Vintage

ONE NIGHT FOR ALL THE  MARBLES

CONCORD, N.C - The battles have been awesome at times and tough to swallow others throughout the 2009 season, but tonight everything is on the line for Donny Schatz and the Tony Stewart Racing team. Schatz heads into tonight's World of Outlaws season-ending World Finals on the heels of a second place finish in Friday night's World Finals opener. Schatz made numerous attempts at taking the lead from Jason Meyers, who trails Schatz in the season-long battle for the title, in Friday's 30-lap feature event.

After qualifying first for both shows on Thursday, he won the first heat and finished third in the Crane Cams Dash on Friday. The feature event was slowed because of numerous accidents on the lightning fast 4/10-mile clay oval. It seemed to go 2 or 3 laps at a time before each stoppage. Schatz would get the momentum going in the retro-designed STP No. 15 and look poised to make a pass for the lead only to have the yellow flag come out. The final stoppage came on lap 24 and Schatz wasn't able to get close enough during the final 6 laps.

It was his 13th second place finish of the season to go along with his 12 victories. The finished continued a streak of nine races at The Dirt Track where Schatz has finished eighth or better. On the season, he has finished eighth better in the last 12 races.  To claim the championship tonight, he simply needs to be within 11 positions of Jason Meyers in the 30-lap feature event.

Tonight's program will air live on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. ET

SCHATZ TOPS WORLD FINALS QUALIFYING

CONCORD, N.C. - Donny Schatz came into the third annual World Finals with winning on his mind. The three-time and defending World of Outlaws (WoO) champion got the weekend started right by topping both qualifying sessions on Thursday night. Schatz circled the 4/10-mile clay oval faster than the other 56 competitors and is positioned well for the final weekend of the season.

Schatz earned his series-leading 12th and 13th fast time awards. In the first session for Friday's show, he was the eighth car to hit the track and turned a lap of 13.794 sec. (104.393 mph). In the second session for Saturday night's finale, he was the 51st car of 56 to time in. He had two more consistent laps with his fastest being 13.770 sec.

The top qualifying spots added 10 points to Schatz' championship points lead. He has a 29-point leading heading into the final two races of the season.  Schatz will hit the track Friday night in the first heat race, where he will start fourth.

Final Challenge

Tony Stewart Racing’s Donny Schatz Looks To Earn

 Fourth Outlaws Championship by Closing 2009 in Winning Fashion

INDIANAPOLIS (Nov. 3, 2009) – One of the greatest things in sports is witnessing a champion earn a title. Each year, it seems no matter the sport, the script changes and that’s what keeps fans starving for more. There are fans on both sides of the fence – those who want to see dynasties like what NASCAR’s three-time-champion Jimmie Johnson is in the midst of, or those Bronx Bombers from New York, who are trying to win their 27^th World Series crown, and there are those who always root for the underdog to come out on top.

Fans of three-time and defending World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz can relate with both. His fans enjoyed the ride beginning with Schatz’s WoO Rookie of the Year season in 1997 to his first series championship in 2006. They paid attention as he worked hard along the way, learning as much as he could during those early years on the tour with Sprint car icon Steve Kinser and series champions Sammy Swindell, Dave Blaney, Mark Kinser and Danny Lasoski.

Donny Schatz Joins The Race Reporters Live this Wednesday Night 

Concord, NC— November 3, 2009—Donny Schatz, the three-time and defending World of Outlaws champion, who is chasing his fourth consecutive title this weekend in the World Finals at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway will join The Race Reporters as one of the Newsmakers of the week this Wednesday, November 4, live at 7 p.m. Eastern on the Power Up Motorsports Channel online at www.PowerUpChannel.com. 

Schatz has won 12 times this season with the World of Outlaws, including his 100^th career A-Feature win on August 22 at Dacotah Speedway in his home state of North Dakota, making him just the fifth driver in the 30-plus year history of the series to accomplish this feat. He heads into the World Finals as a three-time winner at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway including last season in the finale of the three-day event to cap his third straight title. Schatz is one of just two drivers competing full-time with the World of Outlaws that has competed in all 21 of the previous World of Outlaws events at the fourth-tenths-mile state-of-the-art facility.

The Race Reporters is hosted by Michael Knight, a 40-year motorsports industry insider and award-winning publicist and journalist, who will be joined for the journalists’ roundtable by Dave Argabright, of National Speed Sport News and Bob Pockrass, associate editor of NASCAR Scene.

The Race Reporters can be heard live, downloaded into an iPod or accessed for listening on a delayed basis by clicking on the show icon at www.PowerUpChannel.com. The show also will re-air several times later in the week.

 The one-hour show’s format is a “good, hard, honest, Constitutionally-protected conversation on the issues of the day.” Previous Newsmaker guests have included Richard Petty, John Force, Ashley Force Hood, Dario Franchitti, Joey Logano, Gil de Ferran, Tony Schumacher, Scott Pruett, Adrian Fernandez, Graham Rahal, Ron Capps, Antron Brown, AJ Allmendinger, Scott Atherton and Chris Economaki.

For more information on The Race Reporters, go to:

http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1549