Lasoski, Alley, Haase Win on Slideways Night!

Bing Bang Media photo

After last week’s no chance of rain, but pesky drizzle and cancellation, Mother Nature cleared up for a great night of racing this week.  It was another full field with 92 sprint cars entered.  The World of Outlaws event at Lakeside Speedway was rained out early in the morning allowing several teams to drive three hours north to Knoxville to tune up for next week’s Mediacom Shootout. Shane Stewart, Kerry Madsen, Paul McMahan, Jason Sides, Kraig Kinser, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, and Jacob Allen all made the tow. For $15 fans were able to see eight of the thirteen full-time Outlaws. And for $30 you can see all of them this coming Saturday!

Weather conditions at 7:00pm Saturday were 75° and overcast with 65% humidity, winds out of the SE at 11 mph, and a dew point of 62°.  The track widened out quickly and the lap times were slow in time trials but the track was awesome all night long and plenty of room to race.

410 Report
42 cars signed in.  Top eight in qualifying:  Danny Lasoski set quick time for the second time this season with a lap of 15.286 (118 mph), followed by Shane Stewart, Terry McCarl, Brian Brown, Kerry Madsen, David Gravel, Brooke Tatnell, and Jason Sides. Justin Henderson timed 15th and the BDS Motorsports team pulled the engine and put in a new one in time for their heat race. Schuchart and Allen neither timed well and called it a night after time trials.

Heat winners were Matt Moro (front row), Dustin Selvage (front row), Kraig Kinser (front row), and Brian Brown (row three). Seven of the top eight in time trials advanced through their heats to the A Main. Bronson Maeschen finished fifth but went to his pit stall before going to the scales and was DQ’d. Ian Madsen then was awarded fifth place, giving him a transfer spot to the A. Tim Kaeding finished sixth in his heat to put him in the B Main where he would pull in halfway while running second, ending his night. Terry McCarl broke a rear end in his heat, started up front in the B which he won, and then was able to start ninth in the A Main, taking advantage of the new rule this year where the top two in the A get their time spot back, but cannot start better than ninth.

The A-Main went the 20-lap distance non-stop. Danny Lasoski drew the pole in the redraw and led the entire race, making a statement winning over second place Kerry Madsen by eight full seconds. Although Lasoski drove away from the field, the race from second through seventh was awesome! Gravel was running second early and was passed by Ian Madsen, then Kerry Madsen passed them both while Terry McCarl and Brian Brown raced their way into that group. McCarl would take third at the end to make it a full podium of past Knoxville track champions. Gravel would get back by Ian to finish fourth and Ian would round out the top five. Shane Stewart was racing with the leaders and was fifth at halfway, but he jumped the cushion in turn four, lost a few spots, then slowed and pulled in.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (1); 2. Kerry Madsen (6); 3. Terry McCarl (9); 4. David Gravel (2); 5. Ian Madsen (3); 6. Paul McMahan (10); 7. Brian Brown (7); 8. Jason Sides (8); 9. Davey Heskin (11); 10. Kraig Kinser (17); 11. Brooke Tatnell (4); 12. Dusty Zomer (12); 13. Justin Henderson (14); 14. Austin McCarl (18); 15. Bronson Maeschen (13); 16. Lynton Jeffrey (24); 17. Josh Schneiderman (15); 18. Bryan Clauson (22); 19. Dustin Selvage (16); 20. Dakota Hendrickson (20); 21. Tasker Phillips (23); 22. Don Droud Jr. (21); 23. Shane Stewart (5); 24. Matt Moro (19). Lap Leader: Lasoski 1-20. Hard-charger: Jeffrey.

360 Report
28 cars.  Justin Henderson set quick time for the third time this season at 16.144. Clint Garner was second followed by Jamie Ball, Billy Alley, and Russ Hall. Heat winners were Justin Henderson (third row), Nate Van Haaften (second row), and Jack Dover (second row). 

Henderson took off and led most of the distance but late once he got into lapped traffic Billy Alley was able to catch Henderson and pass him as they came to the white flag and Alley would go on to win his 12th career 360 feature at Knoxville. This was Alley’s first visit to Knoxville this season and a well deserved and popular win. 

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Billy Alley (6); 2. Justin Henderson (1); 3. Nate Van Haaften (3); 4. Clint Garner (5); 5. Tony Shilling (8); 6. Calvin Landis (11); 7. Joe Beaver (12); 8. Jack Dover (9); 9. Matt Moro (20); 10. Jon Agan (14); 11. Randy Martin (16); 12. Dustin Clark (10); 13. Tom Lenz (15); 14. Ryan Giles (13); 15. Cody Ledger (18); 16. Jamie Ball (7); 17. Jay Russell (21); 18. Ryan Roberts (19); 19. Ricky Montgomery (23); 20. Sawyer Phillips (4); 21. Keoni Texeira (22); 22. John Hall (17); 23. Alan Zoutte (24); 24. Russ Hall (2). Lap Leaders: Henderson 1-16, Alley 17-18. Hard-charger: Moro.

305 Report
23 cars signed in. Setting quick time was McKenna Haase for the second time this season with a lap of 17.568. Heat winners were Tanner Edwards, Kade Higday, and Mitchell Alexander. McKenna would lead the entire distance of this race and survived five restarts, three yellows and two reds. McKenna’s biggest scare came on the last restart when she missed the bottom going into turn one allowing Stacey Alexander to close in, but McKenna was able to get her tires back underneath her in turn two and pulled away down the backstretch for her second win! The line for autographs and t-shirts at her trailer afterwards was a LONG one.  Devin Kline had a good run going and was running second but pulled in midway.

This race was shorted due to time. For the third feature in a row the 305’s had five yellow/red periods. They are under a 20 minute time limit from the drop of the green flag until they can perform better. After the second red flag the 20 minutes was up and the call was made to go green-white-checkered. Not sure why this year’s class of 305’s are having so much trouble keeping cars together and off the fences, but until they can show improvement this will be the rule.     

305 A Main (started): 1. McKenna Haase (1); 2. Stacey Alexander (6); 3. Christian Bowman (7); 4. Kade Higday (3); 5. Matthew Stelzer (9); 6. Ben Woods (12); 7. Mike Mayberry (13); 8. Brad Comegys (8); 9. Jeff Wilke (14); 10. Tanner Edwards (10); 11. Christopher Scank (17); 12. Mitchell Alexander (15); 13. Lee Patterson (21); 14. Don Dawson III (16); 15. Josh Jones (11); 16. Kevin Hiemstra (19); 17. Kevin Hetrick (5); 18. Chris Walraven (22); 19. Devin Kline (2); 20. Trevor Smith (4); 21. Rob Weuve (18) Lap Leader: Haase 1-10. Hard-charger: Patterson.

Points
Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 203 points. Game Over.
Garner and Van Haaften have a tight race in the 360 class with Garner leading by 33.
Henderson and BDS Motorsports likely will run away with the 360 owners championship.
Stacey Alexander leads McKenna Haase by 73 points.

History and Notes
Lasoski gets win number 103.
Billy Alley wins his 12th 360 feature, now 8th on the 360 wins list.
McKenna is now the only woman to win two sprint car features.
Scott Bogucki is the newest Australian to compete at Knoxville, the 34th Aussie on my list. He is from McLaren Vale, SA. I have a complete list of International driver here.
42 is the highest 410 car count of the season so far.

Lasoski also won the World of Outlaws race the night before at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska, passing Schatz with a couple of laps to go. The Lasoski-Forbrook-Quiring team is strong and Dude’s confidence his higher than it has been in a long time. In my opinion, he is the man most likely to beat Schatz this August, and the preview of that will be this Saturday night when Schatz and the full field of the Outlaws rolls into town!

Chris Walraven needs help raising money yet for Down Syndrome and GiGi’s Playhouse. 

The Outlaws are at Denison, Iowa on Friday and Knoxville Saturday. Hoping for a strong showing from our local "Knoxville Regulars" contingent both nights.