SCHATZ NINTH IN ALL-STAR OPENER

OCALA, FL (Jan. 29) - Donny Schatz kicked off the 2010 season in Florida with a ninth place finish in the All-Star Circuit of Champions event at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway.  Schatz battle through a 25-lap feature with a nose wing on the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) No. 15 Armor All/STP/ParkerStore J&J.

"We were hoping to learn some things here tonight, and I guess you could say we did," admitted Schatz. "The track was pretty tough to pass on, so I figured after the first deal that I'd just stay out and see what I could do. It wasn't what we wanted, but we'll try to get better next week at Volusia."

Schatz got out of the gate quickly by turning the second quickest lap in the field of 30 cars. The second heat proved to be a tough one to crack as Schatz twice worked his way into the top-five, but each time he had problems in turned four and ultimately finished seventh.

He led the B-Main from start to finish and pushed off for the feature event looking to start 11th. The inside starting position proved to be the wrong place as fifth starting Greg Hodnett spun heading into turn one and collected several competitors. The bottle-up of cars left Schatz with no where to go and he made contact, ultimately knocking the nose wing off his machine.  From there the race was only halted twice and Schatz did his best to hold his spot inside the top-10.

Schatz and his Armor All crew (Rick Warner, Shane Bowers and Steve Swenson) will return to the track on Wednesday night at Volusia Speedway Park, for the first of five consecutive nights of racing.