FARGO, N.D. (August 14, 2024) – The 63rd annual NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals have come and gone and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series points race continues this weekend at Jackson Motorplex for the $25,000-to-win Jackson Nationals.
Donny Schatz enters the weekend sitting second in the standings, 98 points behind leader David Gravel. Schatz says he’s looking forward to a return to his home region after a challenging week at Knoxville.
“It’s been a busy three weeks, racing four and five days a week. To get back to the upper Midwest and some places I really like – Jackson, Huset’s, Fargo, Grand Forks – yeah I’m looking forward to it,” said Schatz. “To be close to home and see a lot of hometown fans, to get to be around the girls (his nieces Amelia and Laela Eisenschenk) and see them race a little bit, it’ll be a nice change of pace.
“Things kind of settle down now after Knoxville as the year begins to wind down a bit and we can get back to focusing on winning a championship.”
Schatz has seven career wins at Jackson Motorplex. Four came with the WISSOTA Championship 360 Sprint Cars in the late 1990s, and three have been with the World of Outlaws, including his Jackson Nationals title in 2018. Overall six of those wins have come on the old half-mile configuration, with the 2018 win coming on the newer three-eighths mile.
Over his last four starts at Jackson, Schatz has four top 10 finishes and two podiums. In 27 World of Outlaws starts at Jackson, Schatz has an average finish of 6.1.
Schatz is coming off a Knoxville Nationals where he finished outside of a podium position for just the fourth time in the last 24 years. Schatz and his crew battled all week long after a bad pill draw on Wednesday which led to a poor qualifying lap.
The 11-time Knoxville Nationals champion came back for Hard Knox Night on Friday and won to earn the 21st starting position in Saturday’s championship A-main. Schatz battled all 50 laps and came home 13th, right behind World of Outlaws point leader David Gravel.
“We’ve had a great run over the years with consistency, podiums and good finishes. This just wasn’t one,” Schatz stated. “It was a tough week. We got ourselves buried starting on Wednesday night. It didn’t look like we were going to get into the show. We got into the show and tried to do what we could to go forward. We went forward a little bit, but not far enough. The race track was pretty tough. With the conditions not being as hot as it normally is, the race track just didn’t slow down enough. We did what we could. Somedays that’s all you can do. It wasn’t like we left anything on the table. We just have nothing to show for it.”
Schatz advanced two positions during the first 25 laps of the 50-lap A-main, but said the team’s options were limited with what they could do during the three-minute break at halfway.
“I knew we were in trouble,” said Schatz. “I was having trouble getting off the corner – the same thing I’ve had trouble with here the last three times we’ve run. I knew that was nothing that was going to change. That’s something motor-related where we need to figure out how to get something to accelerate a little more. We changed shocks, put tires on it, and filled it full of fuel. We kind of just made minor adjustments. You really don’t have a whole lot of time to make a bunch of wholesale changes.
“We were a little bit more respectable after that,” Schatz continued. “At the end of the race, I could float through the middle. That’s really the only thing I could do. I couldn’t make the bottom or the top work. All in all, I guess it was a great Nationals. We dug out of a hole and had some pretty decent runs there this week. We’ll have to wait until next year to get another one.”