from the EDITOR THREE THINGS

By Justin Zoch

Donny

I was thrilled to see Donny Schatz win this year’s Knoxville Nationals. I wasn’t alone. I knew I’d type that sentence one day but I didn’t think we were quite there yet. It had only been three Nationals since Donny had won it all but when you’ve won 10 of 12 and lose three straight, people start to wonder if the magic is gone.

Schatz rolled into Knoxville this year with just one win on the WoO tour to his name but came with a killer attitude all week and said prior to the A-main on a live mic at the track that he was “done with seconds.” Its hard for a guy that has won so much to regain the crowd’s sentiment but Schatz’s struggles on tour this year, his unique Ford powerplant and the loss of his father in the lead-up to the Nationals made Schatz a sentimental pick to grab the title and it was certainly a popular win for a guy that most fans just simply grew tired of seeing win.

With this score, Schatz is one win behind Steve Kinser for most all-time titles but I think this one could be his most impressive win ever given the personal loss and the level of competition that arrived in Knoxville this year. There was no less than 20 cars capable of winning this year and I cannot recall that ever being the case when Schatz was creating his legacy and piling up Nationals wins.

High Limit

Kyle Larson is on to something (or maybe he’s just up to something but that will have to wait for history to determine) and has partnered with fellow racer – and brother-in-law – Brad Sweet to create a new series for 410 winged sprint cars called the High Limit Sprint Car Series. The NASCAR champ has been moonlighting midweek in just about every kind of car you can imagine over the past few years –midgets, late models, sprints (both dirt and pavement) – and believes that there is a chance for more racers to make money from Monday to Thursday.

“There’s somebody that puts out a Tweet every month or so with the top 12 earners in Late Models and it’s not even close to Sprint Cars. I want to get Sprint Car racers up to what that is. That was kind of the goal of mine. It’s not about me making money. I want guys in Sprint Cars to be able to go race for a million dollars in earnings throughout the year, and I think this is a good start to that.”

The series will feature around a dozen races next year that pay in excess of $20,000-to-win and will rely on Kyle’s sponsor – Flo Racing – to broadcast and create revenue streams. Flo and Larson are a powerful partnership and Kyle’s willingness to challenge the status quo – right or wrong – will be the storyline over the next few seasons. He’s already threatened to skip the Chili Bowl over what he feels is an unfair purse and this kind of activism has to make the sanctions and promoters either very nervous or very anxious to get in line with Larson.

Its early in the game and everyone is saying the right things but the relationship between High Limit/Flo and WoO/DIRTVision is going to be the most intriguing off track drama of the next few years.

Dennis Krieger

I’ve had the pleasure of assembling magazines as an editor for over 20 years through various publications and this is the first time in over two decades I sent out a newsletter to our amazing group of contributors and photographer Dennis Krieger’s name was not on my list. Krieger passed away on July 1 and will be forever missed in the trenches at racetracks across America.

Krieger was based in Middleton, Iowa, and 34 Raceway in Burlington was forever and always home but he also spent his life traveling the country from Florida to Indiana to Oklahoma and was a visionary shooter and one of the best of best according to his peers. DK was quick to help new photographers and was always full of good gossip and leads for guys like me looking for scoops. Whenever a Krieger image was featured on a magazine, he tracked down an autograph of the subject and got an extra copy for me. I’ll treasure my Dave Darland signed FlatOut even more now. He was a great friend and he chased his favorite sport until the very end. Thanks for sharing all that beautiful art with us, Krieg.