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Danny Lasoski Hold Them Off for 108th Win at Knoxville!

Danny Lasoski had plenty of company up front, but in the end, he reigned victorious for the 108th time Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. The Dover, Missouri driver claimed $3,000 for his win aboard the Big Game Motorsports #2 machine. Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s Clint Garner won his 22nd career main event in the 360 class, while rookie Tyler Glass persevered to claim a crazy 305 main event that saw six cars finish, and the apparent winner disqualified.

Lasoski took off from his pole position in the 20-lap 410 feature ahead of Brian Brown and Ian Madsen. While Lasoski rode his traditional low line, Brown pulled beside him on the cushion on several occasions early.

It was evident early that Terry McCarl had one of the fastest cars on the racetrack, however, and after starting 11th, he entered the top five, passing Dale Blaney on the eighth lap. On lap eleven, he shot under Justin Henderson to take fourth, on lap twelve, he passed Madsen for third, and moved up one more spot, getting by Brown on lap thirteen.

With the leaders in heavy lapped traffic, and McCarl gaining on Lasoski, Logan Forler tipped over in turn four to bring out the red flag. He was uninjured. Lasoski led McCarl, Brown, Madsen and Henderson back to green flag racing with five laps to go. Lasoski maintained his advantage with McCarl breathing down his neck when RJ Johnson blew his left rear tire with two laps to go.

The final restart would see Lasoski pull away, while Brown took back second in front of McCarl. Henderson and Madsen rounded out the top five. Davey Heskin, Tim Kaeding, Blaney, Craig Dollansky and Lynton Jeffrey completed the top ten. Heskin registered quick time on the night, while Jeffrey, Dustin Selvage and Scott Bogucki won heat races.

“What a night to be on the pole,” said Lasoski. “The racetrack was really good on the bottom. Even the lapped cars on the bottom were hard to pass on the high side. My hat’s off to (crew chief) Guy Forbrook and (owner) Tod Quiring with the GoMuddy.com car. (McCarl’s) been going good lately. Last night, he put a clinic on (at I-80 Speedway). Tonight, he was right there again. We have to step our game up, and I’ve got the right guy turning wrenches.”

Clint Garner shot to a lead immediately in the non-stop 18-lap 360 main event and he would never relinquish it. He and the second place car of Jamie Ball would separate themselves from the field throughout the race. Meanwhile, Justin Henderson and Sawyer Phillips traded the third spot three times the first half of the race.

While Garner and Ball were taking off, Jon Agan was working his way forward from inside of row five. He would claim the third spot on the podium on lap 13. Henderson finished fourth and Calvin Landis was fifth. Ian Madsen, Phillips, Matt Moro, Ryan Giles and Tony Shilling completed the top ten. Henderson set quick time and was just two-tenths of a second off of Joe Beaver’s three-year old one-lap record for the 360’s. Agan and Giles won heat races.

“There are a lot of good engines starting up front in these races,” said Garner in Victory Lane. “I was nervous before that race. I’m happy as heck though. We had a great, great car. It wasn’t so good early in the night, but we put some new tires on it and that fixed everything.”

Tyler Glass put Cinderella’s story to shame in the 305 class. The rookie was making just his third 305 start at Knoxville, but a crazy feature would see him emerge on top in the end.

Chris Walraven led at the outset of the 15-lap race ahead of Devin Kline and Corey Kautz. April 23 winner Christian Bowman made his presence felt early, however, moving into third on lap two, and second on a lap three restart.

Walraven held off the charging Bowman until a lap seven melee occurred in turn one. When McKenna Haase got sideways, her correction came too late for Kautz, who spun and collected Matthew Stelzer, who flipped. Mitchell Alexander and Ben Woods were also caught in the fray.

The restart was even worse, when Walraven’s machine died at the frontstretch cone, causing a five-car pileup that eliminated the top four drivers including himself, Bowman, Kline and Haase. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Mike Mayberry emerged as the leader, and despite one more restart, held onto the lead through the checkers with six cars remaining in the race. However, at the scales he weighed in two pounds light. That made Glass, who had assumed second after the chaos at the halfway point, a first-time winner. Cody Ambers, Stacey Alexander, Trevor Smith and Woods were the other cars still running.

Bowman set quick time, and Haase and Mitchell Alexander won heat races. Brad Comegys spun, collecting Joe Simbro in their heat race. The two drivers set off a nasty crash in turn two, but fortunately, both walked away uninjured.

“We got real fortunate with the wrecks,” said Glass afterwards. “I hope everyone is alright. We ran right on the bottom. I saw (Mayberry) up top and we kind of stayed with him, so I stayed on the bottom. It was a luck of fate that he was light. I didn’t really want to pick up a win like that. It’s unfortunate for everybody, but I’ll take it any way I can get it. I’m getting a lot more comfortable in the car though. The first two weeks, we were kind of getting a feel for it. Tonight, I was pretty much flatfooting it with a little brake.”

Join us next week for more Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series action on McKay Insurance/Nationwide Night! For more information on Knoxville Raceway, visit www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com!

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