FARGO, N.D. — Count 10-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz among those who felt that a COVID-19 diagnosis within the sprint car community was inevitable at some point.
Schatz addressed the topic Thursday afternoon from his North Dakota race shop, as part of a wide-ranging interview with SPEED SPORT in advance of the Outlaws’ doubleheader weekend in his home state.
The sprint car community has been rocked over the last two days by the positive COVID-19 test results of veteran drivers Daryn Pittman and Paul McMahan. In addition, several members of Pittman’s Roth Motorsports team tested positive, as did McMahan’s wife Jan.
Kraig Kinser’s sprint car team will also sit idle this weekend after members of Kinser’s crew received positive COVID-19 test results as well.
All of those positive tests come in the wake of Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway’s The One and Only weekend, which was headlined by the $50,000 Brownells Capitani Classic on Aug. 15.
It’s a scenario that, while unfortunate, Schatz said he “fully expected” at some point.
“You know, the series has preached social distancing, Knoxville preached social distancing and all these things, but yet it doesn’t happen when the races are over,” Schatz said. “Things are still happening. I fully expected a driver to get it at some point. I’m sure glad that it’s not affecting anybody in any bad way. I guess at some point it probably will, but I don’t know as of now.
“I guess all we can do is try to be proactive,” he added. “If people can get tested, get tested and see to make sure, and if you haven’t, you try to steer clear. I mean, that’s all you can really do.”
Schatz’s Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing team was among those who were in contact with the Roth Motorsports crew at Knoxville, and Schatz confirmed his team has been tested for COVID-19.
The good news for Schatz and TSR is that those test results came back negative.
“My team has been tested because my team was directly in contact with Daryn’s team and everybody’s results came back negative, which is great,” Schatz noted. “But we just found out last night about Daryn (Pittman) at about six o’clock, and we found out in the last hour on Thursday (afternoon) about Paul. Apparently, this was all known on Sunday and Monday, though. So what’s going to happen going forward? I don’t know. I’m a little disappointed in that situation myself.
“I mean, if we’re really concerned about someone’s safety, why do we wait until Wednesday afternoon to figure out how we’re going to fix this … or Thursday, whatever it is, you know? That makes no sense to me,” Schatz continued. “When I first heard about it was Tuesday from my own race team, and that’s because they were notified. Now here we are. The way I look at it, everybody who has symptoms needs to get tested … or even if they don’t, they should probably get tested.
“But I don’t know what I can do specifically different, other than just trying to steer clear, but the drivers are subject to being around people. It’s just part of the nature of the sport.”
As of press time, an official statement from the World of Outlaws has yet to be issued in regards to the current COVID-19 situation surrounding the series, but a story from Autoweek noted that the series has “advised its full-time ‘platinum drivers’ to take COVID-19 tests” and begin a contact tracing process from the Knoxville weekend.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season is scheduled to continue Friday night, Aug. 21, at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D.