Pontoon Beach, IL— May 8, 2008—Every win is special to Danny Lasoski, but his victory at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois last season holds extra significance and will always be near and dear to him, because it was the first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event that his friend Kevin Gundaker and his wife Tammy promoted at the track.
Lasoski made history as well last season becoming the first Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series driver to win at Tri-City Speedway after it was reconfigured from a half-mile to a very racy 3/8-mile. The 2001 series champion will return to the track just outside of St. Louis on Friday, May 9 in search of the fourth win of his career at the facility
“Kevin (Gundaker) and I have been good friend for quite a long time, and to win the first World of Outlaws race that he had put on was pretty special,” shared Lasoski. “I know that I will never forget it and hopefully he won’t either.”
Lasoski had a great deal of success at Tri-City over the years when it was a half-mile, winning twice and racking up 21 Top-Five finishes. In his first start at the track in 1982, he finished second, and in his last seven starts at Tri-City with the old configuration, he finished seventh or better in each race. He quickly got up to speed on the smaller design of the track last year, turning the seventh fastest lap in time trials, finishing second in the third heat race, and following that up with a fourth-place run in the Crane Cams Dash to earn a second-row starting position for the 35-lap A-Feature.
“We are very excited to head back there,” he said. “Kevin Gundaker and his whole family have done such a great job down there. I was really partial to the big half-mile and when he told me he was going to shorten it up, I was really skeptical. He did a great job with it. We went down there last year and won and hopefully we can win again. There is a lot of competition this year, and we’ll go there and do the best that we can.”
Lasoski battled Jason Sides lap after lap in the early portions of the 35-lap contest last season, thrilling the crowd with the constant side-by-side racing. The pair continued to jockey for the lead until the 10th lap when Sides had a tire go down, and Lasoski inherited the lead. He would remain on the point for the rest of the way, fighting off a hard charging Daryn Pittman at the end to earn the $10,000 top prize by just one-tenth of a second.
“It was a welcome relief,” Lasoski said with a smile of the reconfiguration of the track. “It was actually the first time I had ever been to Granite City (Tri-City Speedway) and I could see where I was going, because the lighting was so good. They have made a really good race track and its three lanes wide. You can run on the top, middle and bottom. We are looking forward to heading back there.”
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