Can Brian Brown Win?

Brian Brown is the grandson of George Lasoski, nephew of four-time Knoxville Nationals champion Danny Lasoski, and he has been the runner-up the past two years at Knoxville the second Saturday night of August.  But this year is it Brown’s year to get it done?  Can he win the big one?  After a rough start to the season in 2014 he is certainly on a roll as of late and peaking at the right time winning the 24^th annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals and the 19^th annual Front Row Challenge. One more race to go in Southern Iowa Speed Week. Can he make it a clean sweep? It’s time to find out as his journey begins on Thursday night at the 54^th annual FVP Knoxville Nationals, presented by Casey’s General Store.



EA: Congratulations on your win at the 360 Nationals! You can add that to your resume, finally.
BB: It feels great! We’ve been coming here 15 years and it seems like 100 years. It seems like something always goes wrong. We had a really good car all week long. The key part of the night was clean air, to get up there against the cushion and not make any mental mistakes was key.  It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  The guys gave me a flawless car and fortunately the driver didn’t mess it up. This is the biggest win of my career! 

EA: You have three 410 wins at Knoxville this season, how do you get it done at the Nationals?
BB: Sounds easy huh. We can’t worry about Saturday until we get through Thursday. It starts with the pill draw, qualifying, the heat, you have to put a good night together to keep yourself in contention. If you worry about how you’re going to beat Schatz or how I’m going to run on lap 31 on Saturday, you will be in the D-Main real quick here, so we have to stay very focused on the task at hand. We have one of the fastest cars here each week and we seem to be peaking at the right time.  I feel like if we go do our job and put ourselves in contention we will be in the hunt.  This is a big week for us with FVP and Casey’s the sponsors of the race, so it doesn’t get to be much more pressure than that. We have been waiting all year for this opportunity and I think we will be ready.

EA: The competition level at Knoxville each week this year has been stellar with you, Henderson, McCarl, Dollansky, Lasoski, Maeschen, Madsen, Heskin, Zomer, etc. Do you feel that is going to help you and the Knoxville Championship Cup Series drivers come the week of the Nationals?
BB: 100% it will.  I’ve been going to Knoxville as long as I can remember and I don’t remember the weekly program ever being this tough.  I think what that is going to turn into is that we will be more prepared as a team ourselves, but also as a group, as a whole, versus in the past maybe we only had two or three fast cars.  I’m looking forward to seeing how we stack up and all of the Knoxville teams in general. I think this is one of the best shots we have had to beat the Outlaws teams. If we want to be the best group in the country and say we have the toughest weekly program in the country, we need to beat them. Hopefully if we can’t do it someone else can. I think it will be exciting for the drivers and the fans to cheer for the locals, it makes it more fun for everyone.

EA: You guys had a tough stretch to start the season out west with the Outlaws. Seems like a long time ago now, but it has to be gratifying to be back home and be winning.
BB: It wasn’t easy. We started off good at Vegas and qualified well, came from third to lead the heat race and blew a tire and that messed that night up. Over in Tucson we were leading the dash and a 60mph gust of wind took three of the top five guys out and in to the fence. Then we go to Tulare and had a bad wreck there. We didn’t just tear up cars, I banged myself up as well with a concussion and it took a good 6 weeks before I felt like I was back to my old self. It was a tough stretch. We came back home and had some good luck at Knoxville when our season started here, and to start the year we didn’t feel like we were quite where we needed to be, we seemed just a bit off, and we tried and tested some things and we had some success and failures along the way.

EA: Doug Wolfgang used to say every race was practice for the Knoxville Nationals? Do you feel the same way?
BB: Yes. It’s no surprise or hidden secret how much we want to win that race. You start thinking about that race the day after the last one is over. You wake up every single day thinking, how can we get better, and everything within our program we think is this going to help us at Knoxville. And when you have had some success at the Nationals you have to keep working and plugging away at it. Just because you ran second the last two years doesn’t mean a thing.  You have to keep preparing each single year, so everything we do up until the Thursday of the Knoxville Nationals is practice as far as I’m concerned.

EA: From my track historian perspective, it is great to see you at functions around the track celebrating our history and attending the NSCHoF inductions.
BB:  Thank you.  I have been to a few of those things. I think Bob Baker and everyone at the Hall of Fame does a marvelous job. I have been to a few of those, when Danny was inducted and others, and this year I think the election committee got it right with this class voting in guys I idolized as a kid like Mark Kinser, Bobby Davis Jr., Dave Blaney, Dave Argabright, and Chuck Merrill who has been a big part of my career with Maxim Chassis. It’s cool to go to those. I’m a race car driver, but first and foremost I’m a fan and that is what excites me. I say every year to people, if I could choose to go somewhere for a whole week during the year I wouldn’t go to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, I would go to Knoxville, Iowa.

EA: This might be one of Steve Kinser’s last Nationals, what are you best memories of Steve Kinser? 
BB: I never had heroes who were baseball players, football players, basketball players, or what have ya. I wanted to be a race car driver and my heroes were Danny Lasoski, Steve Kinser, Doug Wolfgang, Sammy Swindell, I idolized those guys. Being Danny’s nephew I wanted Danny to beat those guys at times. But when you get the opportunity to race it changes. I can remember my first WoO race in the Casey’s 6 car out at Las Vegas and we got lucky enough to start in the front or second row of the four wide and I looked to my left and there was Steve Kinser and to my right was Sammy Swindell and I remember thinking, man I gotta get my head in the game here. These are my heroes beside me and I have to race against them. As time goes on I think you forget that you’re racing against your heroes. One of my prized possessions is the shield of Steve Kinser from his 500^th Outlaws win and that sits on my desk today.

EA: A while back you mentioned that you would like to be a race promoter down the road some day. Have you given that more serious thought recently at all, or is that still a ways out?
BB: It’s a real thing. Hopefully me and couple of partners are going to promote some races here coming up in the next few years. We want to do some 410 shows on a Wednesday or Friday night throughout the Midwest. We want it to be similar to a Knoxville weekly purse. You look at California and they have a strong 410 series, Pennsylvania has a strong program, and all we have around here is Knoxville. If we can figure out a way to boost that it would be good. The talent in the area is so good right now and I think we would put on a good show if we went to Denison, Iowa on a Friday or an I-80 or Eagle on a Wednesday and not really do it to make money, but have good shows where we don’t lose money so we have more shows for teams to race a 410 more.  Memorial Day weekend we raced twice around here, and years ago we could race five or six nights straight in the Midwest. We need more 410 races in our area and it’s going to take someone going out on a limb to promote them.

EA: Wow, that is interesting news there, thank you for sharing with me.    
BB: Me and some people have had some talks and maybe we will try to do a couple next year and if it goes well do more the following year.

EA: A lot of people are hoping you can beat Schatz. Can you win the Nationals?
BB: That’s our goal. We are kind of in a small box here. We are good enough to run second but not good enough to win. A lot of that falls back on to my shoulders. There have been times where I feel we have had a better car than him and I just got outdrove. I have to step up mentally, physically, and as a driver and beat him and find a way. When you get into these positions you have to find a way to do it and beat him, because you don’t know how many opportunities you are going to have. If we can pull it off I feel it would be as special to the fans as it would for me and our team. But nothing happens until we put ourselves in position and we are going to work hard to do it, but if we don’t we will work even harder next year.

Brian Brown Racing would like to thank Casey’s General Stores, FVP, Searsboro Telephone Company, MC Power, Impact Signs Awnings Wraps / impact4800.com, Champion Brands, DNA Energy, Ditzfeld Transfer, Maxim Racing, Smiley’s Racing Products, Enco Tools, Weld Wheels, Housby Trucks, www.RateWin.com, Arctic Cat, K&N, www.hostiowa.net, FSR Race Products, TI64, Fuel-Safe Tanks, Wolfe Eye Clinic, Bell Helmets, Hinchman, CP Pistons, Carrillo Rods, Vortex Wings, Penray, All Pro Cylinder Heads, Butler Built Seats, AkzoNobel, Kenny's Components, www.AllDayParts.com, Tru Square, Jack Links, Deli Express, Snap-On Tools, Rod End Supply, KSE Racing Products, Winters Performance, Cometic Gaskets, Shell Shock, Donovan, ISC Racers Tape, Kinsler Fuel Injection, Racing Optics, Mothers Wax, Hoosier Tires, Klein RV, XYZ Machining, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Red Devil Brakes, Schoenfeld Headers, 6B Apparel, Bosch, Garrett Racing Engines, MSD, Moyle Racing Engines, Fortress Wealth Management, Legacy, Flexzilla and WSIB Insurance for all their support!