Photo Credit: World of Outlaws
Both Terry McCarl and Danny Lasoski began their winged sprint car racing careers at the Knoxville Raceway several seasons ago. They both then graduated to the World of Outlaws tour, and now in the autumn of their driving tenures, both are back where they started, racing at the Iowa half-mile dirt track on a weekly basis. And on the second night of the 55th FVP Knoxville Nationals, T-Mac and the Dude went mono-a-mono to the finish.
Starting from the pole position for Thursday’s 25-lap main event, Lasoski held his own at the front, despite a couple of major challenges for the lead from Louisiana’s Jason Johnson. Eventually, Lasoski fought off Johnson to build a full straightaway lead on the rest of the pack at the midway point. Behind them, McCarl was moving forward from the ninth starting spot, jumping to third following a bold move on the next to last restart. However, McCarl would get a chance to snatch a win from Lasoski with 11 laps to go, when Australia’s Brooke Tatnell brought out the red flag after flipping his entry in turn four.
On the final restart, McCarl jumped to the outside lane while Lasoski took his customary route along the inside through turns one and two. With a run off two, T-Mac initially faked to the outside then suddenly darted to the inside of the Missouri native in turn three, successfully completing the slider to take the lead. Once in front, the Iowa-based veteran drew away from Lasoski to take the win.
McCarl, who claimed the Knoxville 360 Nationals championship last Saturday night, expressed a little bit of surprise in victory lane after his charge forward in the feature, based in part on his so-called lackluster efforts in qualifying and the earlier heat race on Thursday.
“We were horrible in the heat race to be honest,” said McCarl. “(The crew) just made wholesale changes prior to the main and what a race car they gave me, I essentially could do whatever I wanted.”
The second place finish denied Lasoski a chance to claim his 108th career victory at Knoxville Raceway, the most for any driver in track history. Yet for the four-time winner of the Nationals, he seemed satisfied with the outcome.
“Guy (Forbrook) and the crew did their work well,” Lasoski said after the race. “It is just sometimes it is better to be running second like Terry was and we just got beat (tonight).”
Further back, Johnson held off Kerry Madsen as they finished third and fourth respectively. Madsen ended Thursday as the top points scorer among the 57-car field, but just behind the total earned Wednesday by defending Knoxville Nationals champion Donny Schatz, meaning that the two drivers will likely share the front row for Saturday night’s 50-lap main event.
The biggest mover in the main event however, was last year’s Knoxville Nationals runner up Brian Brown, who looked to be in serious trouble after failing to transfer to the Thursday main via his heat race. The nephew of Danny Lasoski bounced back to transfer to the feature through a third place finish in the B-Main and then took advantage of the multiple yellow and red flags to vault from 23rd place at the start, to finish fifth. It is the second straight night a driver advancing from the B had finished in the top ten in the A following the performance Wednesday by young prospect Rico Abreu.
Unforutnately, not everything went by the book on Thursday. Prior to the start of the first heat race of the night, veteran driver Kevin Swindell collided with fellow driver Ed Lynch, Jr.’s car, flipped over and made contact with the outside wall on the front straight. Swindell was awake and alert and talking to track safety workers as he was removed from the car and placed on a stretcher. The second-generation driver was transported to Knoxville Airport, where he was further taken by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Des Moines. No further information on Swindell’s current condition was available as OnPitRoad.com went to press.
Stay tuned to OnPitRoad.com for further updates from the FVP Knoxville Nationals on Friday, including any new developments on the condition of driver Kevin Swindell.
