Donny Schatz Sets Pace At Sedalia’s State Fair Speedway
Show your support.
Buzz this article up.
Jun 12, 2008
Sedalia, MO— As a warm-up for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event at Sedalia’s State Fair Speedway, Donny Schatz took part in a celebrity modified race to benefit the Michael Ross Memorial Foundation, filling in for his car owner Tony Stewart. While it was Schatz’s first time ever in a modified, that did not slow him down as he held off NASCAR star Clint Bowyer for the win. He followed that up by winning a thrilling dual with Joey Saldana to pick up his third consecutive victory with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and his fifth triumph in the last six races.
After battling Joey Saldana for several laps, Schatz dove underneath him exiting the second turn on the 22nd lap in heavy lapped traffic to make the pass for the lead and ultimately the $10,000 win in the Ditzfeld Transfer Summer Nationals at the historic half-mile. It was the 76th career A-Feature win for the North Dakota native with the World of Outlaws and his second at Sedalia.
“It was a great night,” said Schatz. “It was a lot of fun to be able to run that modified. I had a lot of fun. Tony (Stewart) was supposed to drive it and couldn’t be here, so they asked me to drive it in his place. It took a little getting used to. I think Clint Bowyer was a little faster, but it was a short race. We started fifth and got our way to the front. I had a lot of fun.”
Schatz began the night by turning in the second-fastest lap in time trials aboard the Armor All J&J. He was atop the leader board for most of the session before being knocked off by Meyers with just a couple of cars remaining. After a strong run in the second heat race he earned a spot in the Crane Cams Dash where he finished sixth to earn a third-row starting spot in the 25-lap A-Feature.
“My guys worked awfully hard tonight and they got the right amount of Armor All on the car,” he said with a smile. “I learned a lot driving that modified. I ran the hot laps and they ran the dash for the sprint car, and then had some more laps in the modified feature before the sprint car feature.”
Schatz has won three consecutive Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws events and now leads the series with six A-Feature wins as he chases his third consecutive title. He remains the only driver that has finished in the Top-10 of every event this season, a streak that now is at 18 races.
“We try to win every night out,” he pointed out. “Right now we are not playing around, we are on top of our program. The crew is fine tuning the little things they need to fine tune and they are doing one hell of a job. They always do a great job, but it’s more fun when you can show your appreciation with wins like we have been the last five or so races.”
The event on Wednesday night was very reminiscent of the battle that Schatz and Saldana had last Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway, where Schatz also came out on top in traffic late in the race. The two drivers sliced through traffic lap after lap as they chased each other for the top prize at Sedalia.
“It’s a lot fun,” Schatz said of the close racing. “This one and the one at Knoxville were certainly door bangers. It came down to the last couple of laps and he was good and we had a good car. We had to race in traffic and that is the fun part. We’re glad to be in that position and those guys are running pretty consistent. We have to keep our game up and worry about what is going on with this (No.) 15 Armor All car.”
Saldana led laps 17-21 on Wednesday night as he again nearly picked up his first win of the season. He has 15 Top-10 finishes with 10 of those being in the Top-Five. He quickly charged to the second position on the opening lap of the race and set his sights on Craig Dollansky who started on the pole and led the first 16 laps of the race. Saldana looked low on Dollansky on the third lap for lead through the first and second turns.
At the same time, Jason Meyers moved into fourth with Schatz, who started sixth just behind him. After the only yellow flag of the night flew four laps into the event, Saldana again tried to dive under Dollansky for the lead exiting the second turn on the restart.
Dollansky would pull away in open race track, with Saldana, Meyers, Schatz and Kraig Kinser chasing him.
Once the leader entered heavy traffic around the halfway point of the race, that allowed Saldana, Meyers and Schatz to really close in on Dollansky. While in traffic, Saldana took the lead on the 17th lap as he and Schatz shot around Dollansky who was held up by a slower machine.
