Donny Schatz, TSR Find Podium During WoO Jason Johnson Classic; Kokomo Ahead
Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / TONY STEWART RACING – BROWNSBURG, IN – In the final multi-destination weekend of the 2020 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season, Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing put together a consistent campaign, this time securing back-to-back top-ten performances including a podium run during the second edition of the Jason Johnson Classic at Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday, October 17.
Schatz, driver of the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing/Advance Professional/Carquest Auto Parts/Technet Professional Automotive Service/Ford Performance/Mobil 1/Sage Fruit/Curb Records/Absolute Automation & Security/Hunt Brothers Pizza/Digital Ally/J&J Auto Racing/No. 15 sprint car, was almost perfect during Lake Ozark’s Jason Johnson tribute. The ten-time World of Outlaws champion ignited his evening by recording the second fastest time during qualifying time trials, finishing second during heat race action soon thereafter. Schatz eventually finished third in the $15,000-to-win main event, bouncing ahead one spot while out dueling the likes of Aaron Reutzel, Sheldon Haudenschild and Kerry Madsen.
“It was a guessing game of what was going to happen when they redid the track there for the Feature,” Schatz said of Lake Ozark. “It got really fast on the top and kind of took everything away from the bottom. Kind of thought that’s where it was going to go, so that’s the direction we went. We tightened the car up and got laid over a little too much.”
In total, Schatz advanced seven feature positions during his Kansas/Missouri road trip, kicking things off with a rally from 14th to eighth during his Lakeside Speedway start on Friday, October 16. The Fargo, North Dakota-native earned his way into Lakeside’s feature program with a fourth-place result during his respective heat race.
Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing will continue their quest toward the 2020 World of Outlaws championship with a visit to Kokomo Speedway in Kokomo, Indiana, on Saturday, October 24. Schatz will enter Kokomo’s gates third in the Series driver championship chase trailing defending World of Outlaws champion and current point leader, Brad Sweet, by 82 markers. Mathematically speaking, Schatz is not out of the hunt for an 11th Series title.
San Jose, California’s Tim Kaeding manned the wheel of Tony Stewart’s familiar No. 14 during the two-day World of Outlaws swing through Kansas and Missouri and helped Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing double their success rate. Kaeding capped the two-race weekend with his own pair of top-ten results, headlining the weekend with a fourth-place run at Lakeside Speedway. The third-generation racer went on to finish seventh at Lake Ozark after starting 11th.
