INDIANAPOLIS (May 21, 2015) – Reaching new heights and continuing to get better has been the ongoing goal the past few seasons for Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing’s Donny Schatz and the Bad Boy Buggies/Chevrolet Performance team in the rugged World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series. The six-time and reigning WoO champion is off to a tremendous start in 2015 and is looking to continue building momentum during one of the biggest weekends in motorsports at a pair of tracks where he’s traditionally been extremely successful.
Schatz resumes his quest for a seventh WoO championship behind the wheel of the TSR No. 15 Bad Boy Buggies/Chevrolet Performance J&J Friday in Charlotte with the Circle K Outlaw Showdown at The Dirt Track @ Charlotte Motor Speedway and will close the Memorial Day weekend with Monday’s race at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway.
The Fargo, North Dakota resident is the all-time winningest driver at The Dirt Track with seven career victories. He’s motivated to win number eight at the 4/10-mile dirt oval after finishing second last May and charging from the back of the field to finish fourth in the 2014 Bad Boy Buggies World Finals. Schatz is on a two-race winning streak at Lawrenceburg after picking up wins at the 3/8-mile high-banked, dirt oval in May 2013 and May 2014.
With his 10 victories in the first 27 WoO races, Schatz reached double figures in wins quicker than he has in any previous WoO season. Two weeks ago, he swept weekend at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio and last weekend he scored wins at historic Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and made Weedsport (N.Y.) Speedway the 72nd different track where he’s won a WoO A-Feature during his 19-year WoO career.
Success in Charlotte has been a regular occurrence Schatz. He has made the starting field 31 of the 32 WoO A-Feature contested at the 4/10-mile, dirt oval and won six times, earned 18 podium finishes and finished inside the top-10 27 times. He also competed in all six preliminary features that were held the first three years the track was in existence between 2000 and 2002. Schatz won his third start at the facility in October 2000 leading all 30 laps en route to the preliminary victory. His first WoO A-Feature triumph at The Dirt Track came in the May 2007 where Schatz put on a thrilling charge from 10th and took the lead from Paul McMahan with three laps remaining. He capped his third WoO championship in 2008 by claiming his second Charlotte WoO A-Feature win. Schatz was a Charlotte winner again in May 2010. And he closed the 2011 season by sweeping the World Finals. His most recent victory came in the 2013 World Finals opener.
Schatz has won three of the last five WoO A-features contested at Lawrenceburg since it was transformed from a quarter-mile, dirt oval into a high-banked, 3/8-mile track. He won in May 2009 and then again the previous two Memorial Day races.
With four wins in the previous six races, Schatz continues to be the hottest driver on the WoO tour. He charged from ninth to second Tuesday night at New Egypt (N.J.) Speedway and pushed his lead in the championship standings to 71 points over Shane Stewart. Schatz leads the series with 10 wins, 18 top-fives, and 24 top-10s.
For Friday’s race at The Dirt Track, the pit gates open at 1 p.m. EDT and grandstands open at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit www.charlottemotorspeedway.com or call 704-455-3275.
Monday at Lawrenceburg Speedway, the pit gates will open at 2 p.m. EDT and the grandstands at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit lawrenceburgspeedway.comor call 812-539-4700.
Race fans unable to attend this weekend’s races can catch all of the action on DIRTVision.com. Fans can listen live as Johnny Gibson, “Voice of the Outlaws,” calls the action as he does at all WoO Sprint Series events on the DIRTVision.com cybercast, as well as on the DIRT Radio Network. Go to www.DIRTVision.com for more information on all the site features, including updated results from each night of racing, as well as a chat room to interact with other race fans.
Donny Schatz, Driver of the No. 15 TSR Bad Boy Buggies/Chevrolet Performance J&J:
What makes coming to The Dirt Track @ Charlotte Motor Speedway different than other venues on the 88-race schedule?
“The Dirt Track is a first-class facility and they work extremely hard to give us a track where you can run multiple lines and move around. Being there during the Coca-Cola 600 is always fun, because it’s a major race weekend and we get to compete in front of our boss Tony Stewart and a lot of our friends from NASCAR. They come out and see what we do. It’s still a race night, but it’s a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase our team, Bad Boy Buggies and Chevrolet Performance. We’ve had some success in the May event and it’s a great way to start a really busy part of our season. The Dirt Track is a fast track. We make good speed. You have to be able to run both the top and the bottom and sometimes through the middle. We were battling inside the top-five the last time we were there and had a little problem, which sent us to the back of the field. We were able to come all the way back to third…I thought we had a chance to win it too. Any time you can do that, you know you are at a really good track and have a good car. Hopefully, we don’t have to run from the back of the pack again on Friday night.”
You are almost through May. How would you rate the first four months of the 2015 campaign?
“It’s been a promising start for us. We’ve won races, but we also have had a few more that we were close to getting. The biggest thing is that we have had success at some places where we haven’t maybe been as good as we wanted to be in the past. We’re looking forward to coming back to Charlotte. It’s a track where we’ve won races in the past and I know my crew – Rick Warner, Steve Swenson and Eric Prutzman – has been doing a great job of giving me a fast car. I’m the fortunate one that gets to drive this car every night. Tony Stewart has built an incredible team. We have great partners in Bad Boy Buggies and Chevrolet Performance and just want to keep getting them wins as often as we can.”
About Bad Boy Buggies®
Bad Boy Buggies® is a leader in off-road utility vehicles for hunting and outdoor lifestyles. Bad Boy Buggies pioneered the category of electrically powered four-wheel-drive vehicles, ideal for hunting and outdoor recreation due to their silent, odorless operation and environmentally friendly, emissions-free drivetrains.
Today, the Bad Boy Buggies product line ranges from four-wheel-drive electric hunting machines such as the Recoil®, a fully electric, four-wheel-drive vehicle with an innovative, highly efficient 72-volt AC electric drivetrain, to the Work Series of diesel- and gas-powered utility vehicles, including the Bad Boy Buggies XD, a versatile four-wheel-drive, diesel-powered utility vehicle with a total capacity of 1,600 pounds.
About Chevrolet Performance®
Driven by more than 100 years of motorsports heritage, Chevrolet Performance fuels the passions of automotive enthusiasts through high-performance vehicles, parts and racing. Performance cars include Camaro SS, SS 1LE, ZL1, Z/28 and the COPO Camaro. Chevrolet Performance parts include crate engines, transmissions, controllers and street-level components. Chevrolet competes in NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, IndyCar and a variety of circle track racing series.
More information can be found at: www.chevrolet.com/performance
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