Danny Lasoski at Lowes in his silver car celebrating 25 years of racing.

The Dude is Forced to Settle for Second
At the Inaugural Outlaws World Finals

By Bob Jones
November 5, 2007

The Dude has his eye on the prize Saturday night at the Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway and nothing but a win would satisfy him.  The weekend was coined the Outlaws World Finals and was the first time race fans could watch both the World of Outlaws sprint cars and late models competing in the same event.  The capacity crowd was treated to one of the better sprint features of the season as Lasoski and Steve Kinser staged an epic battle throughout the 30 lap event.

After using his second provisional of the season on Friday night to charge up to 12th, Lasoski knew he had to step up his game.  "Using the provisional Friday night really put me in a foul mood.  Don't get me wrong, we go into each night out here gunning for the win but I went into Saturday expecting nothing less than the victory," he explained.  "We won our Heat, went from sixth to third in the Dash and put ourselves in position to win," said Lasoski.

As the green flag waived to start the Feature Event Lasoski got a great start to sneak past Daryn Pittman on the first lap.  From there he stalked Kinser with Pittman in tow.  With the King on the high side Lasoski worked the low line with Pittman making it work through the middle as the racing action heated up.  Just when it appeared Lasoski and Pittman had passed Kinser, the red flag was displayed for a tangle of two Smiths, Stevie and Mark.  "The red really hurt us.  I had him cleared and was going to take over his line.  We would have been in really good shape."

As Lasoski worked the bottom, Kinser had just enough momentum up high to inch ahead out of each set of corners.  "I really needed lapped traffic to come into the picture.  We had a great car but the King was just too good on an open track.  I knew he wasn't going to move off the top so I was trying to roll around the bottom.  I really thought we would be able to get him there after the last caution.  I probably could have pushed it and thrown an ugly slider at him for the win, but Steve has always raced me clean and I don't want to race him like that," said Lasoski.  "But man, I really wanted to win that race!"

In the end, Lasoski was forced to settle for the runner-up spot as he came up just short at the line, 0.150 seconds to be exact.  "It was a heck of a show and it doesn't get much closer than that.  We gave it everything we had but just came up short.  I just have to thank Dennis and Theresa Roth for all of their support and making this all possible.  I have a lot of great sponsors behind me and I couldn't do it without them.  I also need to thank my guys for all their hard work," he said.

Photo courtesy of Terry Shaw.

Lasoski and Crew Turn In A One-Two Punch
Out West Against the Outlaws

By Bob Jones
October 21, 2007

There is one thing that keeps a race team happy...winning races.  It sounds simple enough but it had been a month and a half since Danny Lasoski and the Roth Motorsports Team had visited victory lane at Calistoga Speedway.  But that all changed as the Dude and the boys knocked off the Outlaws Friday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, AZ.

After running second in his Heat and winning the Dash, Lasoski lined up on the pole for the A Feature.  All seemed to be going well until he lost a cylinder on the 11th lap of the Feature race.  "Our car was rolling around real nice and we were in real good shape until we dropped a cylinder.  Man, I thought we were in trouble.  In traffic I couldn't roll out of the throttle, I had to keep it wide open.  (Jason) Solwold caught me in traffic and I was a sitting duck," he explained.

Lasoski was fortunate enough to have a couple restarts that gave him an open track to keep his foot buried into his ailing motor.  Once he hit lapped traffic on lap 19, it was all Solwold needed to take the lead on the low side entering the first turn.  But Lady Luck was on Lasoski's side as Solwold's night ended on lap 25 when his right rear tire blew giving the lead back to Lasoski.  "That restart sealed the deal for us.  It was key for us to have an open track so I could keep it wide open and not spin the tires," he said.  

"With our motor situation we needed some luck on our side to get this win tonight.  But I'm a firm believer that you have to make your own luck out here sometimes.  You have to put yourself in the position to capitalize on luck when it comes your way.  The hard work my guys have been putting into this car is what put us in the position to take advantage tonight," said Lasoski.

Lasoski's strong weekend was far from over when they left Phoenix for Perris, CA.  After turning in quick time and lining up 8th for the Feature Event, Lasoski and crew planned the set-up around having the car run strong towards the later stages of the race.  "We were hoping the track would free up so we could run the high side.  Most of the cars were running low so we needed to try something different."

"The track freed up exactly like we'd hoped and that allowed us to blast around the outside of them.  We worked on getting the car just right all night and it paid off.  We need lapped traffic to help bottle those guys up a little so we could shoot around them up high.  Our car was awesome but we just ran out of laps," he said.

"This was a great weekend for us.  With just three races left our goals have remained the same as they have all year.  We just want to win.  Dennis Roth has continued to provide us with everything we need to get the job done.  If I have my way, we'll get greedy and win the rest of them," he said.

Up next for Dude and the Roth Motorsports Team is the three-night season finale at the Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC.  Lasoski has one career feature victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway which came May 26, 2001 against the Outlaws while driving Tony Stewart's 20.  Stay tuned to www.dannylasoski.com for results of the season finale.

Did you know?     Lasoski's Feature Victory at Manzanita was his third at the track and his ninth win of the year.  His first Manzanita triumph came October 26, 1991 at the Western World Championship while driving Casey Luna's 10 car.  "Back then the Western World was a real big deal for the winged guys.  Everyone was there.  I got a chance to drive Luna's car down there and ended up winning the biggest race of my career up to that point.  That one was a big one for me."

Danny Lasoski getting down and dirty at Silver Dollar Speedway's Gold Cup in Chico, CA.
Photo courtesy of Michael Hill.