BUFFALOTWP— It was the best against the best.

Lernerville Speedway's all-time Sprint car victory leader, Ed Lynch Jr., and World of Outlaws points leader Donny Schatz were the top two drivers over the final 30 laps of the 40-lap Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup XV race Tuesday night at the Sarver track.

In the end, the Outlaw got the best of the local guy.

Schatz passed Lynch on Turn 2 of the 34th lap and pulled away from there to take the checkered flag. Lynch held off Daryn Pittman for second.

Lynch started the race up front, alongside pole-sitter Joey Saldana, and darted into the lead on a first-lap restart. He led the race by nearly a straightaway for the first few laps, but Schatz, who started sixth, roared into the second spot by the 11th lap.

"I was getting slower in turns 1 and 2 (late in the race) and he was getting better all the way around,"Lynch said. "He knew I was getting slower in Turn 2. He knew where to get me."

Schatz gained ground on Lynch through lapped traffic, but he struggled to get around the veteran driver from Apollo.

"I was glad I wasn't out front,"Schatz said. "Where to go on this track ... I really didn't know. Sometimes it's better to run second."

But Schatz eventually sped past Saldana, Terry McCarl and Pittman, all of whom started in front of him.

"But getting around Lynch was a chore,"Schatz admitted.

Pittman, who felt he had a car hooked up well enough to win the race, threatened to overtake Lynch a few times in the latter laps, but he never did.

"I'm disappointed because I didn't get around Ed for second," he said. "But he's tough to beat."

Schatz won his eighth Outlaws feature of the season and his first career Silver Cup race, taking home the $30,000 winner's purse.

Lynch was bidding for his second Outlaws win of his career. He won the Silver Cup event in 2002.

The driver of the No. 2Lhad the sixth-fastest qualifying time, finished second to Bob Felmlee in his heat race, second to Saldana in the Fast Dash — and had to settle for second to Schatz in the feature.

"He was better. ... He was the better car,"Lynch said of Schatz. "We were close, but Donny was there at the end of the race."

Schatz had the fastest qualifying time during time trials at 13.049 seconds, or 121.653 miles per hour.

Saldana won two Outlaws races over the weekend, giving him six victories for the season, before earning the pole for the Silver Cup.

He finished a distant sixth, however.

"All we want to do is put on a good race for the fans,"Saldana said. "We want to get them to come back. Without the fans, we can't race.

"This is such a big race. You don't want to screw up one of these. You don't get these opportunities very often."

Notes:There were 39 cars in the pits, though local drivers Cory Good and Scott Bonnell called it a night before their heat race. ... The feature had four restarts and one red light. Chad Kemenah, the leading candidate for Outlaws Rookie of the Year, flipped his car in Turn 1 on the 22nd lap, but was unhurt. ... Saldana continues to hold the fast lap record of 12.334 seconds at Lernerville, which he set in May of 2002. ... Only two drivers in the 26-car field for the feature — Lynch and Stevie Smith — had ever won a Silver Cup race.