FARGO, N.D. (October 14, 2024) – Donny Schatz collected his sixth win of the season on Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania. The win was the second of his career at the track and was worth $20,000.
Schatz started seventh on the grid and took the lead after Sheldon Haudenschild got into the wall in turn three and went for a series of tumbles.
“Sheldon obviously was the class of the field all night,” Schatz said. “I can’t go up (on the cushion) and do that. He did an awesome job up there. It just bit him, and we capitalized on his misfortune, obviously.
The win for Schatz was his 315th with the World of Outlaws.
“This is huge. At this point in the game, it’s beyond confidence. We’re all confident in what we do. It’s just the results. This isn’t a game of I said I did this. It’s about putting it on paper and putting money in the bank. These guys work their tails off. The funny part is, I don’t think people realize that you have to work just as hard to run 14th as you do to win a race. So, hats off to them. It’s just an awesome night all around. Going out late (in qualifying), we didn’t know that we were going to have a great shot at getting qualified well, but we did. We got ourselves through that heat race after I made a mistake on the first lap. We just kept digging all night long, and sometimes that’s what it takes.”
After starting on the inside of row four, Schatz quickly made moves to put himself in the top five by the opening lap. From there, he drove by Tyler Ross on the lap 10 restart and by Buddy Kofoid on the lap 11 restart to move into third.
The race was plagued by several cautions which led to an open red on lap 16 of 35.
As the race resumed, Schatz went to work on Carson Macedo for second, driving by the Jason Johnson Racing No. 41 on the low side of the speedway on lap 19.
On lap 26, Haudenschild, who led the field running a treacherous line right up against the wall, got upside down in a big way in turns three and four to bring out the red and hand the lead over to Schatz.
Once out front, Schatz wasn’t contested as he led the final 10 laps to score the win.
“I was just trying to roll with what speed I had there,” Schatz explained. “Early in the race, I tried to stay down there, but there was just a little bit of moisture right up next to the wall. Your car gets really weird when you’ve got two tires on the edge of it and two in the slick. I guess I was just doing too much seesawing. I just tried to slow it down and keep it stuck, and it worked obviously.”
This weekend, the World of Outlaws head to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois for the first time in seven years. Schatz has won the previous two events at Route 66 with those wins coming in 2017 and 2005.
Schatz currently sits third in the standings, 158 points behind David Gravel.
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: 64
Wins: 6
Top Fives: 31
Top Tens: 53