TULARE, CA - Donny Schatz and his ParkerStore team wanted to end the 2005 World of Outlaws season on a surge heading into the chase for the 2006 WoO championship. Schatz, in his #15 ParkerStore J&J with Shaver power, is leaving no doubt that he is one of the cars to beat every night out as the season comes to a close. In the second to last weekend of the season, Schatz won Friday's preliminary feature at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, CA, and came home third in Saturday's finale.

Schatz, who has been a regular in the top three since the Knoxville Nationals, continued his recent run of consistent podium finishes following wins at K-C Raceway and the Williams Grove National Open with Friday's thrilling victory. The win followed a runner-up finish on Tuesday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, AZ.

Schatz paced the field of 48 cars by circling 1/3-mile oval in 12.908 seconds at 92.036 mph. The Fargo, ND racer finished third in the first heat race before winning the Stacker2 Dash, which earned him the pole position for the 30-lap feature. Schatz was in contention throughout the race taking the lead on lap 22 and holding it until lap 27. With the white flag waving, Schatz roared back around Sammy Swindell and beat him to the checkered flag.

“I never sit back and just try to run because anything can happen,” said Schatz following the victory. “We just got going and we got going pretty decent. Lapped traffic really helped us. We got long enough runs tonight where we could hit lapped traffic and be able to make moves on these guys. That's what makes racing fun. We don't want to see all these stops and starts. We want long green flag runs, get in lapped traffic and make it real racing instead of all these stops and starts. That's what the fans want to see and I think that's what some of the racers want to see as well.”

The victory, which was the ninth Outlaws win of the season for Schatz and first preliminary feature victory, earned the ParkerStore team a spot in Saturday's Stacker2 Dash. Schatz finished second to Sammy Swindell in the six-lap event and started the 35-lap feature event on the front row. The feature event was slowed by four cautions and two red flags, and Schatz was slowed by a hole in his right rear tire, just as the case was in August at Calistoga Speedway. The team plugged the hole during one of the red flags allowing Schatz to battle Steve Kinser for the runner-up spot for most of the race. Schatz finished behind Swindell and Kinser to claim third.

“We had a good enough car to win, but I don't know what it is with me and tires out here in California,” explained Schatz, who ranks fourth in the WoO standings. “We get a hole in everything. I don't know if it's me and luck or what it is. We had a chance to plug it on the red, it just didn't stay and it cost us second. We were actually coming to Sammy on the last couple of laps. We just needed lapped traffic to go our way. I could feel the thing going down because every time I went into the corner it would dig the right rear wheel in further and further and further. It's pretty tough to turn on entry when you get like that, especially when the track stayed real fast tonight. A top three isn't bad I guess for not feeling very good at the end.”

The ParkerStore team will conclude the 2005 season this weekend in Las Vegas. Schatz is the defending race champion winning the 2004 season finale and also won the WoO “A” feature at LVMS in March.

Keep up with all the latest news on Donny Schatz by logging onto www.donnyschatz.com and www.parker.com/racing

For more information, please contact Bill Klingbeil at 309.825.5425.