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More stunning news rocked the Central Pennsylvania Sprint Car landscape Sunday morning, as the PA Posse Dream Team of Lance Dewease and car owner Don Kreitz Jr. announced they’ve parted ways.
The split between the National Sprint Car Hall of Famers is Kreitz’s decision — “This is not Lance’s fault. This is on me,” the owner of the No. 69K told FloRacing — and a separation that comes down to the team struggling to progress with Hoosier’s new rear tires that debuted in March.
“We could not get the feel he was looking for in the cars,” Kreitz said. “We have struggled a little bit with the new tires compared to the old tires we had with our setups. We couldn’t figure it out and get comfortable. It didn’t seem like it was getting any better. I didn’t know what to do. It’s been awhile. I’m sure Lance isn’t that happy with me, but in a few weeks from now, or a month from now, he’ll probably thank me. He’ll end up getting in a good car.
“It wasn’t working for us anymore,” Kreitz added. “I thought it was better while it was still friendly and everything. I thought it was the right time to do it.”
Dewease and Kreitz tallied 71 wins in nearly 300 races in their highly successful partnership that began in 2016. They finished 13th and 19th in their final races together on Friday and Saturday at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
The 57-year-old driver of Fayetteville, Pa., “was pretty caught off guard” when Kreitz relieved him of his driving duties on Sunday morning.
“He called me this morning and basically thought we should go our different ways,” Dewease said. He thanked me and I’m assuming they must not be happy with my performance. That’s their right. That’s their prerogative to do that as an owner. And we’ll move on.”
Kreitz and Dewease are both far from hanging up their endeavors. Dewease is actively pursuing his next opportunity, which could come as soon as this Saturday’s Dream race and twin $25-lap, $10,000-to-win features at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway with an undisclosed team.
“We’re working on some things right now to try and get a car, find something for me to race next Saturday in the Dream race at Port Royal,” Dewease said. “It’s all happening quick. It’s a matter of what we can figured out and worked out. I have some pretty good backers as far as friends who back me. That helps. It’s going to be interesting. We’re talking to some people to see what we can work out.”
Dewease recently climbed aboard the No. 39M Macri Motorsports ride for the Eldora Million and Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway. Macri Motorsports recently announced that California native Justin Sanders would be driving the car for upcoming events.
As for Kreitz and the No. 69K team, he’ll field applicants these next two to three days with hopes to reveal his next driver — or drivers by committee, “depending on what’s best for the team” — by Wednesday evening.
“We’ll see who contacts us and make the best decision we can,” Kreitz said. “Whoever contacts us, contacts us. If somebody is interested in driving the car, they’re not going to wait two weeks to contact us. We’re going to have to pick from whoever we have to pick from. … I’m looking for whoever is going to be the best for the team.
“Honestly, we don’t have any boundaries. … It could be a younger guy, but naturally, it’s probably going to be a seasoned driver because we’re not going to start totally all the way over with someone who hasn’t been racing,” Kreitz added. “It has to be somebody here toward the end of the year that’s capable of getting the job done off the bat.”
Dewease is thankful for his time with Kreitz. When the two converged with legendary crew chief Davey Brown seven years ago, Dewease was at one of the lowest points in his career, having won only a single WoO feature from 2011 through ’15.
With Kreitz, he won nine WoO features, including the 2018 and ’22 Williams Grove National Open.
“We had a very good seven years,” Dewease said. “This year hasn’t been as good up to our standards, but we still managed to win (the $29,000 Weikert Memorial) at Port Royal and two at the Grove. Our level and standards are a little different than most. They felt that I wasn’t the one to keep it there.
“We won our fair share every year,” he added. “This year, nothing has changed except for tires. That seemed to hurt us. That seemed to hurt us maybe more than other people. Other people, it seemed to help. There are other cars it hurt. We couldn’t get the handle of it of how I like it or what they like to do. That’s a part of it and part of racing.”
Dewease is keeping virtually all his options open at the moment. In a perfect world, he’d love a 35- to 40-race deal built around bigger events in Central PA with the leeway to travel some around the country.
But “that’s the perfect world we don’t live in,” said Dewease, who truly doesn’t know what his future holds other than this isn’t the end of his prolific Sprint Car career.
“We don’t live in a perfect world. If I find a deal (where) I have to race a little more, that’s what I have to do,” Dewease said. “I could race more with what we do, easily. But rides are hard to come by. They aren’t the easiest thing to get. I’m not looking to go out on the road either. Local rides are very hard. We’ll have to see what comes available, or is available, and go from there.
“There’s a few people that reached out to me that are trying hard to put something together,” he added. “We’ll see. It’s going to be hard. It’s short notice. I’m a realist. It’s going to be hard for me to show up and win in anything.”
In the final analysis, Kreitz thought 27 races this season with he and Dewease is enough to realize the duo’s trajectory no longer trends upward. It’ll go down as one of auto racing’s iconic pairings that ran its dominant course.
“Unfortunately this stuff happens. Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus (split). Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham (split),” Kreitz said. “Not that Lance has done anything wrong. … He’s been really good for the team. He’s helped build the team up. I wasn’t seeing stuff where I thought we were going in a positive direction.
“Again, that’s on me. I’ll take the blame for that. It’s all about people and how you mesh. We did have magic in the beginning. … I just felt it was time for a change.”
Article from Flo. Good read.
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