Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / TONY STEWART RACING – BROWNSBURG, IN – It was a productive week in the Sunshine State for Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, not only activating the 2024 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season with Volusia Speedway Park’s annual DIRTcar Nationals, but simultaneously padding the early season stat chart, eventually concluding the four-day event with four-straight top-tens, securing a top-five, as well as a Hard Charger Award, in the process.
Schatz, ace of the Carquest, Advance Auto Parts, Ford Performance, Curb Records, Sage Fruit, Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts, Mobil 1, No. 15 sprint car, finished no worse than seventh in his recent DIRTcar Nationals effort, blasting things off with a four-spot rally from tenth to finish sixth on Wednesday, February 7. Although impressive, Schatz’ four-spot rally barely scratched the surface, as the Fargo, North Dakota, native raced on to climb 11 spots to finish fifth on Thursday, February 8, and 12 spots to finish sixth on Friday, February 9. As suggested, the 12-spot rally was Schatz’ most impressive of the week, also solidifying the ten-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion with the evening’s Hard Charger Award.
Donny Schatz and TSR would ultimately conclude Volusia’s DIRTcar Nationals with a seventh-place score in the $20,000-to-win finale on Saturday, February 10; they started ninth on the A-Main grid.
In total, Schatz and TSR advanced 29 feature positions, and with the Series returning to the Barberville complex in just a few weeks, the momentum is clearly on their side.