{"id":203734,"date":"2020-07-16T13:35:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T18:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=203734"},"modified":"2020-07-17T08:17:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T13:17:34","slug":"donny-schatz-trading-sprint-car-for-late-model-in-nd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=203734","title":{"rendered":"Donny Schatz trading sprint car for Late Model, in ND"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Grand Forks\u00a0 (CSi) \u00a0\u00a0 \u2013 <\/strong>One of Donny Schatz\u2019s most proud performances in his career is a third-place run with the World of Outlaws at River Cities Speedway in his home state of North Dakota.<\/p>\n

Not with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, though. With the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models.<\/p>\n

When the 10-time Sprint Car Series champion isn\u2019t spending his weeks chasing another title, he trades his winged chariot for a fendered rocket. Which is exactly his plan this weekend.<\/p>\n

With the Sprint Car Series\u2019 next race not until\u00a0Tues., July 21 at Lernerville Speedway for the $25,000-to-win Don Martin Memorial<\/a>, Schatz, of Fargo, ND, is breaking out his self-owned #15 Rocket Chassis Late Model to run with the World of Outlaws Late Models at\u00a0River Cities Speedways in Grand Forks, ND on Fri., July 17<\/a>\u00a0and at\u00a0Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, ND on Sat., July 18.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard for me to go around home and go to local races during the week or off time and race a Sprint Car and say it is for fun, even though it is for fun, when you do it professionally,\u201d Schatz said. \u201cTo do a Late Model is a completely different animal. I don\u2019t do it professionally. I do it for fun. I do it on the side. It makes a lot more sense. It allows me to stay more connected to my local tracks here in North Dakota and Minnesota. It\u2019s fun to stay connected to the local scene for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late Models were originally never on Schatz\u2019s radar. However, his father was intrigued by them and had told Schatz he should drive one to broaden his horizon. His passion for the cars didn\u2019t come until 2012 when he got the opportunity to run the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway.<\/p>\n

Running one of Darrell Lanigan\u2019s cars, Schatz beat the likes of 20-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car champion Steve Kinser, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Bill Elliott to finish fourth in the special event. From then on, he was hooked on Late Model racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really fun event,\u201d Schatz said. \u201cIt was huge for our sport to have myself and Steve Kinser there and be a part of the big race. If you ever do something that you had a great time at but weren\u2019t really good at, you feel like you want to give it another go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since running the Prelude, Schatz has started more than 60 sanctioned Late Model Features \u2013 19 of them World of Outlaws Late Model events.<\/p>\n

Of his World of Outlaws starts, he\u2019s collected one top-five and five top-10 finishes \u2013 his most recent top-10 coming in February during the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also collected two wins in the Can-Am Western Late Model Series and nine wins in the Northern Late Model Racing Association \u2013 one at Red River Valley Speedway and five at River Cities Speedway.<\/p>\n

Winning in a Late Model is \u201cvery rewarding,\u201d Schatz said, and he attributes the success he\u2019s had to an all-star list of friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time I thank all of that success to (iconic team owner and chassis builder) Mark Richards for giving me a running start,\u201d Schatz said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of help from a lot of guys \u2013 including (four-time World of Outlaws Late Model champion) Josh Richards and (two-time and defending World of Outlaws Late Model champion) Brandon Sheppard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people over the years have helped. It\u2019s like cutting corners. If you can cut a corner somewhere and it helps out, that\u2019s a good thing. It\u2019s rewarding I can tell you that. Maybe someday I\u2019ll win at least one (World of Outlaws) Late Model show. But you just never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

In comparison to his\u00a0Tony Stewart\/Curb-Agajanian Racing #15 Sprint Car, Schatz said the closet thing it and his Late Model have in common are he still puts the tear offs on his helmet the same way.<\/p>\n

His years of experience making Sprint Cars go fast don\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we use set up blocks and put them under the axle and have torsion stops,\u201d Schatz said. \u201cIn their world, they have a spring smasher and it sets the load to that corner. They know what the load needs to be. Fifteen pounds could be the difference between a good car and a bad car. There\u2019s not a lot of error there. In the Sprint Car world, we can wind multiple turns of weight in one corner and not feel a big difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just tells you the correlation between a torsion bar and a spring, how much difference there is in the way they work. A spring has memory. A torsion bar doesn\u2019t really have anything. It\u2019s old school technology. I wouldn\u2019t even call it technology. It\u2019s just something that\u2019s stuck around in our sport and nobody has really changed. It would be fun one day to make them similar but today it\u2019s just not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the way the Late Model drives compared to the Sprint Car forces Schatz to change his entire mentality on how to run the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Late Models rotate with the left rear in the corner and right front has to be buried (into the track),\u201d he said. \u201cThey turn on the gas, but they don\u2019t really turn when you\u2019re off the gas pedal. There\u2019re so many different scenarios. The way the car carries the air over it is just as important as the Sprint Car. But the Sprint Car pulls it a different way and does it completely different. You have to keep a completely open mindset and a whole different scenario about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Late Model races are a time for Schatz to shed the stress of running for a championship, that doesn\u2019t negate his competitive nature.<\/p>\n

He wouldn\u2019t consider himself a relaxed racer. Especially when competing against the likes of Sheppard, 2004 World of Outlaws Late Model champion Scott Bloomquist and last year\u2019s Rookie of the Year Ricky Weiss.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you put the helmet on at the racetrack you\u2019re not going to settle for anything less than checkers,\u201d Schatz said. \u201cIt is relaxing in some scenes. In others, you feel like you\u2019re beating your head against the wall a little bit because you want to do better than you really do. It\u2019s a tough battle with those guys. They stay on top of it. They eat, sleep and drink it. And if you don\u2019t do that every day it\u2019s hard to stay competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schatz has mentioned before that at some point in his career he might consider transitioning from racing a Sprint Car full-time to a Late Model. He hasn\u2019t sold himself on that idea yet. But isn\u2019t completely dismissing it either.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I love what I do with the Sprint Cars,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I would ever walk away from it to do one or the other. It would be cool. In a perfect world, a guy could run both Series. But that would be pretty farfetched to be able to do and be competitive. Once you get to racing for championships that gets to be your focus and what you want to do. Maybe I\u2019ll never be that competitive in the Late Model world, but you never know. Maybe years down the road that\u2019ll change.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, he\u2019s going to enjoy a rare opportunity to run with the Outlaws in his home state this weekend before returning to his Sprint Car next week.<\/p>\n

For tickets to the Fri., July 17 River Cities Speedway event,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For tickets to the Sat., July 18 Red River Valley Speedway event,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For tickets to the Tues. July 21 Don Martin Memorial at Lernerville Speedway,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t make it to the events, you can still watch all three live on\u00a0DIRTVision<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grand Forks\u00a0 (CSi) \u00a0\u00a0 \u2013 One of Donny Schatz\u2019s most proud performances in his career is a third-place run with the World of Outlaws at River Cities Speedway in his home state of North Dakota. Not with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, though. With the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":203735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203734"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203806,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203734\/revisions\/203806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/203735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}