By Tony Veneziano

July 25, 2010 West Lebanon, New York: Doug Esh had never seen Lebanon Valley Speedway until Sunday when he rolled through the pit gate. But that did not really matter as he quickly got up to speed and put himself in the right spots to win in his debut at the blazing fast half-mile to score his first World of Outlaws win of the season and second of his career. Esh started on pole and beat Jason Sides into turn one at the green and used strong restarts to the $10,000 triumph as he fills in for the injured Jac Haudenschild in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass XXX.

"This is unbelievable," said Esh. "I have to thank Lon Carnahan for giving me a shot. It's a shame that Jac got hurt. The Triple X car, I had never driven one and this may be the best car I have ever sat in. Leonard (Lee), Marie (LaPointe) and Kyle worked hard all day and had one of the fastest cars here. I just had to get the job done."

Esh was out front with two laps to go when the second and final caution flag flew, setting up a double-file restart with 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser alongside. Esh chose the low side and led into turn one to hold the lead and was able to pull away a little bit on lap 24 of 25.

"He is The King and I am the little guys," quipped the winner. "I figured if I could get a good run off of four and get to the corner first, I could get it done. Jason Sides and I battled all night from the front row. These motors take off great and never stop."

Esh chose the low side on both double-file restarts at a banked track where traditionally, pole position is the outside. The first caution flew on lap 13. Esh had opened a fairly sizable lead over Jason Sides. "Leonard and I talked about it and all night, I started on the bottom and was able to get the lead. So why change that?" explained the Lancaster, Pennsylvania native. "The car felt great down there and the motor runs great off the corner. I didn't want to change what was working."

Steve Kinser used a strong double-file restart on lap 13 to get by Jason Sides for second and looked inside of Esh in turns one and two and again in three and four to no avail on that same lap. On the final restart, he lined up on the high side of the half-mile next to Esh and wound up second in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim to score his series-leading 26th Top Five of the season.

"I wanted to be down in the moisture, is where I wanted to be," shared the 20-time series champion. "There was no way you were going to beat anyone off the top off of four. It was just too slick. Once you got speed up there, you were alright. I wanted to try and work the bottom and think I could have. I didn't need that last yellow. If we would have raced in traffic that was probably about the only shot we had."

Donny Schatz came from ninth to third aboard the Armor All/STP J&J to earn KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award. He gained three spots on the opening lap before Jason Meyers got back around for sixth on the second circuit. The pair battled for the next several laps. Schatz was able to gain a spot on the lap 13 double file restart on the way to his 21st Top Five of the season.

"We had a shot at it," stated Schatz. "But catching him is one thing and passing him is a whole different thing. It was a good run for us starting ninth. You can't complain about that. We passed all the guys on the bottom and would have liked to have had a few more laps. But 25 laps were enough and we got a respectable finish."

Jason Meyers ended up fourth in the GLR Investments KPC, with Craig Dollansky fifth in the Big Game Treestands Maxim. Jason Sides was sixth in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim. David Gravel matched the best finish of his career with the World of Outlaws, coming home seventh in the JaneDoeNoMore.org J&J.

The current World of Outlaws point leader Joey Saldana finished eighth in the Budweiser Maxim. Danny Lasoski was ninth in the Casey's General Stores JEI and Paul McMahan rounded out the Top Ten in the Great Clips Maxim.

The World of Outlaws will return to Quebec’s Autodrome Drummond for an inaugural event on Tuesday, July 27.

World of Outlaws points (after 7/25/2010) Joey Saldana 5763, Steve Kinser 5727, Jason Meyers 5718, Donny Schatz 5615, Jason Sides 5557, Paul McMahan 5499, Lucas Wolfe 5354, Craig Dollansky 5308, Kraig Kinser 5168 & Danny Lasoski 5154

Qualifications (1/2d) 1 Joey Saldana 16.567 (130.38mph), 2 Jason Meyers 16.654, 3 Craig Dollansky 16.719, 4 David Gravel 16.794, 5 Steve Kinser 16.825, 6 Danny Lasoski 16.831, 7 Jason Sides 16.835, 8 Kraig Kinser 16.845, 9 Jessica Zemken 16.848, 10 Doug Esh 16.873, 11 Chad Kemenah 16.907, 12 Donny Schatz 16.911, 13 Paul McMahan 16.992, 14 Lucas Wolfe 17.039, 15 Toni Lutar 17.125, 16 Sam Hafertepe Jr 17.167, 17 Curt Michael 17.305, 18 Ben Gregg 17.873, 19 Ed Aikin 17.927, 20 Justin Barger 18.128, 21 George Suprick III 18.162, 22 Davey Sammons 18.22, 23 John Smith 18.294, 24 Bubba Broderick 18.437, 25 Jeff Taylor 18.693, 26 Jack Helget 19.155, 27 Mark Cole 19.973, 28 Mark Ide 20.277. NT Jay Shypinka, Josh Flach

Heat 1 (8 laps) Esh, Sides, Gravel, Saldana, McMahan, Hafertepe Jr. DNQ Sammons, Aikin, Taylor, Ide

Heat 2 (8 laps) Kemenah, Meyers, S. Kinser, Wolfe, Barger, Michael. DNQ Smith, Helget, Shypinka, K. Kinser

Heat 3 (8 laps) Lasoski, Schatz, Dollansky, Lutar, Gregg, Suprick. DNQ Broderick, Cole, Zemken, Flach

Pole Dash (6 laps) Esh, Sides, Lasoski, S. Kinser, Dollansky, Gravel, Saldana, Meyers, Schatz, Kemenah

B-main (12 laps) 1 Kraig Kinser, 2 Davey Sammons, 3 Jimmy Broderick, 4 Ed Aikin, 5 John Smith, 6 Jack Helget. DNQ 7 Mark Ide 2 $200, 8 Mark Cole 6x $180, 9 Jay Shypinka 138 $175, 10 Jeff Taylor 17t $160, 11 Jessica Zemken 14, 12 Josh Flach 77 $150

A-main [start] 1 Doug Esh R19 [1] $10,000, 2 Steve Kinser 11 [4] $5500, 3 Donny Schatz 15 [9] $3200, 4 Jason Meyers 14 [8] $2800, 5 Craig Dollansky 7 [5] $2500, 6 Jason Sides 7s [2] $2300, 7 David Gravel 89g [6] $2200, 8 Joey Saldana 9 [7] $2100, 9 Danny Lasoski 6 [3] $2050, 10 Paul McMahan 91 [12] $2000, 11 Lucas Wolfe 5w [13] $1500, 12 Chad Kemenah 63 [10] $1200, 13 Sam Hafertepe Jr 15 [15] $1100, 14 Kraig Kinser 11k [11] $1050, 15 Ed Aikin 7x [18] $1000, 16 Justin Barger 32 [19] $900, 17 Ben Gregg 2b [17] $800, 18 John Smith 42 [23], 19 George Suprick 87 [20], 20 Toni Lutar 4x [14], 21 Jimmy Broderick 5 [22], 22 Davey Sammons 79 [21], 23 Jack Helget 71c [24], 24 Curt Michael 5g [16] $800. WoO 410w

Lap Leader: Esh 1-25