Champions Enjoy The Spoils of Victory During World Finals
Story By; BRENDAN CAPERIA / WRG MEDIA
Photos By: DAVE DALESANDRO /RACERSGUIDE.COM
CONCORD, N.C. –November 1, 2016- The championships may have been decided before the Bad Boy Off Road World of Outlaws World Finals, but that didn’t make the celebrations that concluded Saturday’s night of racing at The Dirt Track at Charlotte any less sweet.
Donny Schatz, Josh Richards and Matt Sheppard were officially crowned World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series, World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series and Super DIRTcar Series champions, respectively, after all three divisions wrapped up their seasons at the four-tenths-mile dirt track.
Schatz closed out the season by winning Saturday’s sprint car finale aboard Tony Stewart’s No. 15 Bad Boy Buggies sprint car. He ended the year with 25 victories, 60 top-five and 77 top-10 finishes as he secured his eighth series championship by a wide margin over Daryn Pittman.
“These teams are who do all the work. They’re the ones who travel up and down the road. Us drivers really get the easy jobs,” said Schatz, who was celebrating his eighth series championship. “You’ve got to be with great people like car owners like Tony Stewart, Bad Boy Off Road, Chevrolet Performance, it takes everybody.
“I’m glad that we’ve had that success and, hopefully, we can keep working hard at it to continue that. Nothing comes easy. We’ll do our best to continue on,” Schatz said. “It’s really overwhelming at this point. It’s something you look back on and just appreciate every moment that you are able to be a part of this great sport.”
Richards, meanwhile, enjoyed a record breaking season in the No. 1 Valvoline Rocket. He closed the season with 18 victories, an all-time series record for most victories in a single season that he set on Friday night at The Dirt Track.
Those 18 victories along with 31 top-five and 36 top-10 finishes helped Richards comfortably claim his fourth World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series championship.
“It has been an incredible year. I just couldn’t be more thankful for everyone involved on that blue No. 1 Rocket house car. It’s a pleasure to drive and there are so many people behind the scenes that work so hard at it,” said Richards, who finished 12th in Saturday’s season finale. “It has just been an incredible year and I just love to race.
“To have the success we’ve had has just been mind blowing. It is something that I could never dream of. We’ve had some awesome years before and I never thought we could top them, but this year definitely tops all of them. This championship to me is as special as the first one,” Richards said.
Sheppard also enjoyed a record-breaking season in the Super DIRTcar Series that culminated with a sweep during the Bad Boy Off Road World of Outlaws World Finals. Sheppard scored his 11th and 12th victories of the year, also setting a single-season victory record for the big-block modified tour.
The championship is even sweeter for Sheppard, now a five-time series champion, because he started his own team prior to the start of the season. He also claimed the Utica-Rome Speedway modified track championship this year, his third track championship at the New York venue.
“I was getting ready to head to Mexico to get married and found out that I didn’t have a car to drive,” Sheppard recalled. “We put this deal together this winter. It was really all about putting the right pieces together. All the right parts and pieces, crew members, personnel, etc. I think we did a really darn good job of it.
“This was a really special year for us. But you know, we’re not going to stop. We’re going to go to work this winter. We want to beat everything we did this year next year,” said Sheppard, who won the series title for a fifth time. “I’ve had a lot of years where I said there is no way we could do any better than this and somehow come out and manage to do better. That’s what we’re going to work for next year.”
