Donny Schatz shared what his plans for retirement will be when he decides to retire from Sprint Car racing.
Schatz shared his plans during the most recent episode of DIRTVision’s Pit Bull, where host Conner Wade asked him if he had any plans to retire similarly to Dave Blaney or if he had a dream retirement situation. Blaney retired after winning the Lou Blaney Memorial at Sharon Speedway in 2024. He said in victory lane, “It’s big. This is a race Dale and I try to win every year. To beat that guy in my last race. To beat Danny in my last race because I am officially done right now. There’s no better way to retire than to win this one. It was awesome!”
Dave Blaney closed out his racing career in style, winning then announcing his retirement in his post-race interview. 🏁
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Schatz shared, “It’s not going to be a one race situation, Conner. I haven’t spent my whole life for 30 years to try to win 300+ races to just all of a sudden win one and say I’m done. I kind of ultimately respect the guy who’s paved the way for all this and that’s Steve Kinser. The way he did it is the way I want to do it. He said, “Alright, this is it. This is my final go around. I owe it to my fans. I owe it to my partners, to my family. This is going to be my final year.’ And that way you kinda hype things up. It’s not just like it’s a shock, like a one race thing, everybody’s waiting for one thing to happen. It’s kinda planned out on your own terms and that’s kinda my philosophy for what’s best for my family. My mom’s been a huge part of this the whole time. My father’s gone so I’d like to do it that way if I can.”
“It’s just I don’t see that anywhere in the next year or two, maybe, I guess. Some of this [crap] doesn’t start changing in racing. Believe me, I’m having fun, but sometimes the racing part of it’s not near as fun as it should be or what it used to be. Let’s just say that.”
“You’ll know when it’s time,” he added. “It’s not going to be over one race. I can tell you that. I’m not going to win Haubstadt and retire. I can assure you that because I’m not going to win at Haubstadt. I would just like to do it on my own terms and do it one race at a time over the course of a year.”
Don’t worry… Donny will make sure we know when it’s his last year.
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