Don’t pinch Chase Dietz. He doesn’t want to wake up from his dream 2026 season.
The York, PA native entered Williams Grove Speedway’s 64th J&S Classics National Open boasting a nation-leading 23 wins this year in 410 Sprint Car competition. But the trip to Victory Lane that came Saturday night was bigger than all the others.
The National Open is the race every Pennsylvanian grows up dreaming of winning. It’s the height of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, PA Posse rivalry. It’s more than six decades of history. It’s an unmatched atmosphere as fans flock to pack the historic 1/2 mile every fall. It’s beating the toughest field the “Keystone State” sees all year. And that’s exactly what Dietz and his Stehman Motorsports team did.
Huge heartbreak for Bill Balog helped pave the path to victory for Dietz. The “North Pole Nightmare” led the opening eight laps before an issue on the No. 17B caused him to slow from the lead. That gifted the top spot to Dietz, but the job was far from over as he had 32 laps to go and six-time National Open champion Donny Schatz in second.
Schatz stalked Dietz as the laps clicked away trying to find a way to reel him in as they navigated traffic. The CJB Motorsports No. 15 found a little speed on the bottom of Turns 3 and 4 as the checkered flag neared. He threw one final move in the final set of corners, but it wasn’t enough as Dietz stayed ahead and rolled to the finish line and brought the Posse fans to their feet. He did it. He’s forever a National Open champion.
“It’s incredible what we’ve been able to accomplish this year,” an emotional Dietz said. “To add this to it is amazing. I think I checked off every goal I wanted this year. I couldn’t do it without these guys. This is a dream come true. It seems like everything we thought about this year and what I thought about I wanted we were able to get. It takes a hell of a lot of work. It’s taken a long time to get to this point; I can tell you that right now. I got destroyed by these guys night after night for so long, even locally. You just have to keep at it.”
Dietz becomes the 37th different National Open champion through 64 runnings. He gave the Pennsylvania Posse bragging rights once again in the crown jewel after two consecutive World of Outlaws representatives winning with Carson Macedo (2024) and Sheldon Haudenschild (2025) coming out on top. The score came with a healthy $75,000 paycheck. Dietz is the ninth different multi-time winner with the tour in 2026 thanks to Saturday’s checkered flag and the one he earned in July at BAPS Motor Speedway.
Donny Schatz fell just one spot shy of a record-extending seventh National Open title. The Fargo, ND native has now finished runner-up five times to go along with his six triumphs.
“He (Dietz) had a torrid pace and did everything right there,” Schatz said. “It was all going to come down to what I did, and it was going to happen in (Turns) 3 and 4 there. I moved down and come across the bottom there and kind of let the car chalk up and go. We started to catch him there a little bit. Had I done that five or six laps sooner, maybe we’d be standing up there, but it is what it is.”
The final spot on the podium belonged to Justin Peck and Rudeen Racing for the second night in a row.
“Our race car was just really good all weekend,” Peck said. “We really didn’t change anything going into the start of the night. We felt like our package was pretty good when we were in clean air.”
David Gravel and Daryn Pittman completed the top five.
NIGHTLY NOTES
Buddy Kofoid set the Race//Ready Hottest Lap of the Night.
Chase Dietz clocked Simpson Quick Time in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
Heat Races belonged to Lance Dewease (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Bill Balog (TheGreatestStoreonDirt.com Heat Two), Daryn Pittman (WIX Filters Heat Three), and Donny Schatz (Golf Cart Services Heat Four).
The SPA Technique #1 Redraw went to Donny Schatz.
Bill Balog topped the Toyota Dash.
Brady Bacon won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
Buddy Kofoid earned the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.
Carson Macedo was the Tub O’ Towels Seventh Place Finisher.
Emerson Axsom was the Five Star Bodies Rookie of the Race.
Bill Balog laid down the ACME Trading Company Fast Lap.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race also went to Bill Balog.
UP NEXT: Sheldon Haudenschild’s NOS Energy Drink Buckeye Brawl Weekend takes the World of Outlaws to three Ohio tracks with visits to Millstream Speedway (Oct. 8), Mansfield Speedway (Oct. 9), and Sharon Speedway (Oct. 10). For tickets, CLICK HERE.
Where can you watch every World of Outlaws race? Live on DIRTVision.
Where can you see the World of Outlaws in 2026? Click to see the full schedule.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 23D-Chase Dietz[2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[3]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[7]; 4. 2-David Gravel[4]; 5. 69K-Daryn Pittman[6]; 6. 18-Sheldon Haudenschild[11]; 7. 41-Carson Macedo[19]; 8. 39M-Anthony Macri[18]; 9. 13-Tanner Holmes[13]; 10. 1S-Logan Schuchart[20]; 11. 83-Michael Kofoid[25]; 12. 10-Ryan Timms[8]; 13. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 14. 67G-Justin Whittall[10]; 15. 48-Danny Dietrich[26]; 16. 23-Garet Williamson[22]; 17. 8-Lance Dewease[5]; 18. 51-Steven Snyder Jr[24]; 19. 11A-Austin Bishop[9]; 20. 17-Spencer Bayston[23]; 21. 16C-Skylar Gee[27]; 22. 12-Brent Shearer[17]; 23. 17B-Bill Balog[1]; 24. 55-Brady Bacon[21]; 25. (DNF) 71-Logan Rumsey[15]; 26. (DNF) 19-Brent Marks[16]; 27. (DNF) 22-Doug Hammaker[28]; 28. (DNF) 66-Ryan Newton[12]
For complete results, CLICK HERE.
This article was republished with permission from the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. The original article can be found here: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/posse-power-dietzs-dream-season-continues-with-williams-grove-national-open-title/
0 Comments