(WOMR file photo)
It was night number four of the five nights of racing at the extravaganza known as The Winter Heat Sprint car showdown, and Danny Lasoski, better known as The Dude, had been knocking on the door of victory for each of the three previous nights. However, the victory had slipped through his hands in each of those previous three nights to Paul McMahan, Young Money–Kyle Larson, and The King–Steve Kinser. But on night number four The Dude stole a race from Dale Blaney in turn number three on the very last lap!
Lasoski marked the fourth different driver to win a feature during the inaugural event, which wraps up on Saturday with a $12,000-to-win feature and a $4,000 bonus to the overall champion of the five-race event.
“We’ve got a really good team,” he said. “It may be a bunch of buddies together, but we have a really good team.”
Dale Blaney, the younger brother of former World of Outlaws champ and former NASCAR driver, started on the outside of the front row for the 30-lap main event, took the lead exiting turn four on the opening lap after racing side by side with polesitter Paul McMahan.
Blaney built a sizeable advantage during the first half of the race despite entering traffic on Lap 8. Meanwhile, Lasoski, who started fifth, began to advance in the running order near the midpoint of the feature.
“When you see the leader and you’re not gaining on him the first thing a driver does is start searching,” The Dude said. “I started searching and just basically went where they weren’t and found something that made my car work.”
Lasoski passed Joey Saldana for third place exiting turn two on Lap 15, and he repeated the move in the same spot on McMahan during the ensuing lap. Heavy traffic with approximately 10 laps remaining played to Lasoski’s favor.
While Blaney struggled to put NASCAR star Kasey Kahne down a lap, Lasoski inched closer to the lead every lap. He was within striking distance on Lap 23, but Blaney was able to create some breathing room during the following few laps.
Lasoski remained a couple of car lengths out of the lead when the white flag was waved. However, Blaney was slowed while trying to lap a car in turn one on the final lap.
“I went down into (turn) one and he kinda took the middle,” Blaney said. “I thought he was going to leave a little bit of the bottom open for me to plug it, but he turned down left and I was going to have to get on the bank. I should have just stayed to his inside and probably blocked that line. I kinda lost the nose of it and had to run around him.”
Lasoski took advantage and the cars exited turn two three wide with The Dude on the bottom, the lapped car in the middle and Blaney on the outside. Lasoski was first to the bottom groove entering turn three and he slid up to the cushion exiting turn four. Blaney drove off the bottom leaving the final turn, but Lasoski’s momentum gave him a car-length advantage across the finish line!
“That was luck,” he said. “(Blaney) just got hung up. Whenever I’d get within a car length of him I’d get tight. I had to move around, move around. He was setting a good pace and he just got held up, but sometimes it’s better to be running second.”
McMahan finished third, which marked his third podium result of the event. He leads the championship standings by 24 points entering Saturday’s final round.
“We were good early and just kinda got real free toward the end,” he said. “I might have heated the tires up a little too much. It’s another solid night for us. We had a good race car; just not good enough to win.”
Roger Crockett earned a fourth-place result with Saldana, who is second in the championship standings, rounding out the top five. Henry Van Dam scored a sixth-place finish, Brian Brown was seventh, Kraig Kinser ended eighth, Stevie Smith placed ninth and Christopher Bell capped the top 10.
Mason Moore recorded a $1,000 bonus as the Hard Charger thanks to an anonymous donation by a fan from the Northwest.
Bell, Crockett, McMahan and Saldana powered to heat race wins with Brown, Van Dam, Ryan Smith and David Gravel claiming qualifiers. Steve Kinser, who was victorious during Tuesday’s Winter Heat Sprint Car Showdown, won the B Main.
JAN. 9 RESULTS –
Heat Race 1 (8 laps): 1. 31b-Christopher Bell (2); 2. 57-Dale Blaney (1); 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel (6); 4. 88n-D.J. Netto (4); 5. 33v-Henry Van Dam (3); 6. 2l-Logan Forler (8); 7. 1a-Jacob Allen (7); 8. 88-Brandon Rahmer (5).
Heat Race 2 (8 laps): 1. 11c-Roger Crockett (1); 2. 74x-Josh Hodges (4); 3. 1s-Logan Schuchart (3); 4. 51s-Stevie Smith (6); 5. 11k-Kraig Kinser (7); 6. 83-David Gravel (5); 7. 9-Kasey Kahne (8); 8. 5h-Dakota Hendrickson (2).
Heat Race 3 (8 laps): 1. 51-Paul McMahan (1); 2. 15h-Sam Hafertepe Jr. (3); 3. 33-Danny Lasoski (6); 4. 21-Brian Brown (4); 5. 94-Ryan Smith (2); 6. 11-Steve Kinser (7); 7. 77x-Wayne Johnson (5); 8. 9r-Reece Goetz (8).
Heat Race 4 (8 laps): 1. 26-Joey Saldana (2); 2. 3c-Willie Croft (1); 3. 7-Craig Dollansky (6); 4. 24-Rico Abreu (3); 5. 22-Mason Moore (8); 6. 82-Dusty Zomer (7); 7. 99-Skylar Gee (5); 8. 98-Matt Jensen (4).
Qualifier 1 (10 laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown (2); 2. 82-Dusty Zomer (1); 3. 33-Danny Lasoski (5); 4. 31b-Christopher Bell (6); 5. 9-Kasey Kahne (7); 6. 9r-Reece Goetz (8); 7. 15h-Sam Hafertepe Jr. (4); 8. 22-Mason Moore (DNS).
Qualifier 2 (10 laps): 1. 33v-Henry Van Dam (1); 2. 57-Dale Blaney (4); 3. 24-Rico Abreu (2); 4. 26-Joey Saldana (6); 5. 1s-Logan Schuchart (3); 6. 7-Craig Dollansky (5); 7. 1a-Jacob Allen (7); 8. 88-Brandon Rahmer (8).
Qualifier 3 (10 laps): 1. 94-Ryan Smith (1); 2. 2l-Logan Forler (2); 3. 11k-Kraig Kinser (3); 4. 3c-Willie Croft (4); 5. 11c-Roger Crockett (5); 6. 77x-Wayne Johnson (7); 7. 74x-Josh Hodges (6); 8. 98-Matt Jensen (8).
Qualifier 4 (10 laps): 1. 83-David Gravel (1); 2. 51-Paul McMahan (5); 3. 11-Steve Kinser (2); 4. 51s-Stevie Smith (4); 5. 88n-D.J. Netto (3); 6. 5h-Dakota Hendrickson (8); 7. 99-Skylar Gee (7); 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel (6).
B Main (15 laps/8 transfer): 1. 11-Steve Kinser (4); 2. 82-Dusty Zomer (1); 3. 1s-Logan Schuchart (3); 4. 9-Kasey Kahne (9); 5. 88n-D.J. Netto (7); 6. 77x-Wayne Johnson (10); 7. 22-Mason Moore (8); 8. 9r-Reece Goetz (11); 9. 1a-Jacob Allen (13); 10. 88-Brandon Rahmer (15); 11. 99-Skylar Gee (14); 12. 5h-Dakota Hendrickson (12); 13. 74x-Josh Hodges (2); 14. 98-Matt Jensen (16); 15. 15h-Sam Hafertepe Jr. (DNS); 16. 87-Aaron Reutzel (DNS).
A Main (30 laps): 1. 33-Danny Lasoski (5); 2. 57-Dale Blaney (2); 3. 51-Paul McMahan (1); 4. 11c-Roger Crockett (7); 5. 26-Joey Saldana (4); 6. 33v-Henry Van Dam (9); 7. 21-Brian Brown (6); 8. 11k-Kraig Kinser (11); 9. 51s-Stevie Smith (12); 10. 31b-Christopher Bell (3); 11. 94-Ryan Smith (13); 12. 3c-Willie Croft (8); 13. 83-David Gravel (15); 14. 11-Steve Kinser (17); 15. 82-Dusty Zomer (18); 16. 9-Kasey Kahne (20); 17. 22-Mason Moore (23); 18. 2l-Logan Forler (10); 19. 1s-Logan Schuchart (19); 20. 24-Rico Abreu (16); 21. 9r-Reece Goetz (24); 22. 88n-D.J. Netto (21); 23. 77x-Wayne Johnson (22); 24. 7-Craig Dollansky (14).
(Top 24 in passing and finishing points in the heat races were inverted in the qualifiers. The top 16 in passing and finishing points following the qualifiers locked into the A Main.)
UNOFFICIAL POINTS AFTER ROUND 4 –
.1. 51-Paul McMahan 750; 2. 26-Joey Saldana 726; 3. 51s-Stevie Smith 708; 4. 33-Danny Lasoski 703; 5. 11c-Roger Crockett 676; 6. 31b-Christopher Bell 660; 7. 21-Brian Brown 649; 8. 11k-Kraig Kinser 647; 9. 33v-Henry Van Dam 640; 10. 11-Steve Kinser 634; 11. 1s-Logan Schuchart 631; 12. 9-Kasey Kahne 625; 13. 83-David Gravel 624; 14. 57-Dale Blaney 611; 15. 3c-Willie Croft 610; 16. 7-Craig Dollansky 605; 17. 82-Dusty Zomer 601; 18. 9r-Reece Goetz 574; 19. 2l-Logan Forler 571; 20. 22-Mason Moore 568; 21. 94-Ryan Smith 565; 22. 87-Aaron Reutzel 560; 23. 15h-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 542; 24. 42-Kyle Larson 523; 25. 5h-Dakota Hendrickson 518; 26. 88n-D.J. Netto 516; 27. 1a-Jacob Allen 510; 28. 99-Skylar Gee 478; 29. 51r-Freddie Rahmer 450; 30. 77x-Wayne Johnson 438; 31. 98-Matt Jensen 332; 32. 23-Seth Bergman 279; 33. 74x-Josh Hodges 225; 34. 24-Rico Abreu 145; 35. 88-Brandon Rahmer 119; 36. 55-Bud Walberg 107.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
