Danny Lasoski has won at countless tracks from coast-to-coast with the World of Outlaws in his career, but one track missing from that list was Charter Raceway Park in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. That all changed on Saturday night, as the 2001 World of Outlaws champion took the $10,000 victory at the high-banked 1/3-mile over Joey Saldana with a very large crowd in attendance.
For Lasoski, it was his seventh career win in the state of Wisconsin and the 85th of his World of Outlaws career. He led the race early after battling Saldana tooth and nail. He was then running second on the 20th lap when Donny Schatz who was leading stopped on the track with a broken rear end, handing the lead back to him. He would pace the field the rest of the way to pick up his fourth win of the 2009 season.
“It feels really good,” said Lasoski. “This goes to my crew. They have worked endless hours to make this thing better. We didn’t qualify that well and weren’t that good in the heat race and they continued to work on it. I’m just lucky I get to drive this thing.”
Lasoski led at the drop of the green in the Casey’s General Store JEI, though the caution flew on the opening circuit, leading to a complete restart. Lasoski led again on the second green with Joey Saldana quickly moving into second and battling Lasoski down the back straightaway and taking the lead heading into turn three. The pair continued to battle for the first five laps of the event, with Saldana leading each of those.
Lasoski dove under Saldana exiting turns three and four on the sixth lap to take the lead, with Saldana immediately battling back and retaking the top spot in turn two on the next lap. On the eighth lap, Lasoski retook the lead on the back straightaway from Saldana.
At the same time, Donny Schatz had charged from the 12 starting spot into the Top-Five. He gained six spots on the opening two laps.
Lasoski continued to lead when a red flag flew on the ninth lap after Sammy Swindell tipped over after contact with Jason Meyers while battling for the fourth spot. The restart saw Lasoski and Saldana resume their battle and within a few laps were back in traffic.
Lasoski pulled away a bit as Saldana had his hands full with Schatz who had got around Steve Kinser for third. On the 18th lap, Schatz split two lapped cars as he tracked down Lasoski. The next go-around saw him use a lapped car as a pick coming off turn four and taking the lead from Lasoski. That lead was short lived as a caution flew on the next lap and during the caution, Schatz came to a stop in turn one with a broken rear end putting an end to his night. He would wind up 20th.
“I got by Joey (Saldana) and I got into lapped cars and I boiled the brakes and had I had no brakes and (Donny) Schatz got by me,” explained Lasoski. “I thought, how am I ever going to get by the (No.) 15 and I don’t know what happened to him, but he showed me there was middle there. Sometimes it’s better to be running second. He was the guy to beat tonight.”
The second half of the race saw Lasoski continue to lead, mainly using the low side of the track, with Saldana up top. Just five laps after the lap-21 restart, the lead pair was back in traffic, with Lasoski maintaining his advantage. Around the 30th lap he extended his lead a bit on Saldana as they continue to negotiate the slower machines.
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