Big actors love a big stage. Donny Schatz led all 40 laps of the 40th Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway to record his sixth victory in one of sprint cars biggest races. This victory places Schatz just one away from tying Steve Kinser for the most overall in this iconic event.
For the 13th time in his career, Schatz earned a six-figure paycheck after pocketing $175,000 for the victory.
“I think it’s the adversity lately,” a visibly emotional Schatz explained why this win was so special. “We’re not performing the way we want, and tonight we did. These guys brought a car down from upstairs with a two-year-old motor there. Obviously, it runs pretty damn good.
“We tried a lot of different stuff this week. We came here in May, and we were really good, but the racetrack is different. It just takes everything you can get. These guys just kept digging. There isn’t anybody in this pit area that wants to run seventh, eighth, twelfth, sixteenth, but we’ve done that. Tonight, I don’t know what you say. I guess the stars lined up.”
Schatz cruised to an easy win in the feature, but he was forced to dig deep in his prelim. Qualifying 24th for the night, he started third in Heat 6. Schatz got into second in that race quickly, but with a large car and so many heats, that would place him 12th on the grid. Winning Heat 6 would place him on the pole, so he elbowed his way past Aaron Reutzel for the position.
Schatz grabbed the early Kings Royal lead and did not look back.
“I don’t remember a race even being that pace,” Schatz said. “That was wide open for 40 laps. I just told Scuba (crew chief, Steve Swenson) I don’t know if there’s much left there. I used every bit of it. Normally that’s not the case here, but we got that rain, and it’s been a little bit choppy in spots all week. I don’t think it was as bad as it is, but when you get behind someone in dirty air, and you hit that stuff, I mean I did it last night. That’s why I wasn’t going to try to tear the car up. You don’t want to try to do that. We want to race for championships. Tonight doesn’t really count for that, but it sure does count for a $175,000 payday and this pretty damn cool crown.”
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Last year Brent Marks beat Schatz to the line by 2.4 seconds. This year, he had to settle for the runner-up position. Marks’ path was more difficult after starting the race 11th.
Points leader David Gravel ran second to Schatz for most of the race until he was passed in the late stages by Marks.
“Track position was huge there, and it just wasn’t in my cards tonight,” Gravel said. “I had one opportunity on that one restart to get by him and couldn’t clear him, and after that he was gone. I didn’t even see him at the end. He definitely was the dominant car tonight and it showed, and the fastest car won.”
After winning the 92nd heat race of his career, Sheldon Haudenschild finished fourth in the main.
For the second straight year, Kyle Larson finished fifth. He won the 37th Kings Royal in 2021.
Feature Results
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 15-Donny Schatz[1]; 2. 19-Brent Marks[11]; 3. 2-David Gravel[4]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 5. 57-Kyle Larson[15]; 6. 24-Rico Abreu[20]; 7. 83-James McFadden[16]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo[21]; 9. 9-Kasey Kahne[8]; 10. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[13]; 11. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[24]; 12. 7S-Robbie Price[18]; 13. 42-Sye Lynch[23]; 14. 11-Cory Eliason[17]; 15. (DNF) 9P-Parker Price Miller[2]; 16. (DNF) 71-Shane Stewart[7]; 17. (DNF) 55-Kerry Madsen[6]; 18. (DNF) 39M-Lance Dewease[5]; 19. (DNF) 18-Giovanni Scelzi[22]; 20. (DNF) 21H-Brady Bacon[14]; 21. (DNF) 8-Aaron Reutzel[12]; 22. (DNF) 1M-Landon Myers[9]; 23. (DNF) 13-Justin Peck[19]; 24. (DNF) 39-Hunter Schuerenberg[10]
Last Chance Qualifier
1, Carson Macedo [1], 2. Giovanni Scelzi [4], 3. Sye Lynch [2], 4. Sam Hafertepe Jr. [6], 5. Brad Sweet [5], 6. Tim Shaffer [10], 7. Logan Schuchart [9], 8. Lachlan McHugh [8], 9. McKenna Haase [3], 10. Brian Brown [11], 11. Cole Macedo [15], 12. Daryn Pittman [12], 13. T.J. Stutts [24], 14. Justin Whittall [20], 15. Zeb Wise [13], 16. Cody Bova [23], 17. Noah Gass [21], 18. Spencer Bayston [16], 19. Brock Zearfoss [14], 20, Zach Hampton [19], 21. Harli White [22], 22. Austin Bishop [17], 23. C.J. Leary [7], 24. Jacob Allen [18]