From Inside Line Promotions
Greenwood, NE — (May 28, 2013) — Surprise, surprise. Guess who ended in Victory Lane in only their sixth race of the season.
Mark Burch Motorsports and Danny Lasoski claimed the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour event at I-80 Speedway on Thursday for the second consecutive year to cap a successful week with a pair of podiums.
After drawing the highest number, which forced the team to start last in the heat race, Lasoski charged from ninth to third to be the third-highest points earner and earn a bid in the redraw. He pulled the No. 3 to start on the inside of the second row.
“I think it was the very last number in the pill box,” Lasoski said. “Mark did a very good job of getting the car balanced where we could be mobile. From ninth to third put us in the redraw and that’s where you need to be.”
With a cold engine, Lasoski stumbled on the start of the main event and fell to fifth before quickly regaining third place a handful of laps later.
“With the temperature cooling off as much as it was, it took a lap or two to get back warm,” Lasoski said. “We learned a lesson there. We should have started it and let it warm up before the feature.”
Pinned to the bottom of the track, Lasoski capitalized on a restart on Lap 5 to advance to the runner-up position before passing Jason Johnson for the lead on Lap 13.
“I just knew (Johnson) and (Brian Brown) are stellar at that place and they run the top period,” Lasoski said. “If we wanted to win the race we had to go somewhere they weren’t.
“(The bottom lane) was razor sharp. If you missed it by one foot you were sliding up the track.”
Lasoski was “lucky” to build a 3.5 second lead before the final caution, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. He then held off Brown to capture the victory.
The Mark Burch Motorsports team opened the week on Wednesday at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Mo., where Lasoski led all eight laps to claim his heat race. That gave him enough points to advance to the redraw and he pulled the No. 1 to start on the pole for the feature.
“You couldn’t ask for the race track to be in any better shape,” he said. “We were lucky. We drew No. 1 and from there you have to hold your position.”
Lasoski led the first 16 laps before Johnny Herrera drove around him to the lead. Brown took the runner-up position the ensuing lap.
“The last 10 laps I was just hanging on and those were the laps we needed to be great,” Lasoski said after finishing third. “We left it too free from the get-go. We were thinking the race track would stay stickier longer. We didn’t want to get too tight because we knew we’d get into lapped traffic within a few laps.
“We came back the next night and redeemed ourselves.”
Mark Burch Motorsports and Lasoski will compete on Friday with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour at Salina Speedway in Salina, Kan.
QUICK RESULTS –
May 22 – Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Mo. – Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 3 (1).
May 23 – I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb. – Heat Race: 3 (9); Feature: 1 (3).
SEASON STATS –
6 races, 1 win, 3 top fives, 4 top 10s, 4 top 15s, 4 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday at Salina Speedway in Salina, Kan., with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: www.MarkBurchMotorsports.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbmotorspt
VIDEO –
Here are highlights of Mark Burch Motorsports victory at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb., on May 23 thanks to Moore Race Videos: http://youtu.be/FQchd9GJmmo