CONCORD, N.C. — Ten-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz endured an up-and-down season that ended with a frustrating weekend during the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Still, Schatz, who finished 14th, 14th and ninth in three races at the four-tenths-mile track, was contrite when excepting third-place championship honors during Sunday night’s series banquet.
“You want to be a champion. You are not a champion right now,” Schatz said. “I used to look around and say, ‘Well, you still have a long way to go to catch me.’ But I used to have a long way to go to catch the guy (Steve Kinser) that was here whooping my ass when I started. I still think about that a lot. I miss those days. A lot has changed and not all for the worse. Obviously, it is change for what we all make it.
“I miss the ole boy Steve, but I still see him around. It is an honor to have learned from those guys. Hopefully, you can take a few of my good traits and learn from them someday.”
Schatz won five features and amassed 30 top-five finishes and 53 top-10 results en route to finishing third in the standings behind David Gravel and Carson Macedo.
“I love racing,” Schatz said. “Everybody asks, ‘When are you done, when are you going to be done?’ I don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t want to be done. It is hard to tell yourself that you have to be content with not winning and not being able to chase a championship, but that’s building character and that’s working through things. I’m having a little trouble doing that. We’ll do our best.
“I’m surrounded by great people and I have always had that luxury of being surrounded by some of the greatest people in history,” he added. “We have great people behind us.
“It takes a whole hell of a lot of people to make this happen. We do our best and some days that’s not quite good enough, but that is the way racing is sometimes.”
Schatz acknowledged the end of the season was disappointing for he and his Tony Stewart Racing team.
“This weekend was not anywhere near the weekend that any of us wanted at TSR,” said Schatz, whose best start in three nights was 18th. “It is what it is. You start back there. You have to try to find a positive each night, and some night’s that’s really hard to do. People are like, ‘We want to watch you come through there.’ I’m glad you do because I don’t want to.
“That is why we race. It is not always going to be glory and success,” he added. “Some nights it’s going to be a whole lot of red dust in your face and sweat. That’s the way it goes.
“I still love it. I still enjoy it and I’m not going anywhere.”