GREENWOOD, Neb. — “That looked like the Donny Schatz of old.”
The sentence was said with wonder by some and fear by others. They’ve seen what happens when the 10-time World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champion puts on a performance like he did Friday night at I-80 Speedway for the FVP Platinum Battery Showdown.
Schatz started fourth in the 30-lap Feature and marched his way forward with an iron right foot, taking every position with the force of a determined winner. He had the lead at the conclusion of the first third of the race and then ran away with it.
When the checkered flag waved, Schatz reached it first with a more than three-second lead at the four-tenths-mile track.
It was the 302nd Series win of Schatz’s career and his first at I-80 Speedway – a feat even he was surprised by.
“First win here? Well, that’s always good,” Schatz said. “I know we’ve been fast here in the past. I try to forget about what is behind me. It feels good to win. We didn’t really feel that great in the dash. The guys took a huge swing with the race car and tried to make it better. And it obviously worked.
“That’s what’s fun about it when you can make those huge swings and make something happen.”
David Gravel was the driver to beat throughout the early stages of the night, setting Slick Woody’s Quick Time, winning his heat race and finishing second in the dash. However, once the Feature commenced, the chance at a win slipped through his fingers during its progression.
Carson Macedo, who finished second at I-80 Speedway last year, started from the pole — due to his dash win — and held command out front for the first 10 laps. His Jason Johnson Racing #41 looked smooth and in control in clean air, pulling ahead of the field by more than a second. Once lap traffic came into play around Lap 10, his rocket ship run hit debris and slowed. The timing couldn’t have been worse for the California native as Schatz was like a programmed bullet destined for the lead.
Cruising around the low line, Schatz officially took the top spot from Macedo on lap 11 and was never seen from the other podium contenders again.
“Starting fourth, just tried to make the bottom work from the word go,” Schatz said. “I didn’t really know if that was going to work or not, but I stayed there and stayed there to figure out how to get it going. It worked.”
After Macedo lost the lead to Schatz, early predictions would’ve had him finishing in the runner-up spot as Gravel, in third, had his hands full with Sheldon Haudenschild. They’d be wrong. The NOS Energy Drink No. 17 of Haudenschild started third but fell back early before making his climb. He passed Gravel with 10 laps to go and was able to track down Macedo for second five laps later.
By that point, there was no catching Schatz. Haudenschild had to settle for his second runner-up finish in a row.
“He [Schatz] got a good gap on us,” Haudenschild said. “He started working the bottom early and got around me and the 2 and the 41. He was really good and got a gap. He was able to get to the lappers first and get a good gap. It is what it is. Ran second. Felt good. The car was really good all night.”
Macedo rounded out the podium in third. Behind him was a Roman colosseum-gladiator-flight-to-the-death war for the fourth and fifth spots. Gravel held fourth in the closing laps, but Brock Zearfoss, James McFadden and Gio Scelzi swung slide jobs and threw dive bombs at each other for the final five laps.
McFadden exited the victor, securing fourth-place at the line.
“We struggled early (in the night), I just couldn’t get comfortable for some reason,” McFadden said. “We threw a big setup at it. Something that has worked for us before. We thought we’d give it a crack. We had nothing to lose and it worked a lot. I wish we had a caution there with 10 or 15 laps to go. The car was really truckin’.”
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