Schatz New Egypt Speedway report

NEW EGYPT, NJ - When the Pennzoil World of Outlaws kicked off their annual "Month of Money" tens days ago, everyone knew Mark Kinser was going to be someone all the drivers had to deal with. In the last five days, Donny Schatz and his ParkerStores team have served noticed that they're also legitimate contenders to capture the two biggest paydays of the season. Schatz continued his scorching pace by winning Monday night's WoO debut at New Egypt Speedway near New Egypt, NJ.

"This is a great feeling," said Schatz, following his 10th career WoO "A" Feature win. "We were really good earlier in the season (five wins in 15 starts), and I just didn't know if we were going to get back to that level. Kenny Woodruff and my crew have been giving me a great car to drive. Tonight, I could drive it high, low and right through the middle. Ron Shaver has supplied us with some powerful engines, and Jack Elam builds a great race car. The Goodyear tires have been really good for us too. It's all coming together right now. The big key is for us to keep it going."

"The Minot Missile" qualified the #15 ParkerStores/Featherlite Coaches J&J ninth in the field and won the third O'Reillys heat race. He started the Channellock Dash third and passed Steve Kinser to earn a front row starting position in the 30-lap "A" Feature. After following pole-sitter Paul McMahan for the first part of the race, Schatz took advantage of McMahan entering traffic. He took the lead on the 14th lap and drove off for a convincing victory, which was his fifth "A" Feature win of the season and ninth overall.

Schatz hasn't finished outside the top two in the last five WoO races. The 23 year-old from Minot, ND, won two feature events on Thursday night at Williams Grove Speedway and finished second on Friday and Saturday at Williams Grove and Hagerstown Speedways. The recent success has pushed the team past Andy Hillenburg for fifth and allowed them to climb to within 46 points of fourth place Craig Dollansky.

"Like I said the other night, we've been doing pretty good, but we have to keep winning races," said Crew Chief Kenny Woodruff. "When the season is over, not too many people are going to remember who won at New Egypt, but I can bet just about everyone will be able to tell you who won the Big One and the Knoxville Nationals. We've got to keep winning races."

The team will spend the next three days preparing for a World of Outlaws sanctioned event on Friday night at Eldora Speedway and the non-sanctioned Historical Big One on Saturday, which Woodruff has won three times as a Crew Chief. Saturday's winner will take home $100,000. Following Saturday night's race, the team will head west to the "Sprint Car Capitol of the World", Knoxville, IA, for the 41st Annual Amoco Ultimate Knoxville Nationals.

- www.donnyschatz.com