Heading into the 2009 season, only four drivers in the history of the World of Outlaws had won at least 100 career A-Feature events. Donny Schatz added his name to this illustrious list on Saturday night in his home state of North Dakota, picking up the monumental win at Dacotah Speedway in Mandan, to join Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Doug Wolfgang and Mark Kinser as the only drivers to accomplish this feat in the 31-plus year history of the series.
Schatz took the lead from Danny Lasoski on the 23rd lap coming off the fourth turn and would pace the field for the remainder of the 35-lap contest to pick up his 12th win of 2009. It was his first career win at Dacotah Speedway in his second start at the high-banked 3/8-mile.
“This is pretty big,” said Schatz. “I’m lucky to get one win, let alone 100. I’ve been blessed to be around great people. My family helped start this all. Thanks to all of you great fans for being here tonight. This is pretty cool. I never thought I would get to this point, but I’m here and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”
For Schatz, it was his second win of the 2009 season in his home state, with the other coming at River Cities Speedway back in June. In his career, the native of Minot who now calls Fargo home has won four times in North Dakota. The win also helped him extend his lead in the series championship standings as he chases his fourth consecutive title aboard the Armor All J&J.
“You guys supported me when I was hitting everything in sight back in the day and here we are winning races,” shared the Schatz in Victory Lane. “This feels pretty good. This sort of puts a sore spot in my mouth, because the only place I haven’t won yet is my home town of Minot (Nodak Speedway). North Dakota has been very good to me. This was just a great race tonight. My car got better and better and better as the race went on. I was just lucky to get Danny (Lasoski) when I did. They did a great job with the track tonight and it was racy. There was one point that we were about to go four-wide for the lead and I thought this cannot be happening. I’m just glad to come out on the right end.”
Schatz picked up his first career win with the World of Outlaws at Cottage Grove Speedway, which was at the time called Riverside Speedway on August 24, 1998. He vividly recalls that day when he picked up that win over three Hall of Famers, with Jac Haudenschild finishing second, Sammy Swindell third and Steve Kinser fourth. Over the last 11-plus seasons, Schatz has now won A-Feature events at 50 different tracks with the World of Outlaws.
“I certainly remember that one,” he said with a smile. “It was at Cottage Grove Speedway. Steve (Kinser) and Sammy (Swindell) were up there racing pretty hard and I didn’t think I was going to be able to get them. Those two ran in there and weren’t going to give an inch and they kind of bumped and slowed down for a second and the next thing that you know I was leading. I was glad to get one and I’ll probably remember this one more than I remember that one.”
The race began on Saturday night with Sam Hafertepe Jr. leading the field into turn one, with Danny Lasoski blasting around him in turn two to take the top spot. Jason Meyers moved into second at this point, with Hafertepe retaking that spot by the time the pair got back to the start/finish line.
Schatz, who started fifth and Meyers who started third, would trade the third spot a number of times in the early going. Lasoski began to pull away at this point as he neared lapped traffic. Joey Saldana had just worked his way into third on the fourth lap went off the track on the back straightaway, but kept the car rolling and came back on the track and rejoined the field in the eighth spot.
Hafertepe began to gain some ground on Lasoski in heavy traffic on the seventh lap along with Myers. Meyers took the second spot on the ninth lap, but that lap was negated by a caution.
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