After an unexpected yellow flag flew with four laps remaining at Volusia on Thursday, Donny Schatz was set to do battle with Kyle Larson in the waning moments of the first World of Outlaws season opener.
Although Larson got by for a brief second on the backstretch, it was the 10-time series champion in Schatz bringing home the Gator trophy awarded at the Florida race track.
“It all starts with one night,” Schatz said on DirtVision. “You have to get your first win out of the way. I didn’t really want to run down in the rough stuff, but I’d rather end up on the other side of the fence than run second.”
The yellow flag got brought out by a slowing Brad Sweet, who retired unexpectedly from the race – something he didn’t do once in 2021.
While there’s a plethora of races left to go, Schatz sure got off to a hot start getting out front and holding the lead over Larson on what was a rough surface.
“It was definitely elbows up. It’s nice, growing up in California. It’s like this every night out at Chico… I kind of like the (racing surface) when it’s rough like this. We came up one spot short tonight and hopefully, we’re one spot better tomorrow.”
The second race of the year goes down right away, with night 2 of the action for the series taking place on Friday, once again at Volusia. For fans that can’t make it to the track, they can tune in live to DirtVision.
World of Outlaws Season Opener Results
Volusia Speedway Park
1. Donny Schatz
2. Kyle Larson
3. Aaron Reutzel
4. David Gravel
5. Anthony Macri
6. Justin Peck
7. Logan Schuchart
8. Tyler Courtney
9. James McFadden
10. Sheldon Haudenschild
11. Kerry Madsen
12. Brent Marks
13. Carson Macedo
14. Cory Eliason
15. Danny Dietrich
16. Brad Sweet
17. Brock Zearfoss
18. Spencer Bayston
19. Kasey Kahne
20. Jason Sides
21. Alex Bowman
22. Kraig Kinser
23. Jacob Allen
24. Ayrton Gennetten
25. Bill Rose
26. Gio Scelzi (Scratched)
