Two-Time WoO Champ Enjoying ‘Brightest Time’ Of His Career

Some race car drivers have greatness thrust upon them. For others, it takes years and years of hard work to make it to the top echelon of the sport.
That’s the case for two-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz, who was named the 2007 Economaki Champion of Champions presented by Rockett Brand Racing Fuel earlier this month.
Schatz enjoyed a monster season in winning his second-straight championship. Along the way, he drove the Shaver-powered J&J sprint car owned by his parents, Danny and Diane Schatz, to 19 World of Outlaws victories (21 overall) and 71 top-10 finishes in 78 starts.

DOUBLE THE PLEASURE: Not only did Donny Schatz capture back-to-back World of Outlaws Series championships, he also took two straight Knoxville Nationals titles. (Jeff Bylsma Photo)

The victories included most of sprint-car racing’s most prestigious events — the Knoxville Nationals for the second-straight year, the King’s Royal, the Don Martin Memorial, the Summer Nationals and the Williams Grove National Open. The Gold Cup Race of Champions, which he has won twice previously, was the only major event to elude him in 2007.
And while he’s at the top of his sport now, learning the racing business hasn’t been all roses for the native of Minot, N.D., who now calls Fargo home.
But what made the difference for Schatz the past two seasons, and especially in 2007, was not the cars he drove or his physical skills, but the way he approached this racing game.
“I think I have figured out the mental part of racing,” Schatz says confidently. “I know when we are beat. I know when we are not beat. The funny part is that I don’t think I have ever beaten myself or been beaten mentally.
“You have to take what you learn on the race track and apply it when you come in and have a chance to fix things and make them better. You have to keep a positive attitude and take it one day at a time. You want to win races, there is no question, but when you win a race you still have to figure out how you could have been better.”
Many familiar with sprint-car racing had characterized Schatz as unhappy, or a grump, and he acknowledges that with a smile, but notes that it is his competitiveness showing through as much as anything.
“There was a time when I was criticized and told to ‘be happy’ with this, or ‘be happy’ with that, but that’s not me,” he continues. “I am a competitive person and I am always striving to be better. Maybe that has rubbed some people the wrong way, but that is how you get to this point, never settle for anything. I feel like this is the brightest moment of my career.”
Still, learning the mental aspect of the sport was a struggle.
“When I first started racing, my father told me racing was all mental and I laughed at him just like a kid laughs at his father,” Schatz remembers. “I said, ‘no, it’s the way the motor runs and the car works.’
“But everybody can go out there and buy the same motor and the same cars we have and we can be a little bit better. You have to go out there and get the experience for yourself.”
It is clearly experience that has taken Schatz from chasing the likes of Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski to blowing their proverbial doors off.

ON TOP: Donny Schatz finished in the top 10 in 91 percent of the World of Outlaws races in 2007. (Mike Gbur/JMS Pro Photo)

“I have raced with the World of Outlaws for 10 years, and there came a day three or four years into it when I said, ‘I am just not good enough to cut this. I am not good enough to be a top-five driver with this series,’” he explains. “I would win a race here and there, but I was not happy with that. I want to win every single night. I want to be Steve Kinser. I want to be better than Steve Kinser. I want to have people look up to me the way they look up to those people.
“You find ways on your own to learn from your mistakes and how to handle the pressure and the agony of defeat. You eventually just put it all together and you find out that it is so simple and you wonder, ‘why couldn’t I do that 10 years ago?’”
While Schatz is already looking ahead to 2008 when he will leave his parents’ team and join Tony Stewart Racing, he knows this season was pretty special.
“There are a lot of great drivers who have never accomplished some of the things I have accomplished in this sport and that is quite a feat in itself. I am a very fortunate person,” he said proudly. “Even though, I am not happy with everything, it has been a great year, and I have loved every second of it. I’m not going to say it was a perfect year, but it is going to be pretty difficult to top this one. We are going to give it our best shot, though.”
So why was Schatz so good when big money was on the line?
“We don’t do anything special,” he said. “We just do our every-day gig and our every-day gig is really good.”
The 30-year-old driver says he doesn’t get any extra satisfaction from having beaten Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski for the championship, as both drivers had raced with the National Sprint Tour when he won the crown in 2006.
“I have raced with all these guys since I came out here 10 years ago and regardless of who is out here, and who isn’t, the World of Outlaws is the World of Outlaws,” Schatz maintains. “I know people think I had a point to prove, but I didn’t. I won the championship last year.
“There are guys who have been out here a long time and are never going to win the championship. I am fortunate to have done it, and I have loved every second of it.”
While he’ll drive for a two-car super team next season, Schatz has driven his entire career in cars owned by his parents, who have footed the bill the entire way.

NOSE TO TAIL: Donny Schatz (15) and Joey Saldana traded the World of Outlaws Sprint series point lead back and forth before Schatz pulled away to capture his second-straight title. (Harold Hinson/HHP Photo)

“They are the ones that got me started in racing,” says Schatz, who credits his father for teaching him how to race. “They gave me the financial backing I needed since I started in 1993. Their business is what has kept this team going and it is what has helped bring in the other sponsors that we have had.
“With a family -run team you rely on t-shirt sales to help keep things going and it is a lot of hard work. My parents never in 10 years doubted what I could do. Even when I doubted myself, they always said, ‘you know what you can do.’
“I have two sisters who probably got neglected a lot at a younger age because of my dreams and my goals. They both love racing to this day. My parents have earned this. They still maintain two successful businesses, but I think my dad is at the stage where he would like to kick back a little bit and still come to the races, but be involved in a lesser role.
“I’m so very thankful for my parents.”
And they can be proud of their son, the champion. Champion of Champions that is.