BAYTOWN, TX (March 19) – Twice before Donny Schatz came up just inches short from winning a World of Outlaws feature event at Houston Raceway Park. On Saturday night, Schatz finally got to the checkered flag first, by inches, in his #15 ParkerStore J&J with Shaver power at the 4/10-mile oval located east of Houston claiming his second consecutive “A” feature victory and third of the season.

“It feels good to be [in Victory Lane],” said Schatz, of Fargo, N.D., who finished second at Houston in 2004 to Steve Kinser and ’02 in to Mark Kinser. “[The race] didn’t really feel that good, I don’t know what’s going on. I guess I’m chasing my racecars a little bit. The team’s working awful hard, maybe I’m just not doing something right. Standing here victorious is good. It’s nice to get a win here in Houston.”

Schatz began the evening by qualifying eighth in the field of 28 cars. He raced to a fourth place finish in the second heat race and earned the outside front row starting position by winning the second dash event. Pole-sitter Brandon Wimmer got the jump at the start and Schatz was in pursuit.

On lap 13, Schatz raced past Wimmer and surged into the lead. He was racing his ParkerStore J&J around the cushion on the high side while Steve Kinser and Tim Shaffer passed Wimmer. Schatz increased his lead as Kinser and Shaffer raced for second place, but a blown tire ended that battle for Shaffer.

On the restart, Schatz continued to work the high groove and Kinser tried to make the low line work. The two put on a great show during the final stages of the 30-lap race, which concluded with Schatz powering his way to the checkered flag by only 0.27 seconds over Kinser for the $10,000 payday.

The victory was his 30th career WoO triumph and his second in the Houston-area. He won at nearby Battleground Speedway in 1999. The win also helped push Schatz into third place in the WoO point standings, just 56 points behind leader Craig Dollansky.

“We’re here to win victories,” said Schatz, who won last weekend’s J.D. Byrider Outlaw Nationals in Las Vegas and the Outlaws Down Under II Finale to start the season in Australia. “The points will come if we win. We’re just going to focus on winning races, that’s what this team wants to do and I want to do. If we don’t win the points [championship] we gave it a valiant effort, but we’re just going to come out and try to win as many races as we can.”

All the action from the Texas Shootout at Houston Raceway Park can be seen at 8 p.m. (ET) April 6 on The Outdoor Channel.

The ParkerStore team will ride the winning momentum into a rare “off-weekend”. They will travel back to Fargo and then return to action on April 1st at Batesville Speedway in Arkansas.