HammerDownUSA.com
Lasoski Rolls to Victory in
By Craig Murphy
By the time the rest
of the National Sprint Tour field crossed the finish line Tuesday night at
Davenport Speedway, Danny Lasoski was already a couple of counties over.
‘The Dude’ started
the 30-lap ‘A’
Make that way behind him.
Lasoski pulled away
early and was never threatened in a race that went green the whole way. In the
end, Lasoski won by 13.506 seconds and nearly lapped up to eighth place Shane
Stewart.
“I had no idea I was
that far out front,” Lasoski said after his second NST win of the year. “The
thing was operating flawlessly.”
Jason Sides, who
suffered wing damage on lap 3, tussled nearly the entire race with Steve
Kinser. Jason Solwold and later Tim Shaffer joined the intense battle, which
saw positions swap regularly behind Sides.
Sides took second
while Shaffer and Solwold took advantage of a bobble by Kinser in the final
turn to grab third and fourth. Kinser was fifth, followed by Jason Meyers, Joey
Saldana and Stewart.
While a caution
would have closed the field, Sides didn’t think there would have been a lead
change.
“If there had been a
yellow, that would have made it worse,” Sides said. “I probably would have lost
a couple of positions. I thought we had something, but after the wing broke the
car was too tight.”
Shaffer was
impressed the race stayed green, based on how much passing was going on throughout
the field.
“That was a great
race,” Shaffer said. “Twice we were four-abreast, two rows deep. I said ‘This
ain’t good.’ When you’re like that, usually something big happens. A couple of
times I had my momentum taken away. I’m happy to run third. We put on a great
show for the fans. More and more people are realizing what’s going on here.”
Solwold used the
high line to run strong.
“The high line
worked well,” he said. “I tried the bottom, and nothing was going on there.
Man, there was a lot of stuff going on. That was a hell of a race. It was
pretty intense. It goes by pretty quick. That was probably the best race we’ve
had this year. I didn’t think there would be much passing here, but there was.”
Kinser was among
those losing momentum on a couple of occasions.
“I got myself locked
behind a couple of cars there a couple of times,” he said. “I got myself all
messed up a couple of times in turns 3 and 4. On the last lap, I just got all
messed up down there.”
Up front, Lasoski
wasn’t quite by himself as he was busy with lapped traffic. He didn’t know
until after the race how far in front he was.
“That’s five seconds
from lapping the field,” he said when told the winning margin. “I could see
second on the straightaway. It’s fantastic for me to race for a team that
believes in me. I haven’t had that the last couple of years.”
Stewart was the
fastest of 26 qualifiers on the night, setting down a lap of 17.207 seconds.
Heat races were won by Joey Saldana, Kinser and Lasoski. Lasoski won the first
trophy dash over Wayne Johnson, Kerry Madsen, Shaffer, Stewart and Meyers.
Sides won the second
trophy dash over Kinser, Saldana, Solwold, Paul McMahan and Tim Kaeding. The B
Main was won by Bronson Maeschen.
NST is next in
action at Tri-State Speedway in