If Donny Schatz is going to win his sixth consecutive World of Outlaws Sprint Car championship and 11th overall, he will have to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.
Well, not exactly, but the Tony Stewart Racing ace is going to have to get past a cold start he hasn't experienced in six years …
Spoilers: He's not worried.
Interesting #WoO fact: This is the first time Donny Schatz has gone winless in the first three races since *2013* – https://t.co/TqIJeNC1YM
"It's funny that people even come up with dumbass stats like this, to be honest with you," Schatz told Autoweek after the first half of the FVP Platinum Battery Showdown at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. "We're three races into the season and someone is talking about going winless.
"There are 93 races on the schedule, and last I checked, the banquet is in November and that's when they write the check. We’ll stay on the path that we’ve been on for the past 20 years and see how that works. "
Schatz is third on the all-time World of Outlaws win list with 283 victories and is coming off his sixth consecutive season of more than 20 tour victories.
Schatz finished third in the third race of the season on Wednesday night, following finishes of fifth and third at Volusia Speedway Park during Florida Speedweeks.
But the 41-year-old has a working theory for why numbers like this are even brought up.
"It's crazy to me how much people wish bad on you or look for something to nitpick when you've had success," Schatz said. "It's the nature of the beast. There's always someone digging for something."
But truthfully, that stat was floated out there on Wednesday night as a reflection of just how dominant Schatz has been over the past two decades.
He wins early and he wins often.
And should he win on Thursday at Las Vegas, that stat will just be slightly modified moving forward.
The North Dakota native feels like victory lane has only eluded him due to circumstances and bad luck — certainly not due to new crew chief Steve Swenson, with Rick Warner spearheading the Ford sprint car engine program.
"Everyone is working hard, and it doesn’t matter if it’s your first year or your 20th year, you have to be consistent before you can win," he said. "We take it one step at a time. Certain things have changed over the winter, we’ve had some tough draws and it’s sometimes hard to win from 11th."
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