Schatz Ends Kinser's Streak

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, NM (October 12, 2008) - Donny Schatz has accomplished quite a few things in his career with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, but one thing that was missing over the last 13 seasons was a clean sweep of a racing program with the series. Also, he had never won a race in the state of New Mexico.

He changed both of these on Sunday night, as he swept the World of Outlaws return to Hollywood Hills Speedway, to pick up his series leading 16th A-Feature win of the season.

Schatz, who began the night by setting fast time, won the first heat race, was victorious in the Crane Cams Dash and led all 30 laps of the A-Feature event to pick up $10,000. It was the 86th A-Feature triumph of his Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series career. He became just the second driver to win at Hollywood Hills Speedway, snapping 20-time series champion Steve Kinser’s win streak at the track at seven.

“We’re feeling really good right now,” said the winner with a smile. “It was a great night. We did everything right. We qualified good and I think that was the key to the whole night. The track was pretty trying. We were in the perfect spot. You can make some mistakes leading, but we did everything we needed to. The crew played with the race car and we found some things and that’s really what we needed on that type of track.”

Schatz led from the drop of the green flag in the Armor All J&J and quickly began to pull away from Terry McCarl who was running second. He was just about to get into lapped traffic when the first caution of the night flew on the sixth lap.

The ensuing restart saw Schatz dart to a comfortable lead over McCarl, who had his hands full with Jac Haudenschild. By the 10th lap, Schatz had a very comfortable lead as he entered traffic. Near the halfway point of the 30-lap event, Schatz continued to maneuver through the lapped machines.

With 10 laps remaining, he was bottled up by a couple of lapped car which gave McCarl and Haudenschild a slight chance to gain some ground on him. Once he cleared the lapped car, Schatz again powered his way to a very commanding lead as the laps wound down. When the checkered flag flew, the two-time defending series champion had won by over four seconds.

“They are always tough, especially when you only have one groove to race and everybody is fighting for the same real estate,” explained the North Dakota native of lapped traffic. “You just have to wait for guys to make mistakes. You don’t want to put yourself too close to somebody. I about ran into the back of a couple of guys and I have the best brakes there are. I wonder what kind of brakes they have. You have to be smart and not put yourself in trouble and that’s what we did in the feature.”

After starting the night by setting fast time in qualifying, Schatz found himself starting fourth in the first heat race. He gained two spot on the opening lap of that race to put himself in a spot to redraw for the Crane Cams Dash. On the last lap, he powered his way around Jason Meyers to pick up the win in the heat race and ultimately earn the right to choose first for the dash, where he would start third.

“We needed to be in the Top-two to be in the dash and that is just how I race,” noted the second generation driver. “People say, ‘Well you’re silly for trying that,’ but that’s me. There are days where doing that will come back and work to my advantage somewhere. That’s the way it works. Whatever that race car has, I’m going to get out of it.”

With the win, Schatz extended his lead the championship standings to 138 points over Jason Meyers with five events remaining as he chases his third consecutive title. He and his Tony Stewart Racing team continue to try different combinations as they build for the 2009 season.

“It’s all about next year now,” shared Schatz. “We’re just trying to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row and everything ordered. We know what we are doing, and we are enjoying this while we can. Hopefully we can go into the last weekend of the season with a championship and that is what our goal is.”

Jac Haudenschild started third and battled Terry McCarl for most of the race for the second spot, snaring the position on the 28th lap. The native of Wooster, Ohio got a run on McCarl on the high side of turn four and motored his way around him on the front straightaway to earn a runner-up finish in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim.

“The car felt good all night,” said Haudenschild. “We had a good start in the dash and ran second in the feature. We are happy with that.”

McCarl, who ran second for most of the race, finished third in the Big Game Treestands Maxim, to pick up his fourth consecutive Top-Five finish and eighth straight Top-10.

“It was a great run,” McCarl said. “We are really putting things together. I really screwed up in qualifying, so I owed it to the crew. We did a good job in that heat race getting up in the Top-Two and that kind of made the night for us. We were fast in the dash and fast in the heat. We were a little bit too tight in the feature. Jac (Haudenschild) was a little bit better than us. I didn’t think it would lay rubber as fast as it did. We just hung on and did the best we could. You can’t be too disappointed with a third.”

Steve Kinser, who had won the previous seven World of Outlaws events at Hollywood Hills Speedway, wound up fourth on Sunday night aboard the Q Oil Maxim to move into the third spot in points, one marker ahead of Joey Saldana.

Jason Meyers was fifth in the GLR Investments KPC to record his series best 45th Top-Five finish of the season.

Daryn Pittman was sixth in the Titan Garages Maxim, with Jason Martin in the Panhandle Oilfield Services Maxim in seventh. Chad Kemenah was eighth in the Kantor Oil Company Maxim, with Jason Sides just behind him in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim. Joey Saldana rounded out the Top-10 in the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI.

Haudenschild started each of the three races he took part in on Sunday night near the front of the field on a track that was very tough to pass on. In the A-Feature he had to negotiate a number of lapped machines as he kept pace with McCarl in a battle for the second spot.

“It was very important,” noted Haudenschild of starting position on Sunday night. “I started on the outside all night and the people on the outside didn’t get as good a run on the outside. Everybody kind of dropped in line and that is kind of where they finished. The lapped cars were definitely tough to get around.”

McCarl put himself in good position after charging from the sixth starting spot in the second heat to finish second, to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash. He was running fourth on the last lap of the heat race and got around Brooke Tatnell and Paul McMahan to snatch the all important second spot to earn the right to redraw for the dash.

“We started sixth and dropped back to seventh at the start,” shared McCarl of the second heat race. “We got the car good and it rolled around the bottom really nice. I was desperate, because I knew if we didn’t get in the Top-Two that we were in deep trouble. That shows you how good this team is right now. We are doing a good job and knocking those Top-Fives down.”

Since transferring ownership of his team a few weeks back to Tod Quiring, McCarl has been on a roll as he can focus solely on driving the car and not have to worry about the business side of the sport. He earned his first win of the season back on September 24 at Orange County Fair Speedway in New York.

“Tod (Quiring) has taken such a burden off of me,” note the six-time Knoxville Raceway and Huset’s Speedway track champion. “I can focus on driving now and it has changed my whole outlook on racing so much. I think the results are showing it. Tod and Lisa are great car owners.”

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action on Friday, October 17 at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, California.