In Donny Schatz, the WoO gets an obsessive winner

Donny Schatz won 19 Features in 75 races in the World of Outlaws last season, including the Knoxville Nationals and the Kings Royal. Courtesy of worldofoutlaws.com

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Whether he's running in Sprint Cup or in a Sprint Car, Tony Stewart is never happy unless he wins. He's not only passionate about it, he's obsessive about it. And the drive to win has driven him to championships in not only NASCAR, but also the Indy Racing League and USAC.

Stewart's mindset carries over to short-track teams he owns in USAC and the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. But even Stewart soon found that winning couldn't always mean everything.

Even though he's been claimed USAC championships with regularity, including the last two national Sprint titles with Josh Wise and Levi Jones, the WoO program hasn't met USAC's very lofty expectations. To rectify the situation, Stewart brought in Donny Schatz and Kraig Kinser for the 2008 season, which begins next Feb. 8 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.

Schatz, a 30-year-old from Fargo, N.D., has won the past two WoO titles driving for a family-owned team. Kinser, a 23-year-old from Bloomington, Ind., is returning to the series after a season-and-a-half in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series. He replaced Paul McMahan, eighth in the championship last year, in the existing No. 20 team. Schatz's No. 15 is an expansion to two teams.

Kinser, son of 20-time WoO champion Steve, might come up with a surprising championship run, but Schatz is the driver to beat going into the barnstorming 83-event season.

Schatz won 19 Features in 75 races last season, including the prestigious Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway and the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

"You just look at the paper each week and look at his performance," Stewart said. "Every time you pick up the paper, it's talking about Donny Schatz winning here and Donny Schatz winning there. Then you see him in the race car and you see the confidence he has behind the wheel."

"No matter if he starts in the top two rows or in the back of the pack, he always finds a way to get himself in the hunt and into contention. In my opinion, he's head and shoulders above everybody else right now."

Even Danny Lasoski, who is fifth on the WoO all-time win list with 80 victories and won a title with Stewart in 2001, is picking Schatz as the guy to beat this year.

So, with fingers pointing at Schatz this year, the WoO champion is well aware of the pressure and expectations riding on his shoulder. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

"We've won the last two," he said. "I hate to sound like an arrogant person, but, yes, I want to win the championship. Some say it's harder starting with a new team, but I'm not using any of those excuses."

And Schatz isn't exactly starting fresh. Crew chief Ricky Warner worked with Schatz from mid-2005 through the latter part of 2007, but left his post for Kasey Kahne's WoO team.

Warner left Kahne's team early last season, and since Stewart put in plans for a second team, Warner was hired to put it together.

"Tony asked him who would be a good driver to get and Ricky threw my name into the hat," Schatz said. "With the success we had, Tony didn't think I was looking for other options and I wasn't looking at doing anything else.

" We came out of the first meeting with a handshake done deal. Tony allowed Ricky to race with me for probably two-thirds of the season and they started building up the (new team). They've been working at it eight months."

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