By T.J. Buffenbarger
(August 12, 2025) — After 18 seasons it was announced Tuesday that Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart Racing would not continue working together on the World of Outlaws tour for 2025. Here are some takeaways from the breakup of one of the most successful sprint car team/driver combinations of all time.
Here are my takeaways from the Schatz/TSR situation….
• According to Jeremy Elliott from SprintCarUnlimited.com Schatz said he was let go from driving duties at Tony Stewart Racing. There have been some whispers of Schatz and TSR being finished after the Knoxville Nationals, but some of that chatter had subsided leading into the event.
I believe everyone thought TSR and Schatz would have some performance drop off while developing the Ford engine package for several years, but that drop off turned into a cliff since 2020.
Most full-time sprint car teams nationally would be happy with 5-8 feature wins per season that the TSR/Schatz combination produced since then, but when you are a team that racked up double digit wins every year before that, some seasons in the 20 or more range, it had to be difficult for both parties to have a drop that significant in success.
The key moment in all of this was this past year when TSR made major crew changes on the 15 entry.
Upon reading this I felt this was the kind of change that would have to spark the success of Schatz at TSR or there would be a change. With no feature wins this season, that change sparked a fire on Tuesday when the sprint car world learned of Schatz and TSR splitting up.
The surprised feeling I had from the breakup has more to do with how long the team was together than their performance this past year.
• Nothing was stated in Tony Stewart Racing about finding a driver beyond the 2025 season, which could fuel speculation on what the future might be for their World of Outlaws program.
Even though the release from TSR does talk about preparing for 2026, TSR’s presence at the short track open wheel level at one time had entries in USAC, the World of Outlaws, along with some side quest efforts such as Stewart’s personal TQ Midget entries.
Stewart now has a two car NHRA effort with a top fuel dragster and funny car and the World of Outlaws effort was the last national level open wheel team left at Tony Stewart Racing in 2025. With Stewart’s newfound interest in NHRA the past several seasons it does open speculation about if TSR has a future in sprint car racing at the National level.
Hypothetically, if TSR decided to step away from sprint car competition at the national level, we owe Stewart and all the people that have worked for the team a debt of gratitude. Car owners that have been around that long in the sport are few and far between. The majority of the owners that accomplish this end up enshrined in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum.
I have no inside information on what the future might hold for TSR, so consider this a preemptive thank you to that organization. Knowing how competitive both Stewart and Schatz are, I have a feeling neither side will want to exit on this note.
• I don’t expect Donny Schatz to stay on the sidelines long. Schatz is still good enough that he will receive phone calls.
Even though Schatz has more races behind him than in front of him, we saw on Saturday what he is capable of when highly motivated.
Plenty of speculation was going around when Schatz tested a car for Guy Forbrook at Knoxville Raceway a month ago.
I think this scenario is the least likely to happen, but If I’m Brad Sweet, I’d make a call to Schatz and his car owner Kasey Kahne to do something with the #9 entry. It would be huge for High Limit Racing to gain someone like Schatz even towards the tail end of their career.
When Schatz decides where he will land, I hope he ends up with a crew chief that will tell him what he doesn’t want to hear at times about the race car. If a car owner can find that right combination of crew chief that can convince Schatz to trust what they do the car and for Schatz to drive it as expected, there are plenty of wins left on the table.
The question does become at this point in Schatz’s career do we see him commit to an entire tour or just pick and choose where he wants to race? I think both are viable options depending on the opportunity.
• While the Knoxville Nationals did not turn out as hoped for Kerry Madsen, he has shown a lot of speed everywhere he has been this season in the #55 car. Madsen’s last stint at TSR while they were developing the Ford engine with the #14 entry was exciting. It did have some destructive moments, but Madsen showed plenty of speed back then. I could see the same thing happening this time around.