The Lasoski Reign Continues

Mother Nature tried to spoil our night with a rain shower just past the 5:00pm hour. After a good 15 minute rain and assessing the situation it was decided to try to get the races in with a pushed back start time to 9:00pm, and cars hit the track around 9:15pm. Thankfully the car count was the lowest of the year and we finished at 12:44am with no B Main’s needed. The track was fast, tacky, and narrow, but we got the race in.

We didn’t have Dusty Zomer or Tim Kaeding on this night, they opted to race with the World of Outlaws in Huron, SD instead of driving to Knoxville with a high chance of rain. We did gain some visitors however with car owner Keith Kunz making his sprint car debut at Knoxville with Christopher Bell. That team might be back this coming week as they try to get some laps in before the Knoxville Nationals. We also welcomed two-time Little 500 champion Jacob Wilson, who competed earlier in the day in the USAC Silver Crown event in Newton. Jordyn Brazier made his Knoxville and United States debut on Saturday, he is the son of Garry who will also be competing at Knoxville later this summer.

410 Report
27 cars signed in. Time Trials top eight was Justin Henderson 14.605 (ninth fastest lap all-time at Knoxville), Lasoski, Brown, Heskin, Madsen, Moeller, Jeffrey, Tatnell.

Heat race winners were Christopher Bell (front row), Dakota Hendrickson (front row), Brian Brown (row three). Glenn Saville lost a right rear in his heat and flipped hard in turns one and two, the wheel ended up hitting the NSCHoF&M but no damage. Saville was OK.

The A-Main saw Ian Madsen pull away early but once the leaders got to traffic Justin Henderson was able to catch Madsen and get by him on lap seven. On lap eight Brian Brown was running fourth and crashed after contact with a lapped car that ended his night. The race appeared to be Henderson’s as the laps clicked off, but as he entered turn three on lap 18 his front nose panel came off and flew up into the wing mounts and roll cage, blocking his view causing him to slow and roll to a stop. Lasoski inherited the lead and drove away from there. Jeffrey made a nice run to finish third from his eighth starting position. Selvage had a nice run as well starting 17th to finish ninth. Henderson finished 12th.

410 A Main Finish (started): 1. Danny Lasoski (2); 2. Ian Madsen (1); 3. Lynton Jeffrey (8); 4. Brooke Tatnell (7); 5. Davey Heskin (3); 6. Bronson Maeschen (10); 7. Terry McCarl (9); 8. Josh Schneiderman (11); 9. Dustin Selvage (17); 10. Craig Dollansky (18); 11. Christopher Bell (13); 12. Justin Henderson (4); 13. RJ Johnson (12); 14. Chris Martin (19); 15. AJ Moeller (6); 16. Bobby Mincer (24); 17. Ryan Bunton (20); 18. Jordyn Brazier (21); 19. Bob Weuve (23); 20. Scott Bogucki (16); 21. Brian Brown (5); 22. Austin McCarl (15); 23. Dakota Hendrickson (14); 24. Tasker Phillips (22) DNS – Glen Saville, Mark Johnson, Jacob Wilson. Lap Leaders: Madsen 1-6, Henderson 7-17, Lasoski 18-20. Hard-charger: Selvage.

360 Report
22 cars. Justin Henderson was quick time for the fourth time this season followed by Garner, Ball, Landis, VanHaaften, Beaver, Shilling, and Moro. Heat race winners were Russ Hall (first row), Rand Martin (first row), and Sawyer Phillips (first row).    

Clint Garner drew the front row and led the entire distance to get his first feature win of the year. Van Haaften and Henderson had a nice battle for second for a while before Henderson grabbed it. Russ Hall, Jon Agan, and Jamie Ball all had problems and pulled in as all three of those teams have had some bad luck in recent weeks.

360 A Main Finish (started): 1. Clint Garner (2); 2. Justin Henderson (4); 3. Nate Van Haaften (1); 4. Joe Beaver (6); 5. Calvin Landis (3); 6. Matt Moro (7); 7. Dustin Clark (9); 8. Ryan Giles (10); 9. Tony Shilling (8); 10. Sawyer Phillips (14); 11. Ricky Montgomery (11); 12. Dakota Hendrickson (19); 13. Keoni Texeira (13); 14. Randy Martin (16); 15. Tom Lenz (15); 16. John Hall (21); 17. John Anderson (19); 18. Jamie Ball (5); 19. Tyler Brooks (18); 20. Jon Agan (20); 21. Russ Hall (12) DNS – Alan Zoutte. Lap Leader: Garner 1-18. Hard-charger: Hendrickson.

305 Report
23 cars.  Trevor Smith set quick time at 16.820, a new track record. McKenna Haase was second quick followed by Kline, Bowman, Stelzer, Kautz, Wilke, and Edwards. Heat winners were Jeff Wilke (second row), Stacey Alexander (first row), and Joe Simbro (first row).   

Matthew Stelzer was out front early but his engine laid down on him after five laps giving the lead to McKenna Haase who was showing some smoke from under the hood just before the caution for Stelzer stopping. On the restart Haase didn’t have the power she needed and slowed up as Kline went by going into turn one and led the rest of the way to pick up his fifth career 305 feature win.   

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

History and Notes
Trevor Smith set the new 305 one lap track record at 16.820, beating the two year old record held by Matthew Stephenson at 16.846. Smith is a rookie from Sanborn, IA which is roughly a four drive from northwest Iowa near Spencer.

This coming Saturday is Mid-Season Championship, an NSL series $5,000 to win event, and Knoxville Raceway Hall of Fame inductions. I can't wait to help present awards to Brent Antil, John McCoy, Dennis Moore Jr., and the family of Mark Wilson.

The checkered flag waved at 12:44am. As late as that was it was still 94 minutes earlier than the past week. This weather pattern needs to stop.

Jamie Ball and Jon Agan, keep your heads up. These two guys have been in a funk and I'm sure things will turn around in the second half of the season. Same goes for Matthew Stelzer.

It was great to see Kendra Jacobs this week at Knoxville. This lady works hard on the Kick-It fundraisers and she is obviously stepping up her game coming to Knoxville 53 days before the Nationals to be prepared. Not to mention her work with MRN Winged Nation. She is a great ambassador for sprint car racing, keep up the great work KJ!

The moths were back again this week…. and they have a Twitter account. The Forage Looper Moth seems to be the pesky species that needs to die. From my two minutes of research they won’t die until this fall. We could be stuck with them all summer.

Points
410: Lasoski leads the 410 points over Henderson by 204 points. It ain’t over, right?
360: Garner extended his point lead from 111 last week to 150 over Van Haaften this week.
305: Stacey Alexander leads Devin Kline by 93 points.

Food Report
Regular chicken bites this night. Good, tasty, easier on my tummy.