INDIANAPOLIS (June 26, 2014) – With a grueling schedule of 92 nights of racing, the stars of the World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series tour rarely get time to catch their breath. That’s been a way of life Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Donny Schatz the last 18 years. The more he is at the track, the better. This weekend the series will max out their time with three races in three nights at tracks in Iowa and Wisconsin.
Schatz will lead the Outlaws into battle as they hit the dirt at 34 Raceway (Burlington, Iowa) Friday, Beaver Dam (Wis.) Speedway Saturday and Cedar Lake Speedway (Somerset, Wis.) Sunday. The five-time WoO STP Sprint Car Series champion and driver of the TSR No. 15 STP/Armor All/Crimsafe J&J currently holds the top position in the championship standings and is coming off his sixth victory of the season last Friday night at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D.
The three races conclude the month of June which has already seen the Outlaws compete in six different states and begins a stretch of eight consecutive weeks with three or more races each week.
The Fargo, N.D. racer is still seeking his first victory at 34 Raceway. The 3/8-mile, dirt oval has hosted the “The Greatest Show on Dirt” three times in the past. Second is the best finish for Schatz in Burlington. He finished sixth in 2008 and fourth last season, but his night in 2009 was his best at the track. After qualifying 11th, he raced from seventh into the lead in the 35-lap A-Feature. After leading 20 laps, Schatz lost the top spot on restart to Joey Saldana and wasn’t able to retake the top spot.
Finishing first in Wisconsin will be the next goal. Schatz has one victory at Beaver Dam and that came in July 2002. He scored consecutive wins at Cedar Lake winning in both 2008 and 2009. In 2013, he raced from 13th to fourth at Beaver Dam before a roller coaster of a night at Cedar Lake, which included him racing from fifth and nearly taking the lead to being collected in a crash with three lapped cars and then getting his car upside down later in the race. He would finish 18th.
The three races will mark nights 40, 41 and 42 of the 2014 WoO campaign. Consistency has allowed Schatz to remain on top of the standings. His six wins, a series-high 25 top-fives and 34 top-10s has helped him build a 27-point lead over Daryn Pittman.
For Friday’s event at 34 Raceway, the pit gates will open at 2 p.m. CDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For more details, visit www.34raceway.com.
For Saturday’s Jim Boyd Memorial at Beaver Dam Raceway, the pit gates will open at 2 p.m. CDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. For more details, call Beaver Dam Raceway at (920) 887-1600, or visit www.wismotorsports.net.
Sunday at Cedar Lake Speedway, the pit gates will open at 2 p.m. CDT with the grandstands opening at 4 p.m. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. For more details and ticket information, call the track at (866) 425-7386, or visit www.cedarlakespeedway.com.
Donny Schatz, Driver of the No. 15 TSR/STP/Armor All/Crimsafe J&J:
This weekend starts a pretty busy stretch of racing for you. Do you put goals out there for the next few weeks or is the plan just to continue winning races and keep getting better?
“We’ve been working on consistency lately. Our qualifying program has gotten better and we just have to keep our racing program at a high level. Winning is what we come out to do and we’ve gotten one in June so far and that’s not quite where we want to be. Last year was pretty stellar when you look at us winning 23 races. We have to get the speed picked up if we want to match that total. The big picture is always to have enough wins to challenge for a championship and be at our best during the biggest races. We’re gaining on it. We’ve had some really good runs lately and the guys all got to go home this week and recharge their batteries a little bit.”
Does anything standout about 34 Raceway, Beaver Dam or Cedar Lake that gives you some added confidence?
“We don’t usually have a whole lot of races in Iowa other than Knoxville, so we are looking forward to getting to Burlington. We’re still trying to get a win there and I know it feels like forever since we won at Beaver Dam. And Cedar Lake, we felt like we had a shot at winning last year and had a freak incident on a red flag. The good news is that each of those tracks have provided some good racing and as a driver that’s all you can ask for. It’s fun to go out and put on an exciting show and have the
fans tell you they had a great time. To me, that’s what it’s all about.”