SOMERSET, WI – Donny Schatz left Saturday’s “Duel in the Dakotas” finale with a lot of confidence and his performance on Monday night in the World of Outlaws Sprint Series event at Cedar Lake Speedway will help build more momentum. The Fargo, ND driver raced past 17 cars and finished third in the action-packed 35-lap “A” Feature event.

“We got off to a slow start with qualifying, but my guys did a great job getting this ParkerStore J&J ready for the feature,” said Schatz, following his 18th top five finish of the season. “I’ve raced here a bunch going back to my days in the WISSOTA series and this was a fun ride tonight. I just kept moving forward and driving as hard as I could. I even thought we had Danny for second there at the end, but tonight we’ll have to take third.”

Schatz began the evening by qualifying his #15 ParkerStore J&J 22nd in the field of 33 cars. He won the third heat race, but didn’t get back onto the track until the feature event.

He started on the outside of row 10 and quickly made his intentions clear that he was charging to the front. During the first twelve laps he moved from 20th up to eighth. When the race was stopped for a red flag on lap 16, Schatz was sitting in sixth place.

Following the restart, he continued his charge passing Paul McMahan for fifth on lap 18 and three laps later, he challenged Steve Kinser for fourth. Kinser kept the spot and moved to third the following lap getting by Terry McCarl. Schatz challenged McCarl for the next eight laps until the race was stopped for Steve Kinser, who crashed in turn two.

With two laps to go, Schatz raced past McCarl and set his sights on leaders Craig Dollansky and Danny Lasoski until another crash stopped the action again. During the final two-lap dash to the checkered flag, Schatz closed in on Lasoski and the two exited turn four side-by-side heading the finish line. Lasoski beat Schatz by a nose while Dollansky picked up the win.

"We talked about getting our program to the next level and this kind of night proves that we are heading in the right direction," said Schatz, who still holds down the third spot in the WoO standings. "We want to be at our best with the Month of Money starting. Tonight's race should only help our momentum."

Schatz and the ParkerStore team will travel to Michigan for Wednesday night’s program at Hartford Speedway Park before heading to Eldora Speedway for the King’s Royal weekend on Friday and Saturday night.