Five-Time Series Champion Leads Outlaws Back to North Dakota, Minnesota

By Bill Klingbeil

tsrs

INDIANAPOLIS (June 20, 2013) – Its old-home week for five-time and reigning World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz and, as the old saying goes, “there is nothing better than going home.” For Schatz, things may be even better.

The Tony Stewart Racing driver returns to his home state of North Dakota on a two-race winning streak behind wheel of the TSR No. 15 STP/Armor All/Chevrolet Performance J&J and his past success at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, site of Friday’s Outlaw event, points to Schatz being one of the favorites to win his third consecutive WoO event. The Outlaw stars will follow Friday’s battle at River Cities with their inaugural race at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn., which is only an hour from Fargo, where Schatz calls home.

Schatz will be joined as favorite by his TSR teammate, 20-time WoO STP Sprint Car Series champion Steve Kinser, based on Kinser’s impressive results at River Cities the last three seasons. “The King of the Outlaws” has won more than 50 inaugural WoO races at dirt tracks across America during his illustrious career. Kinser won the Outlaws’ first-ever race at El Paso (Texas) Speedway earlier this year in the TSR No. 11 Bad Boy Buggies/J.D. Byrider/Chevrolet Performance Maxim and has been a TSR winner in Grand Forks both in 2010 and 2011.

Schatz enters the weekend following wins at Jackson (Minn.) Speedway last Friday and at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway Saturday. He became the second series driver in consecutive weeks to sweep a weekend of Outlaw races. Two weeks ago, Craig Dollansky pulled off back-to-back wins, and Schatz followed suit last week. No driver has won three consecutive races in the 2013 campaign.  Following last weekend’s consecutive wins, Schatz has now won at least two races in a row in five of his first six seasons driving for TSR.

Many have called the high-banked, 3/10-mile dirt oval in Grand Forks one of the raciest tracks the Outlaws compete at all season. Since their first stop at the track in June 2007, all 11 40-lap A-Features have been thrillers to the end. Schatz won consecutive A-Features in June 2008 and 2009, while Kinser won in June 2010 and August 2011. Schatz has finished inside the top-four in nine of those events and had an epic battle with Kinser in August 2011, when the two exchanged the lead nine times during the final eight laps. Last season, Kinser led 21 laps before finishing second in the June race. Last August, Kinser, Schatz and Sammy Swindell were involved in a terrific three-way battle for the lead through the early portion of the race.

Through 33 races, Schatz leads the series with seven A-Feature wins and has earned 17 top-five and 26 top-10s. He ranks second in the WoO championship standings and trails leader Daryn Pittman by 137 markers. Kinser ranks 10th and has earned one win, two top-fives and nine top-10s this season.

 

Both of this weekend’s WoO STP Sprint Car Series races are being put on by the SLS Promotions group. More information and ticket details are available by contacting SLS Promotions at (815) 344-2023 or by visiting www.SLSPromotions.com.

Race fans unable to attend this weekend’s events can catch all of the action on DIRTVision.com. Fans can listen live as Johnny Gibson, “Voice of the Outlaws,” calls the action as he does at all WoO STP Sprint Car Series events on the DIRTVision.com cybercast, as well as on the DIRT Radio Network. Go to www.DIRTVision.com for more information on all the site features, including live results from the track.

 

Steve Kinser, Driver of the No. 11 TSR/Bad Boy Buggies/J.D. Byrider/Chevrolet Performance Maxim:

 

Any time you get the chance to race in Grand Forks, it has to get you excited. Why have the races at River Cities Speedway been so competitive?

 

“It’s a great track and the people up there are really committed to putting on a good show. Don Mack got us to come up there in 2006, when we were doing the National Sprint Tour, and we had two really good shows. The following year, we went back there with the Outlaws and have been going back every year since. The track is always in really good shape and allows for a couple of grooves of racing. It’s fast around the top and then you also have to be able work the middle and the bottom. We’ve had some really good races there the past few years. Donny and I had a really good race a couple of years back and then, last June, Kraig (Kinser) came through there and drove by both of us to get the win. We had a little bad luck there last August going for the lead and ended up over the edge. I’m really looking forward to getting back up there this weekend.”
Saturday’s event will be your first time at I-94. You’ve been incredibly successful at tracks you’ve visited for the first time. Is there a secret to being the first driver to win at a particular track?

 

“I don’t know. I think I’ve said this before but, the reason we’ve won so many of the first races at places is because we’ve been to so many. I’ve always had a really strong crew and they do a great job of figuring out the best setup for the car. We’ve been struggling to get going this year, but we’re hoping this will be another good opportunity for us. We won our heat last weekend in Knoxville and ran the dash, so that’s a step in the right direction. Our goal is to build on that a little this weekend. Grand Forks has been a really good place for us and, if we can be the first team to figure out the fastest way around I-94, that would be a good thing, too.”

 

Donny Schatz, Driver of the No. 15 TSR/STP/Armor All/Chevrolet Performance J&J:

 

You head back home coming off a weekend sweep. How much does it help you to have some momentum coming back to tracks near home?

 

“It’s always good to be winning. And then to come home and race in front of lot of familiar faces, that makes it even better. I probably didn’t handle the pressure of racing in front of friends and family that well early in my career. There are a lot of distractions, so keeping focused on each task at hand is the most important thing. I’m even trying something else this weekend by racing my Dirt Late Model in Grand Forks the same night as we are racing with the World of Outlaws. The World of Outlaws race is the reason we are there, but we’ve ran the Dirt Late Model a few times around home, and we thought it might be fun to give the fans close to home something else to have fun with. The bottom line is that we haven’t won a World of Outlaws race in Grand Forks in a couple of seasons and we need to make that happen Friday. It’s great having a two-race winning streak but, getting it to three with a win in my home state would be something to really get excited about.”

 

Speaking of racing near home, Saturday’s race at I-94 Speedway is within an hour of your house but you haven’t been there for a long time. What sort of challenges will you have at I-94?

 

“Yeah, I think the last time I was there might have been 1994. That’s a long time ago, for sure. It sounds like are expecting a big crowd and, hopefully, we can put on a great show. As far as challenges go, it’ll be just like going to a new track. You have to keep a really close eye on the dirt surface. Figuring out what it’s going to do is probably one of the hardest parts – where is the fast line going to be by the end of the night and how do I get my car working there best. That’s one of the things that really makes racing with the World of Outlaws special. We race at so many places and there are so many variables at every race. It takes a total team effort to consistently be racing for wins no matter the size, shape or location of a particular track. We’re having fun right now and we’re looking forward to the challenge of Saturday night.”

 

About Armored AutoGroup

 

Armored AutoGroup Inc., headquartered in Danbury, Conn., is primarily comprised of the Armor All®, STP® and Tuff Stuff® brands. The current Armor All product line of protectants, wipes, tire and wheel care products, glass cleaners, leather care products and car washes are designed to clean, shine and protect interior and exterior automobile surfaces. The STP product line of fuel and oil additives, functional fluids and automotive appearance products have a broad customer base ranging from professional racers to car enthusiasts and “Do-it-Yourselfers”. Tuff Stuff cleaning products are formulated to tackle the toughest jobs.
Armored AutoGroup has a diversified geographic footprint with direct operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and the U.K. and distributor relationships in approximately 50 countries. For more information, please visit www.armorall.com and www.stp.com.

 

About Bad Boy Buggies
Bad Boy Buggies is a leader in off-road utility vehicles for hunting and outdoor lifestyles. Bad Boy Buggies pioneered the category of electrically powered 4×4 vehicles, ideal for hunting and outdoor recreation due to their silent, odorless operation and environmentally friendly, emissions-free drivetrains.

 

Today, the Bad Boy Buggies product line ranges from four-wheel-drive electric hunting machines such as the Recoil, a fully electric, 4WD vehicle with an innovative, highly efficient 72-volt AC electric drivetrain, to the Work Series of diesel and gas-powered utility vehicles, including the Bad Boy Buggies XD, a versatile 4WD, diesel-powered utility vehicle with a total capacity of 1,600 pounds. In 2010, the Bad Boy Buggies brand and product line were acquired by E-Z-GO, a business unit of Textron Inc.

 

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