KNOXVILLE, IA - Donny Schatz has made a habit of finishing up front in his qualifying night at the Knoxville Nationals. The Fargo, ND racer continued his string of top finishes on Wednesday night as he raced his #15 ParkerStore J&J to a second place finish in the opening night of the 44th annual Knoxville Nationals presented by Midwest Ford Dealers.

"We bounced back and had a pretty good night considering how things started," said Schatz, eluding to his 15th place qualifying effort to start the program. "The crew did a great job getting this J&J car going. We were locked down most of the night. There were a ton of good cars here and to be able to get through our heat race and finish with a second place run is a big accomplishment ."

Schatz kicked off his 11th Nationals by qualifying 15th in the field of 63 cars. He was the 31st car to make a lap around the legendary half-mile, dirt oval, and he started eighth in the fifth heat. Schatz was joined in his heat by Steve Kinser, Joey Saldana, Brian Brown, Loren Langerud, Shane Stewart, Chad Meyer, Phil Gressman and Danny Wood. With only four cars transferring to the "A" Feature, Schatz had his hands full charging to the front. He made his way into fifth early in the second lap and worked to the back bumper of Josh Higday, who was holding the fourth and final transfer position, on lap six. A caution flag flew with three laps remaining as Schatz had Steve Kinser on his tail. Kinser made a run on the ParkerStore #15 and passed him for the final transfer. Schatz and Kinser continued the epic duel as they exchanged the spot during the final lap. Schatz followed "the King" into turns three and four and was able to squeeze by him on the low side and beat him back to the flagstand as more than 20,000 fans came to their feet.

"It's pretty crazy that you have to race that hard in heat race that pays nothing to win," said Schatz, who ranks fourth overall in Nationals points with 461, trailing leader Fred Rahmer by 14. "I knew that was our only shot at winning the Nationals was to get through the heat. Steve and I were battling it out pretty good. I did everything I could to get by him and we had just enough momentum to beat him to the flagstand."

The pass and transfer position put Schatz in the third row for the 20-lap preliminary feature. He quickly worked into fourth as the green flag flew. He passed Aaron Berryhill for third with five laps in the books. The race was halted a couple times during the next five laps as Schatz continued to chase leader Chad Meyer and runner-up Tim Kaeding. On lap six, he pulled a "slider" on Kaeding and got by him for second, but Kaeding took the spot back. Schatz continued his chase as Kaeding took the lead on lap 13. Schatz moved into second on the same lap and tried to reel in Kaeding, but the California driver worked lapped traffic perfectly and held off a last lap attempt from Schatz to win the race.

"Tim did a great job," continued Schatz. "I think I might have showed him the way when I pulled that slider. The racetrack was really fast and we got one shot at it. I was able to run both the bottom and the top and actually started catching him late, but he was able to get through traffic and won the race."

Schatz will become a spectator on Thursday night as the second half of the field will go through qualifications, heat races and the preliminary feature. The ParkerStore team is locked into Saturday's Nationals "A" main, but will need to stay in the top ten if they hope to race in Friday night's "A" Scramble.

"It's going to be close," said Schatz. "There are some guys that can go out and get a lot of points, and we hope there are a few that get all the points. If its like tonight where the points get spread out, we'll be out of the top ten and have to just watch Friday night too. I'd like to run that scramble and try to improve our points, but we'll just see. The best part is we got through tonight and have given ourselves a chance, and that's all you ask for at the Knoxville Nationals.