ParkerStore Crew Chief earns award

Swank earns 2004 WOO Crew Chief of the Year

Las Vegas, NV - Tyler Swank had always hoped to be a crew chief on the World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Series Tour. Since joining the ParkerStore team in Septebmer of 2002, Swank and driver, Donny Schatz, have been a tough combination winning 21 World of Outlaws Sprint Series feature events in just over two seasons together. On Sunday night, Swank was recognized for his efforts by being named 2004 Crew Chief of the Year at the annual season ending WoO Awards banquet.

"It's really a great honor and I can honestly say that 14 other guys out here deserve this award just as much as me," said Swank, who ended his tenure as Crew Chief on the ParkerStore #15 J&J on Saturday night in victory lane at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. "I really have to thank Danny and Diane (Schatz) for giving me the chance. Any time you have Donny Schatz driving your car things are going to look really good. We had a great run together and this is the perfect way to cap it."

After an earlier stint in the World of Outlaws series as a crewman for the DOCC Motorsports team from 1999 - 2001, Swank returned to the road full-time late in the 2002 WoO season joining the ParkerStore team. In 2003, Swank helped Schatz win a career-high 12 WoO feature races. This season the team had one their most consistent seasons ever, but only had one checkered flag under their belts when the season reached September.

The final two months of the 2004 season pushed Swank into the forefront as he and Schatz won 8 races in their final 22 starts including sweeping the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway (CA), the 1/3-Mile Short Track Nationals at Eagle Raceway and dominating the $30,000-to-win Williams Grove National Open.

"Tyler really deserved to be recognized for the job he did and I'm really happy for him," said Schatz, who finished third in the final 2004 WoO standings. "When he came to our team, we just wanted to get better and better. We did that in a lot of ways and I'm going to miss working with with him. He's got some important things to do in his life and now is the time for him to do them."

Swank, who is a native of Newton, IA, is planning on moving to Lincoln, NE, to be closer to his fiancee, Mary. He hopes to continue racing in some capacity and with his fun-loving personality, he'll certainly be missed on the tour.

-www.donnyschatz.com