FARGO, N.D. (October 7, 2024) – The 62nd Williams Grove National Open brought in a strong 58-car field to the legendary Williams Grove Speedway over the weekend. Friday night’s action was cut short just before the Dash as a thick fog rolled into Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, creating extremely dangerous on-track conditions.
The remainder of Friday’s program was rescheduled to Saturday afternoon, which resulted in a much racier surface, compared to Friday night’s fast and tacky track conditions. Starting 15th on the grid for the feature, Schatz wheeled his way up to a fifth-place finish.
A two-hour turnaround was all the teams were given to prepare for the National Open finale on Saturday night. While the boxscore will say Schatz went from 16th to 12th in the feature, there is much more to the story.
Schatz uncharacteristically slowed on the opening lap to bring out a yellow. He brought the Carquest / Ford Performance No. 15 to the work area to be attended to by his Tony Stewart Racing crew.
Scuba, Todd, and Dauson were able to look over and make repairs to the Ford-powered J&J and Schatz was able to tag the tail of the 28-car field for the restart.
Schatz used all 40 laps to work his way forward and salvage an impressive 12th place finish.
Schatz and the TSR team will now shift their focus to Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania for Saturday night’s Keystone Showdown. Schatz, who currently sits third in the Outlaw point standings, has one career win at Lincoln, which came on May 19, 2016.
Schatz and the entire Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team would like to thank all of their great partners for their continued support – Carquest Auto Parts, Advance Auto Parts, Curb Records, Ford Performance, Sage Fruit, Mobil 1, Absolute Automation & Security, J&J Auto Racing, Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts
2024 Stats:
Races: 63
Wins: 5
Top Fives: 31
Top Tens: 53