Donny Schatz Finishes A Close Second During 2018 Knoxville Nationals
Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / TONY STEWART RACING – BROWNSBURG, IN – Nearly attaining an 11th Knoxville Nationals championship on Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway, Fargo, North Dakota’s Donny Schatz ended his weekend in the Hawkeye State one position short, ultimately missing sprint car racing’s highest honor and the $150,000 top prize that accompanies it by less than a car length.
Schatz, who has won ten out of the last 13 Knoxville Nationals championships, battled within a podium position during the first 47 circuits of the crown jewel event before getting a big break in the form of a caution with two laps remaining. Although the restart seemed promising, pounding the cushion as race leader, Brad Sweet, worked the bottom, Schatz could not prevail, forced to chase the Grass Valley, Calif., native to the final checkers.
The final margin of victory for Brad Sweet was .133 seconds; the second closest in Knoxville Nationals history.
“We were good tonight, but not good enough,” Donny Schatz explained after his A-main performance, driver of the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing/Textron Off Road/Ford Performance/Curb Records/Sage Fruit/No. 15 sprint car. “I knew we were going to be good late. We were just forced to go where Brad (Sweet) wasn’t. He proved to be very good on the bottom. Congratulations to him and his team. They deserve this. We’ll come back and try again next year.”
Donny Schatz kicked-off his 2018 Knoxville Nationals campaign with a fifth place finish during preliminary competition on Wednesday evening, August 8. Although forced to compete in the evening’s consolation B-main after failing to transfer through his respective heat race, Schatz rebounded in a big way, eventually transferring through the 12-lap B-main before rallying from 21st on the A-main grid to finish fifth. The impressive display was enough to lock Schatz in Saturday’s A-main.
Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart Racing will continue their 2018 World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series campaign with a trip North Dakota, ready to invade two tracks in two days on Friday and Saturday, August 17 & 18. The Greatest Show On Dirt will kick-off the weekend on Friday evening with a visit to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, followed by a stop at Red River Valley Speedway on Saturday.
Still on top of the World of Outlaws championship standings, Schatz will enter the weekend with 15 Series victories on the season, also accumulating 45 top-ten finishes in 47 World of Outlaws main event stars.
The River Cities Speedway visit on Friday will be the second of two in 2018 for the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series. Schatz won the River Cities event contested in June, his eleventh victory of the season at the time, holding off Brad Sweet and Kerry Madsen at the flagstand.
