Tony Stewart Racing driver, Donny Schatz, has made Knoxville into Schatzville every year for the past decade. Aside from a fluke year in 2010, where he finished second, Schatz has won every Knoxville Nationals since 2006.
The Nationals are Sprint Car Racing’s biggest event of the year, and payed out a total purse of just under $1 million this year. Schatz took home $150,000.
“Mentally it’s tougher than anything,” Schatz said. “The mental part is always a tough part of racing. You always look at things as if they are slipping away, and you have to rectify that.”
Schatz was never seriously challenged, and had a one second lead over the second place driver within two laps of each restart; there was simply no stopping him.
However, just because Schatz has won his ninth Nationals in ten years, does not mean he takes it for granted. Upon receiving the trophy, he got emotional in victory lane.
“You always think about the mistakes you could make on the restarts,” Schatz said. “It’s not the open racetrack that’s the hard part, it’s making sure those restarts are executed right and you don’t miss your first corner so someone gets a run on you.”
Kerry Madsen challenged late, but got caught up in lapped traffic before he could get into position to pass. Madsen finished second of course, followed by Brad Sweet, Shane Stewart, and Joey Saldana.
A-Main full Results
#FVPNats A main results #WoOSprint pic.twitter.com/Uo99et77PU
— World of Outlaws (@WorldofOutlaws) August 16, 2015
The World of Outlaws series resumes their points racing on Tuesday at Junction City, where none other than Donny Schatz won last year.
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