by Bill Wright
KNOXVILLE RACEWAY, Knoxville, IA, July 16, 2011 – Danny Lasoski won for the 96th time on Hy-Vee night at the Marion County Fair Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. In addition to his $3,000 winnings, he also took home a half a beef and a half a hog. Chad Humston won the same prize in grabbing his first win of the year in the 360 class and overcoming his recent bad luck, and Tasker Phillips won for the fifth time in his career in the 305 class.
The 410 feature had an ugly start, as AJ Moeller got into the turn one wall and tore up his sprinter. The incident collected Joey Moughan, who also got upside down. Neither driver was injured, but one of the safety crew was taken to the Knoxville Hospital for observation.
Once underway, it was pole-sitter, Josh Schneiderman jumping out to a good lead in the early going. With four laps in the books, Bronson Maeschen collected Rager Phillips on the backstretch. The drivers, who were running ninth and tenth, respectively, were done.
Schneiderman led Dustin Selvage, Don Droud Jr., Terry McCarl and Dusty Zomer back to green flag racing. Zomer moved forward two spots on the restart, and battled Droud for third for several laps. Lasoski moved into fourth by lap eight, and up to third by the halfway point.
Disaster struck for the third running Selvage and seventh running, Terry McCarl, when both went up in smoke with twelve laps down. Schneiderman now had Lasoski on his bumper on the restart. While Schneiderman blocked low, Lasoski went to the high side of one and two and cruised by to victory in his Eagle chassis powered by Kistler.
“I need to give thanks where thanks is due,” said Lasoski. “My boys never quit on me, and neither does our Eagle and our Kistler power. 100 is our goal and we’re sure going to try.”
Schneiderman held on for a solid second, followed by Droud, quick timer Kevin Swindell, and Zomer. Austin McCarl, Mark Dobmeier, Davey Heskin, Lynton Jeffrey and hard-charger Robby Wolfgang rounded out the top ten. Ryan Bunton, Heskin and Selvage won heat races.
It was all Humston in the 360 feature. The Giltner, Nebraska native rolled from outside row one to pull away from his competition. A pair of cautions bunched the field behind him, however. The eighth place car of Tony Shilling lost his right rear wheel with seven laps down. At the time, Humston led Matt Moro, Ryan Anderson, Larry Ball Jr. and Russ Hall back to green.
Anderson moved into second on the restart, and quick-timer, Clint Garner, passed a pair of cars to move into fourth. The final slowdown came when Casey Friedrichsen stopped with twelve laps in the books. It didn’t slow Humston from his third career win in the 360 class aboard the Burch Motorsports #1m.
“These guys have been working their butts off and I appreciate it,” said Chad of his crew. “We had to change a motor after qualifying. It just wasn’t up to par. This one got us to the front, and that’s what we wanted.”
Anderson was second, while Garner took third from Moro on the 14th lap. After Moro, the top ten was completed by Russ Hall, Larry Ball Jr., Dave Hall, Jon Agan, Nate Van Haaften and Tasker Phillips. Jarrod Schneiderman, Dave Hall and Agan won the three heat races.
In the 305 12-lap feature, pole-sitter, Matthew Stelzer led early. Tasker Phillips had moved into second by the halfway point, followed by Chris Mallicoat, Matt Stephenson and Jamie Ball. Stelzer entered traffic around lap eight running the bottom. Phillips, was on the cushion and found his way around on the ninth circuit.
When Mark Widmar tried to enter the backstretch pit entrance and spun, it brought a caution with ten laps in the books. Stephenson restarted fourth, but slowed on the next try at green. Phillips led the final green, white, checker dash to record his fifth career 305 win at Knoxville.
“I’ve been running the bottom, because you need to do that here,” said Phillips in Victory Lane. “It was nice to cruise on top again.”
Quick-timer, Ball passed Stelzer for second, with Carson McCarl grabbing fourth ahead of Chad Huston. Hard-charger, Tim St. Arnold, Mallicoat, Josh Jones, Mitchell Alexander and Alan Ambers rounded out the top ten. Bart Friedrichsen, Mark Van Haaften and Alexander won heats.
410 Sprint Car Feature: 1. Danny Lasoski, 2. Josh Schneiderman, 3. Don Droud, Jr., 4. Kevin Swindell, 5. Dusty Zomer, 6. Austin McCarl, 7. Mark Dobmeier, 8. Davey Hsekin, 9. Lynton Jeffery, 10. Robby Wolfgang, 11. Bob Weuve, 12. Johnn Gressman, 13. Ryan Bunton, 14. Jon Corbin, 15. Mike Houseman, Jr., 16. Dustin Selveage, 17. Josh Higday, 18. Terry McCarl, 19. Paul Jeffrey, 20. Bronson Meschen, 21. Rager Phillips, 22. Mike Moore, 23. A.J. Moeller, 24. Joey Moughan
360 Sprint Car Feature: 1. Chad Humston, 2. Ryan Anderson, 3. Clint Garner, 4. Matt Moro, 5. Russ Hall, 6. Larry Ball, Jr., 7. David Hall, . Jon gan, 9. Nate Van Haaften, 10. Tasker Phillips, 11. Jarrod Schneiderman, 12. Ricky Montgomery, 13. Tyler Groenendyk, 14. Tom Lenz, 15. Bryan Gossel, 16. Alan Zoutte, 17. Rod Richards, 18. Jimmy Davies, 20. Tony Shilling, 21. Dustin Selvage.
305 Sprint Car Feature: 1. Tasker Phillips, 2. Jamie Ball, 3. Matthew Stelzer, 4. Carson McCarl, 5. Chad Huston, 6. Tim St. Arnold, 7. Chris Mallicoat, 8. Josh Jones, 9. Mitchell Alexander, 10. Alan Ambers, 11. Bart Freidrichsen, 12. Steve Palmer, 13. Keith Carlberg, 14. Cody Ambers, 15. Matt Stephenson, 16. Mark Widmar, 17. Chis Horton.