ParkerStores pilot races from 11th to claim his first "A" Feature of 2001

BRANDON, SD - Sometimes when it looks like you can't do anything right, the perfect night comes along where everything falls into place. Donny Schatz and his ParkerStores #15 team expected to challenge for the 2001 Pennzoil World of Outlaws championship, but inconsistent runs during the first two months of the season had them frustrated. The team tried something new at Huset's Speedway on Sunday night, and by the final ten laps of the feature, they looked like a championship contender as Schatz raced from 11th to 1st for his first WoO "A" Feature victory of the season.

"What an awesome night," said Schatz after winning his sixth career WoO feature. "I've got to give a lot of credit to my crew chief Kenny Woodruff and the entire crew. They did a great job tonight. I really have to thank them for not getting down or letting me get down while weıve been struggling. I'm really happy for ParkerStores, Blue Beacon, Featherlite, because everybodyıs stuck with me the whole season, and this J&J race car on Goodyear tires got me a win, and that makes up for a lot of the rough times."

Schatz posted the seventh fastest lap in the field of 33 cars and finished third in his O'Reilly heat race. The team didn't have the chance to run the Channellock Dash, so it was guessing game on how to set up the race car for the feature.

"We came in with a different approach tonight," said Schatz. "We set the car up specifically to qualify better, and it worked because we were just off the fast time. That gave us some confidence and we didn't run bad in the heat, but we still changed the car around completely at the end of the night.

"I didnıt think I had any chance at all to win this one tonight: with the track taking rubber, I figured the best we could do was maybe a top ten. We ran around the bottom for about ten laps and got up to Mark Kinser. I knew he wasn't going to make a mistake in the rubber, so my only chance was to try something different. I tried to pass him through the middle and that didn't work. I put it up on the fence, and it started to feel pretty good. After about four laps, I got some heat in my tires and cars just started coming to me."

Schatz raced from his inside sixth row starting position to eighth in the first 12 laps and was chasing Mark Kinser and Jeff Shepard for sixth. A high move in turns one and two on the 16th lap moved him around both and two laps later he used the same line to take fifth from Brooke Tatnell. Three laps later Schatz used the cushion in turns three and four and raced by Danny Lasoski, Andy Hillenburg and Steve Kinser to move into second. In the next corner, he took the lead by passing Terry McCarl around the top.

"I didn't know who was leading the race, but I thought that Steve and McCarl were right up there. Andy and Steve were racing on the bottom, and I got both of them in one corner. I never saw Terry when I passed him, so I was out there thinking that Terry had checked out until I saw the scoreboard and it read 15, 24, and 11. I kind of said to myself, I guess I'm leading this deal."

After he passed McCarl, Schatz was the one who "checked out" as he pulled away to win the race by a straightaway over Kinser, Stevie Smith, McCarl and Hillenburg. The victory made up for a disappointing two days at Knoxville to start the weekend.

"We didn't feel good at all about how we did at Knoxville," said Schatz. "Tonight, I really made an extra effort to talk with Kenny on what we needed to do. We had that first yellow, and I was trying to get some feedback about where to run. He told me to get going around the top, and once I tried it we felt really good. The J&J car ran flawless, and we had the perfect tire on. I think we went with a harder tire (RR 50 compound) than most of the guys, and I was able to run hard on it in the rubber for ten laps, and once I needed to get out of the rubber, the tire was still locked down to the track. I really don't know what the others were running, but the Goodyear's really did the job tonight."

The victory moved Schatz into a tenth place tie in the WoO standings with Paul McMahan, and it also marked the first time he won an Outlaw feature somewhat close to home. "I raced here just about every week when I was starting out. It's nearly home, and the grandstands were really cheering loud tonight. It feels good to put the Huset's notch in our belt after running second and third here last year. We're pretty pumped up. Now, our goal is to build off this win and start racing up front every night from here on out."

(Article by Bill Klingbeil)
(Photos by Doug Johnson and Bill Klingbeil)