At A Glance: The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Takes on the 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Store
Donny Schatz leads the way as the winner of eight of the last nine Knoxville Nationals
KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Aug. 11, 2015 – The biggest week in sprint car racing is here as the greatest drivers from around the world converge on Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway for the 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Store, August 12 to 15.

Donny Schatz, the reigning World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion and eight time Knoxville Nationals winner, leads the way into the annual event.

As Schatz looks for his fifth straight Nationals win and ninth in 10 years, his fellow Outlaws competitors look to unseat the champion. Schatz knows how to win but he is coy as the Outlaws sound off on Donny and Knoxville.

Donny Schatz, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 Knoxville Nationals Winner, No. 15 Bad Boy Buggies/Chevrolet Performance, Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

Well, I’m obviously not going to tell you! Consistency really helps, the way you run all year long leading into that race. It’s obviously the granddaddy of our whole season so you want to make sure that you capitalize on every opportunity that you have. This race team has done a great job of doing that over the years but things change every day, so you have to adapt to the changes. We’re hoping that we can do that better than everybody else.

What does it mean for you as a driver to win Nationals and how has that changed over the years?

Not winning it is probably one of the hardest things. It really doesn’t owe anybody anything. You have to earn its respect. I firmly believe you have to lose it before you learn how to win it. It’s a whole different mindset at that place. You have to be prepared to be in the right position at the right time is what it’s all about. We’ve got to prepare the best we can to put ourselves in the best position we can.

Jacob Allen, No. 1a Mark Pell Tire Service/Marty Thompson Investments, Shark Racing

This is the 25th anniversary of your father, Bobby Allen’s Knoxville Nationals win. What does that history mean to you, your team and your family?

It means a lot. It’s really special knowing my dad had won the Knoxville Nationals, the biggest sprint car race that you can win. To him, when you talk to him, it almost doesn’t seem as big as what it is to the fans and the competitors who know about my dad winning that race. But it is really special. We take his knowledge and what we know from being on the road the last couple of years, and go to Knoxville with everything we’ve got and hope to be in the show on Saturday.

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

You want to do good throughout the whole program. You start out qualifying Wednesday night and you’ve got to go out and run a good qualifying lap. In the Heat race you want to run where you have to to lock yourself in the show. You’ve got to go there with a good setup, your motor has to be running good and you’ve got to be driving good.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

Donny is great. Their team is great. Everything about their program is great. That’s all out of my reach. The only thing that prevents them from winning is somebody just has to be better.

David Gravel, No. 7 Destiny Motorsports, Destiny Motorsports

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

I just try to treat it like any other race. It’s important for you to qualify good and then the next feat is to get through that heat race. You try to keep your cool. If you can get in the feature after qualifying good, you’re setup for an easy week. Then again, if you qualify bad you could win your heat race and do good in the feature and you’re in the ballgame too. It’s not easy for sure.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

You’ve just got to put yourself in good position. A lot of guys believe if you’re in the right position and you do your job, you can beat him. You’ve just got to get locked in and start up front and see what you can do from there. It’s a long race and a lot of things can happen. You’ve just got to run your own race and if you do your job and your team does their job, you should have a chance at it.

Jason Johnson, No. 41 Priority Aviation/Mesilla Valley Transportation, Jason Johnson Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

Well, it’s probably just the whole package. Not only do you have to have great racecars and good engines, you’ve got to be surrounded by great people. When it’s all working and clicking, it’s a lot of fun. That’s the key to success.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

I think everybody knows he’s the class of the field whether it’s at Knoxville or anywhere right now. It’s going to be tough. For somebody to beat Donny on his game, they’re going to have to be remarkable. To beat Donny because luck or something didn’t fall his way in the last 10 or 12 years, that’s a different story. There’s no doubt he’s the guy to beat.

Kraig Kinser, 2005 Knoxville Nationals Winner, No. 11k Mesilla Valley Transportation, Steve Kinser Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

You’ve got to be solid going in there. You’ve got to know where your program is at. You’ve got to have luck on your side. You’ve got to put together multiple great nights to have a chance there. With as stout as the competition is, any little thing can hurt your chances.

You are one of the only Outlaws regulars right now who has actually won Nationals. What does that win mean to you?

To me, it means everything. It’s the biggest race for sprint cars and it’s just one of those races everybody wants to win. It’s what all of us in this sport thrive to get to. It’s definitely a special race – it would be nice to be able to back up in victory lane again.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

Like I said, you’ve got to have a good car. A little good luck wouldn’t hurt. He’s got that place figured out. He’s pretty well dialed in Knoxville and coming into Nationals this year he looks as strong as ever. It’s going to be extra tough. You need him to slip up a little bit to have a really good weekend.

Kerry Madsen, No. 29 American Racing Custom Wheels, Keneric Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

It’s just a step-by-step process. As long as you do reasonably well in that process you’re going to be in a good position on Saturday. We feel like we’ve put all the homework in, we’ve had a good package there for the last two years. You know you just can’t put the cart before the horse. You’ve got have a good qualifying night and get in a good position.

Among the Outlaws you probably have the most laps around Knoxville. How does that help you at the track?

That’s a double-edged sword. Usually when you have a lot of laps around Knoxville, the Nationals are not quite what you’re used to on a local level. It’s a lot simpler to go to a track when you’re confident – we’re not going to over think or over analyze anything.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

Just do our job. If he’s up in front up he’s going to be a factor but you can’t worry about Donny. You’ve just got to get everything the best you can and if we do everything right, we can be on the top of the podium.

Paul McMahan, No. 51 CJB Motorsports/Bair’s Tree Service, CJB Motorsports

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

Beat Donny Schatz.

How do you do that?

That’s a good question. I don’t know. We go in with our same package and we’ve been pretty good there. It’s a stressful night because you race all year for that one weekend. The way I look at it, I want my number on that board every time you hit the race track. If my number is on the top-five on the board every time you hit the race track, I’ll have a pretty good weekend. My game plan is to qualify well, do well in our heat race and go from there. We know we can beat Donny – he’s not invincible. There’s Kryptonite for Superman. We’ve just got to be on our game.

Daryn Pittman, No. 9 Great Clips, Kasey Kahne Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

It’s all about putting yourself in position to have a chance. That starts from your first two qualifying laps on your first two qualifying nights. That’s the cool part about Knoxville – you don’t luck into that win. There are just so many things that have to be right. It’s not about getting your car right for one race, it’s about getting your car right for four or five races, and every time you’re on the race track to get good points. You hope to put all the pieces together.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

I’m not sure. We’re not really focused on the 15 or anyone else. We just focus on our car and control what we can with our team. We know the guys we have to beat. You maybe watch them and what they’re doing, what line they’re running, what they’ve done during certain times of the race. For the most part though all that goes out the window and we just focus on our team and our setup.

Joey Saldana, No. 71m Motter Equipment, Motter Motorsports

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

I believe the biggest thing is to treat it like any other race. It’s a pretty slow week. It is really not that grueling compared to what these World of Outlaws teams are used to, traveling race track to race track to race track. So, really it’s nice to go to one track and hang out there for a week. You want to go there and run well because it can be a huge benefit for your team, especially a team like ours. It can make or break your whole year.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

There’s a lot of things. I’ve been really, really good there and run second to Donny three times. Two of them I felt like Donny didn’t have the best car. I felt like Donny had a car that could have won two Knoxville Nationals and one of them he started on the pole and I started ninth. In the other I was leading and my left front side board fell off with four to go. If you look at it that way as a driver, as a team, you look at the positives. Yeah Donny has won eight of them but realistically the car I was in two years should have won it. I know we can do it, I know we have the speed to do it. I’ve got a feeling somebody different is going to win this year, so maybe it will be us.

Logan Schuchart, No. 1s Mark Pell Tire Service/Marty Thompson Investments, Shark Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

Well, I haven’t had much success at the Nationals, yet. The best run I’ve had is making the B main two years ago. I think that was just the luck of going out there one of the first times. I feel like we know a lot more now and have a better chance this year. I’m looking forward to Nationals. It means a lot to our family. It is the 25th anniversary of my grandpa (Bobby Allen) winning the Nationals. I feel like we know a lot more, we have fast racecars and we have a chance of doing good.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

I think when people start focusing on one person it just makes you worse. We’re trying to make ourselves better. If Donny is dominating that much, you go there and run second and eventually he’s going to mess up. You’ve got to go there and focus on yourself and making yourself better.

Jason Sides, No. 7s Wetherington Tractor Service, Sides Motorsports

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

The biggest thing is getting everything prepared before you go. Having your cars ready, your motors that you plan on running. The biggest thing is luck of the draw. You’ve got to draw early, get a good qualifying time, make it through your heat race and then you’ve got to be in the show to do any good. Everything goes from that point on.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

The biggest thing is you’ve got to be in the show. It is a long race. You’ve got to conserve some in the first 25 laps before running hard. You can still win it from 23rd, Donny has shown that. It can be won from the back, it can be won from the front. Your car just has to be good, you have to have a good running motor and have everything work just right.

Shane Stewart, No. 2 Eneos/GoPro/Kick-It, Larson Marks Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

Knoxville is a different animal. First of all, you’ve got to put down two really good laps. And then second of all, they invert the heat races and you’ve got to get to the top-three in your heat. If you can do that, it’s a huge, huge sigh of relief. If you can do that, you’ve got work hard to keep your nose clean in the feature and get as many points as you can. In years past I’ve started in the back and gone up front and then I’ve been up front and gone to the back. I feel like you’ve got to have the trials and tribulations to win the race. We’re due. I like to race there, I feel comfortable there, I like the whole atmosphere there. It would be pretty special to win there.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

To beat him you’ve got to be exceptionally good at the bottom of the race track. That’s where he kills all of us. That’s where you can cut some crazy time and catch people in a hurry. You’ve got to cut some good lap times on the bottom of the race track and if we can do that, you’re going to have a good shot of winning the race.

Brad Sweet, No. 49 Razor Back Professional Tools, Kasey Kahne Racing

What are the keys as a team and as a driver to being successful at Knoxville?

There’s a lot of things. The first thing is that you have to be fast. There are things that luck plays into, like pill draw, but the one thing that will get you out of that is if you are fast. You have a lot of different chances at Knoxville to make up points. If you have speed that’s what is going to make the Knoxville Nationals successful.

Coming into Knoxville Nationals, Donny Schatz is the driver to beat. How do you approach the dominance of one driver?

If the casino were setting the odds, it would be Donny against the field. In racing, there’s luck, there are lots of things that play into it. There’s mechanical failure. For them to overcome that is pretty unbelievable. But at some point somebody is going to hit on something and give them a run for their money. I think you see it every year. Brian Brown, last year, had a chance to actually run right there with Donny. He did it the year before. And Joey in ’09 and Jason Meyers in 2011 and Tim Shaffer beat him one year. There’s always someone who is close. Donny has the experience and confidence right now. They’re definitely tough to beat but I wouldn’t say they’re not beatable.