racing finished fourth and Outlaw regular Shane Stewart came fifth. Lucas Wolfe, Ian Madsen, Jacob Allen, Logan Schuchart, and Kraig Kinser rounded out the top 10.
Donny Schatz earned the hard-charger, finishing 11th from 25th.
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