LAS VEGAS – It took a little extra in the tank to get the job done, but Tim Shaffer led from start to finish to capture his first Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track win in 14 years on Wednesday night.
Shaffer started from the pole and never looked back despite a caution-laden 30-lap feature, powering away from a charging Tim Kaeding on a four-lap sprint to the finish to notch his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victory of the season.
The Aliquippa, Pa., veteran noted after the race that a red flag for refueling with 26 laps complete was actually his saving grace, as his Demyan-Rudzik Racing No. 49x was sputtering before the last caution.
“I was out of fuel (for) the last four laps,” noted Shaffer. “I was just trying to baby it. The last restart (before the red flag), the 83 car (Scelzi) got a run on me because I was shutting off down the straightaway. It was a blessing when I saw that red flag for the fuel stop, because we needed it.”
“This track gets real tricky sometimes, like it was tonight, and it’s a pretty awesome race when you have a great race car like we had,” Shaffer added. “It kept changing; I had to move around, but everything worked in our favor and it was our night to win. The yellows, the red … everything worked out for us.”
Wednesday night’s win was Shaffer’s fourth in Las Vegas and the 26th of his World of Outlaws career, breaking a tie with Kerry Madsen for 22nd on the all-time wins list.
Shaffer won the DIRTvision Fast Pass Dash to garner the top starting spot for the FVP Platinum Battery Outlaw Showdown opener, and despite pacing all 30 laps had to weather eight different restarts throughout the feature before he could celebrate in victory lane.
The most hotly-contested stretch of the main event came with five laps left, when Gio Scelzi, Aaron Reutzel and Kaeding were three-wide for second while Shaffer raced just in front of them, but a slowing Shane Stewart – who was out of fuel in turn two – drew a stop to that battle moments later.
That led to a stretch of three additional slowdowns before the final four laps could be completed, including one where Reutzel ran out of fuel from third on the race track that led to the red flag.
Once racing resumed for the final time, Shaffer took off while Scelzi stumbled from second, allowing both Kaeding and a fast-moving Donny Schatz to pounce on the California teenager late in the going.
Kaeding took second and gave chase to Shaffer, but came up 1.124 seconds short at the finish line.
“I think we just picked up right where we left off with Jason last year,” said Kaeding. “He’s given me an awesome opportunity to come drive this thing, and for me to be able to come out here with him and Paul (Sides, Jason’s brother) and race two cars out of one trailer … it’s awesome. We dig deep here.”
Schatz charged from 11th to complete the podium, his best finish in three starts this season.
“This was the best we could do. We gave it our best shot and were in the mix for the whole race,” Schatz said. “Hats off to my guys. We’re gaining on things and getting a little bit better, but I’m not sure the wind wasn’t throwing me a curveball at the end. We’ll be back tomorrow to try it over again.”
Rico Abreu finished fourth ahead of Scelzi, who faded to fifth in the final rundown.
Kyle Larson was sixth, followed by Daryn Pittman, Cory Eliason, Brad Sweet and Christopher Bell, who started seventh but had to charge through the field after an opening-lap spin to complete the top 10.
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