Outlaw Pittman wins Summer Nationals opener at Williams Grove

MECHANICSBURG - Despite a late scare from Lance Dewease, it was Daryn Pittman's night from start to finish as the World of Outlaws driver won the first night of Summer Nationals on Friday at Williams Grove Speedway.

Pittman’s No. 9 car had the quickest time in time trials with a lap of 17.187 seconds and then followed it up with a second-place finish in his heat race. Pittman helped his cause even further capturing the checkered flag in the dash.

Despite challenges from Greg Hodnett, and then later on from Dewease, Pittman held on to first place for his seventh World of Outlaws victory of the season.

“I don’t think I’ve ever ran a curve this big at Williams Grove,” Pittman said from victory lane. “I don’t know if I was more nervous with (Hodnett) behind me or (Dewease). Neither one of them you want to see on the scoreboard, but you knew the 69K came from a ways back.”

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Pittman ran most of the night with a sizable lead on the rest of the pack. Hodnett, who jumped into second place early on, kept pace with the No. 9 car, but Pittman turned down his challenges off of restarts.

Meanwhile, Dewease was slowly working his way up to the front of the pack.

The 69K car moved into the top-five in the 10th lap and quickly moved into fifth along the backstretch of the half-mile long track. Dewease jumped ahead again out of a caution in lap 14 in turn two and then propelled into the second spot between third and fourth turns.

A red flag in lap 15 gave Dewease the chance to try to take the leader spot, but Pittman quickly pulled away.

“I really wasn’t sure what Cale was going to tell me what to do out of that red,” Pittman said. “He just said keep running the top and I’m like, ‘Man are you sure? That 69K, I guarantee he ain’t running the top.’ Luckily it was enough. … But man, we won again at Williams Grove.”

The win was the first victory for an Outlaws’ driver in a Summer Nationals race since 2013. Current Outlaws points leader Donny Schatz was the last to do so. Still, the PA Posse had a solid showing with three drivers in the Top 5.

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Hodnett’s third-place finish helped him unofficially take the track points lead at Williams Grove, as well.

The energy will be turned up for day two of Summer Nationals, which pays $25,000 to the feature winner.

“Pays a lot better tomorrow, and that’s the one we’re gunning for. We’ll give it all we got.” Pittman said.