In news that everyone saw coming, Donny Schatz scored his 17th win in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series this weekend. Slightly less expected, Schatz also won NLRA Late Model features on back-to-back nights.

On Thursday night, Schatz ran over the border to the Red River Co-Op Speedway in Winnipeg, Canada. Schatz started second in the feature after winning his heat, sandwiched between Mike Balcaen, the track's weekly points leader and Amber Balcaen's dad, and Don Shaw, who led the first 10 laps of the race before Schatz took the lead on a restart.

Shaw started to sink to the back of the pack and had to end his race two laps early. Balcaen was in contention for a top five finish until he faded toward the end, finishing 18th. Schatz won the event with a four-second buffer to second-place Cole Schill. Ricky Weiss, Shane Edginton, and Brad Seng rounded out the top five.

On Friday night, the NLRA Late Models crossed back into America for the second night of the Can-Am challenge. The Late Models opened the show for the World of Outlaws Sprints in their first event since the end of the Knoxville Nationals last week -- an event Schatz also won. Both groups took to racing at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota, on Saturday night, and both fields had the same view at the end of 25 laps: a green and black No. 15 crossing the finish line first.

Schatz earned his second NLRA win of the year and fourth all-time. His first two wins in this series came at River Cities Speedway in 2014 and 2015. Schatz gave credit where it was due to his crew members that work on the Late Model all year.

"It's been a pretty incredible week. Pretty surreal actually," Schatz said. "We expected the wins in in the Sprint car, but when I get in this [Late Model], as good as the race car has been, it's pretty incredible. I've got a guy that works on it 24-7-365, so when you work on it, it's going to show."

Zach Naastad took an early lead on lap one and maintained it for three circuits before retiring. That handed the lead to Ricky Weiss for the next 12 laps. Schatz took the lead with 10 laps remaining from the third-starting Weiss. Schatz started the feature fourth.

When the World of Outlaws Sprint car crew asked Schatz what he learned from racing the differently configured and heavier-bodied Late Model, the eight-time champion and current points leader replied, "I learned that I am not in as good of shape as I think I am."


 
It was time for the Sprints to hop into action on Friday night, and Schatz was refreshed. He started fifth behind Sheldon Haudenschild, Jason Sides, Shane Stewart, and Brad Sweet.

Haudenschild led the first eight laps of the feature until he bobbled on the backstretch, opening up the lane for Sweet to take the lead. Two laps later, Haudenschild fell to third as Schatz made his way to second just before Austin Pierce brought out the second caution of the night on lap 10.

Two laps later, the race was red-flagged for Thomas Kennedy, who flipped while going down the backstretch, ending his night. It took four laps for Schatz to catch up to and make the pass on Sweet who flew off the restart.

One circuit after Schatz took the lead, the final caution of the night waved for as Dominic Scelzi, who was running sixth at the time. The race was green for the remaining eight laps. Schatz and Sweet swapped the lead for two laps before Schatz was able to regain and pull away on lap 19 as the duo hit lapped traffic.

"It's a huge weekend for this race team," Schatz said from his second Victory Lane of the night. "Speaking of this race team… it is incredible what they do and an honor to drive their race car."

Sweet was happy with his finish, knowing that he could have done better but that he lost to the best.

"The Ollie's Bargain Outlet car was fast all night," Sweet said. "I probably should have ran the bottom, but it's hard to judge traffic when you are the leader. Donny's always the guy to beat here, we'll take our second and move on."

Kerry Madsen rounded out the podium, and Daryn Pitman and Jason Johnson hung on to top five finishes.

World Of Outlaws Top 10 Finishers
1. Donny Schatz
2. Brad Sweet
3. Kerry Madsen
4. Daryn Pittman
5. Jason Johnson
6. Mark Dobmeier
7. Paul McMahan
8. Sheldon Haudenschild
9. Shane Stewart
10. David Gravel
Complete Results with heat and B-Main finishes