By Jean Lynch
Tampa, FL…..2/5/05…..Having to deal with lapped cars for 43 of the 50 laps in the 29th Annual East Bay Sprint Winternationals on his way to a $10,000 victory, Danny Lasoski rode the high groove for most of the race and confessed, “I was just going where the lapped cars weren’t.”
For the second night in a row, it was theTony Stewart owned No. 20 Kistler powered Eagle parked in the winner’s circle. “Without the help of Johnny Morris who heads up the Bass Pro Shop deal, Mopar, J.D. Byrider, Wirtgen and Hoosier, we wouldn’t be here. We also had local help from WTS Werthington Tractor Service and Bud’s Poultry.
Tires were the name of the game tonight as Lasoski’s crew chief, Jimmy Carr explained the strategy they chose for the race. “We went with a soft Hoosier, because that was the only shot we had at winning. He just had to stay out of the rubber that laid down on the track and only get down in it when he had to pass a lapped car.”
With the top six in points earned during the week, locked in and inverted in this Inaugural Knoxville Sprint Car Hall of Fame Race, Sammy Swindell and Freddy Rahmer were in the front row ahead of Kelly Kinser and Jason Meyers. Lasoski started fifth with Chad Kemenah outside row three.
Swindell led the first four laps before Lasoski, who was second by lap two, dove inside in turn four and came down the front stretch leading lap five. Swindell’s car owner, Guy Forbrook admitted, “We went with the wrong tire and that cost us. I was too cautious and went with a hard tire.” His Jackpot Junction No. 5, Gaerte powered car also has sponsorship from Wirtgen and Mobility.
Lapped traffic entered the picture by lap seven for Lasoski, but a fast-charging Craig Dollansky was already up from tenth to third. But on lap 10, Brian Leppo spun to the infield in turn three and stalled too close to the track, bringing out the yellow.
On the restart, Dollansky went outside Swindell in turn two and his Charlie Garrett engine powered him into second spot. His VMac Motorsports No. 7 new J&J chassis was on Hoosiers. Crew chief D. J. Lindsey with help from Rod Fauver changed the car a lot over the past three days. “We were much happier with what we did tonight after struggling earlier this week,” said second place finisher Dollansky.
As the laps ticked off, the two front-runners skirted the track up by the outside wall until a strange thing happened on lap 26. The turbulence from the sprint car wings blew the back stretch gate open and the yellow had to come out. These extra laps made a fuel stop necessary.
As the field went back to green, Lasoski and Dollansky had a cushion of five lapped cars behind them. Swindell was next in third spot. With a clear track in front of him, Lasoski stretched his lead to almost three seconds. The margin narrowed by lap 35 and the final yellow came on lap 41 when young Cameron Dodson spun in turn three.
Try as he might, Dollansky could run Lasoski down, but couldn’t get beside him and the margin of victory was two car-lengths. Behind Swindell, it was Terry McCarl in fourth, then Greg Wilson, Danny Smith and Jason Meyers who were all clean cars. Down one lap in eighth, it was Kemenah then Jim Nier and Greg Hodnett. There were 22 cars running at the end of the race.
Heats went to Lance Dewease, Hodnett, McCarl and Dollansky. Advancing from the B-Main were Paul May, Wilson, Erin Crocker, Nick Nabors, Cody Geldart and Dodson. The Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash was won by Tony Bruce, Jr. The Florida Mini Sprint 25-lap feature was won by Nathen Hauck.
STATS – 410 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – SATURDAY, 2/5/05
Top 6 in points locked into A Main – 1) 15K Chad Kemenah 2) 20 Danny Lasoski 3) 14 Jason Meyers 4) 4K Kelly Kinser 5) 88H Fred Rahmer 6) 5 Sammy Swindell – and inverted – Remainder of cars ran heat races
1st Heat – (3 Qualify to A) - 1)Lance Dewease 2)Josh Wells 3)Jeff Shepard 4)Paul May 5)Paul Sides 6)Cameron Dodson 7)Erin Crocker 8)Daryl Smith
2nd Heat – 1)Greg Hodnett 2)Danny Smith 3)Jason Sides 4)Trevor Lewis 5)Cody Geldart 6)Tony Bruce, Jr. 7)Spud Gustin 8)Ron Blair
3rd Heat – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Jimmy Nier 3)Kevin Swindell 4)Greg Wilson 5)Clint Garner 6)Jesse Giannetto 7)Glenn Styres 8)Tom Busch DNS
4th Heat – 1)Craig Dollansky 2)Jason Solwold 3)Brian Leppo 4)Nick Nabor 5)Curtis Trainer 6)Adam Jones 7)Jered Fox
B – Main – (6 Qualify to A) - 1)Paul May 2)Greg Wilson 3)Erin Crocker 4)Nick Nabor 5)Cody Geldart 6)Cameron Dodson 7)Tony Bruce, Jr. 8)Jered Fox 9)Glenn Styres 10)Curt Trainer 11)Daryl Smith 12)Jesse Giannetto 13)Clint Garner 14)Adam Jones 15)Spud Gustin 16)Trevor Lewis 17)Paul Sides 18)Tom Busch 19)Ron Blair DNS
A – Main (Inaugural Knoxville Sprint Car Hall of Fame Race - 50 Laps – $10,000 to win) – 1)Danny Lasoski 2)Craig Dollansky 3)Sammy Swindell 4)Terry McCarl 5)Greg Wilson 6)Danny Smith 7)Jason Meyers 8)Chad Kemenah 9)Jimmy Nier 10)Greg Hodnett 11)Jason Solwold 12)Kelly Kinser 13)Jeff Shepard 14)Lance Dewease 15)Josh Wells 16)Kevin Swindell 17)Erin Crocker 18)Paul May 19)Jason Sides 20)Brian Leppo 21)Nick Nabor 22)Cody Geldart 23)Cameron Dodson 24)Fred Rahmer
Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash – 1)Tony Bruce, Jr. 2)Clint Garner 3)Adam Jones 4)Spud Gustin 5)Jered Fox 6)Curtis Trainer 7)Daryl Smith 8)Glenn Styres 9)Paul Sides
MINI SPRINTS RESULTS:
Heat Winners – 1st heat)Jim Brookens; 2nd heat)Gary Linderman; 3rd heat)Steve Buckwalter; 4th heat)Travis Senter, Jr.
B – Main – (2 Advanced) – 1)Russ Heider 2)Jim Young
Feature (25 Laps) – 1)Nathen Hauck 2)Steve Buckwalter 3)George Ulmer 4)Michael Dicely 5)Travis Senter, Jr. 6)Brad Loyet 7)Duane Harbaugh 8)Dereck King 9)Gary Linderman 10)Jim Brookens 11)Brett Arndt 12)Lance McKinney 13)John Craddock 14)Paul Gottschalk 15)Ralph Herrero 16)Frank Peters 17)J.C. Walling 18)Harold Matthews 19)Ron Taggart 20)John Pruitte, Jr. 21)Jesse Teed 22)Channin Tankersley 23)Jim Young 24)Russ Heider 25)Darryl Wills 26)Jimmy Glenn
Tampa, FL…..2/5/05…..Having to deal with lapped cars for 43 of the 50 laps in the 29th Annual East Bay Sprint Winternationals on his way to a $10,000 victory, Danny Lasoski rode the high groove for most of the race and confessed, “I was just going where the lapped cars weren’t.”
For the second night in a row, it was theTony Stewart owned No. 20 Kistler powered Eagle parked in the winner’s circle. “Without the help of Johnny Morris who heads up the Bass Pro Shop deal, Mopar, J.D. Byrider, Wirtgen and Hoosier, we wouldn’t be here. We also had local help from WTS Werthington Tractor Service and Bud’s Poultry.
Tires were the name of the game tonight as Lasoski’s crew chief, Jimmy Carr explained the strategy they chose for the race. “We went with a soft Hoosier, because that was the only shot we had at winning. He just had to stay out of the rubber that laid down on the track and only get down in it when he had to pass a lapped car.”
With the top six in points earned during the week, locked in and inverted in this Inaugural Knoxville Sprint Car Hall of Fame Race, Sammy Swindell and Freddy Rahmer were in the front row ahead of Kelly Kinser and Jason Meyers. Lasoski started fifth with Chad Kemenah outside row three.
Swindell led the first four laps before Lasoski, who was second by lap two, dove inside in turn four and came down the front stretch leading lap five. Swindell’s car owner, Guy Forbrook admitted, “We went with the wrong tire and that cost us. I was too cautious and went with a hard tire.” His Jackpot Junction No. 5, Gaerte powered car also has sponsorship from Wirtgen and Mobility.
Lapped traffic entered the picture by lap seven for Lasoski, but a fast-charging Craig Dollansky was already up from tenth to third. But on lap 10, Brian Leppo spun to the infield in turn three and stalled too close to the track, bringing out the yellow.
On the restart, Dollansky went outside Swindell in turn two and his Charlie Garrett engine powered him into second spot. His VMac Motorsports No. 7 new J&J chassis was on Hoosiers. Crew chief D. J. Lindsey with help from Rod Fauver changed the car a lot over the past three days. “We were much happier with what we did tonight after struggling earlier this week,” said second place finisher Dollansky.
As the laps ticked off, the two front-runners skirted the track up by the outside wall until a strange thing happened on lap 26. The turbulence from the sprint car wings blew the back stretch gate open and the yellow had to come out. These extra laps made a fuel stop necessary.
As the field went back to green, Lasoski and Dollansky had a cushion of five lapped cars behind them. Swindell was next in third spot. With a clear track in front of him, Lasoski stretched his lead to almost three seconds. The margin narrowed by lap 35 and the final yellow came on lap 41 when young Cameron Dodson spun in turn three.
Try as he might, Dollansky could run Lasoski down, but couldn’t get beside him and the margin of victory was two car-lengths. Behind Swindell, it was Terry McCarl in fourth, then Greg Wilson, Danny Smith and Jason Meyers who were all clean cars. Down one lap in eighth, it was Kemenah then Jim Nier and Greg Hodnett. There were 22 cars running at the end of the race.
Heats went to Lance Dewease, Hodnett, McCarl and Dollansky. Advancing from the B-Main were Paul May, Wilson, Erin Crocker, Nick Nabors, Cody Geldart and Dodson. The Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash was won by Tony Bruce, Jr. The Florida Mini Sprint 25-lap feature was won by Nathen Hauck.
STATS – 410 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – SATURDAY, 2/5/05
Top 6 in points locked into A Main – 1) 15K Chad Kemenah 2) 20 Danny Lasoski 3) 14 Jason Meyers 4) 4K Kelly Kinser 5) 88H Fred Rahmer 6) 5 Sammy Swindell – and inverted – Remainder of cars ran heat races
1st Heat – (3 Qualify to A) - 1)Lance Dewease 2)Josh Wells 3)Jeff Shepard 4)Paul May 5)Paul Sides 6)Cameron Dodson 7)Erin Crocker 8)Daryl Smith
2nd Heat – 1)Greg Hodnett 2)Danny Smith 3)Jason Sides 4)Trevor Lewis 5)Cody Geldart 6)Tony Bruce, Jr. 7)Spud Gustin 8)Ron Blair
3rd Heat – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Jimmy Nier 3)Kevin Swindell 4)Greg Wilson 5)Clint Garner 6)Jesse Giannetto 7)Glenn Styres 8)Tom Busch DNS
4th Heat – 1)Craig Dollansky 2)Jason Solwold 3)Brian Leppo 4)Nick Nabor 5)Curtis Trainer 6)Adam Jones 7)Jered Fox
B – Main – (6 Qualify to A) - 1)Paul May 2)Greg Wilson 3)Erin Crocker 4)Nick Nabor 5)Cody Geldart 6)Cameron Dodson 7)Tony Bruce, Jr. 8)Jered Fox 9)Glenn Styres 10)Curt Trainer 11)Daryl Smith 12)Jesse Giannetto 13)Clint Garner 14)Adam Jones 15)Spud Gustin 16)Trevor Lewis 17)Paul Sides 18)Tom Busch 19)Ron Blair DNS
A – Main (Inaugural Knoxville Sprint Car Hall of Fame Race - 50 Laps – $10,000 to win) – 1)Danny Lasoski 2)Craig Dollansky 3)Sammy Swindell 4)Terry McCarl 5)Greg Wilson 6)Danny Smith 7)Jason Meyers 8)Chad Kemenah 9)Jimmy Nier 10)Greg Hodnett 11)Jason Solwold 12)Kelly Kinser 13)Jeff Shepard 14)Lance Dewease 15)Josh Wells 16)Kevin Swindell 17)Erin Crocker 18)Paul May 19)Jason Sides 20)Brian Leppo 21)Nick Nabor 22)Cody Geldart 23)Cameron Dodson 24)Fred Rahmer
Gulf Coast Produce Strawberry Dash – 1)Tony Bruce, Jr. 2)Clint Garner 3)Adam Jones 4)Spud Gustin 5)Jered Fox 6)Curtis Trainer 7)Daryl Smith 8)Glenn Styres 9)Paul Sides
MINI SPRINTS RESULTS:
Heat Winners – 1st heat)Jim Brookens; 2nd heat)Gary Linderman; 3rd heat)Steve Buckwalter; 4th heat)Travis Senter, Jr.
B – Main – (2 Advanced) – 1)Russ Heider 2)Jim Young
Feature (25 Laps) – 1)Nathen Hauck 2)Steve Buckwalter 3)George Ulmer 4)Michael Dicely 5)Travis Senter, Jr. 6)Brad Loyet 7)Duane Harbaugh 8)Dereck King 9)Gary Linderman 10)Jim Brookens 11)Brett Arndt 12)Lance McKinney 13)John Craddock 14)Paul Gottschalk 15)Ralph Herrero 16)Frank Peters 17)J.C. Walling 18)Harold Matthews 19)Ron Taggart 20)John Pruitte, Jr. 21)Jesse Teed 22)Channin Tankersley 23)Jim Young 24)Russ Heider 25)Darryl Wills 26)Jimmy Glenn
