Knoxville Nationals

[Chris]

In one of the BIG races of the Sprint Season, the Knoxville Nationals were held this week.  I would be remiss if I did not first mention it was not without a loss when driver Steve King from Jetmore KS crashed and lost his life on Wednesday.  Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Initial reports from Knoxville Raceway indicate the wreck involved only King and happened when a part broke, sending his No. 88 ethanol car into the Turn 3 fence late in the qualifying feature
King was taken by helicopter to Mercy late Wednesday night to undergo treatment for a brain injury, according to his Web site
Ryan Pace of Arroyo Grande, Calif., saw King's crash from the pit area.
"All I saw was the chassis was twisted over to the right, so it had to be a left front impact into the wall," said Pace, a sprint car driver recovering from a broken neck sustained last month in a non-wing race at Kokomo, Ind. "I didn't see what made the crash happen. I just saw him hit it and it was a hard hit."
P. J. Chesson, who ran 14th in Wednesday's preliminary feature, expressed shock when hearing the news of King's death, but did not see the crash.
"I was in Homestead this year when (IRL driver) Paul Dana was killed in the ethanol car, and last night, (King) was driving an ethanol car, wasn't he?" said Chesson, who also ran in this year's Indianapolis 500. "I feel really bad for his family, I feel really bad for everyone at ethanol. "It's unfortunate. These things happen, but it's never a nice day when it happens."

I totally forgot the races were on last night.  Turned it over in time to see the B main,.. and the feature.  Danny Lasoski made a GREAT drive on those two race.  He had to start last in the B main and only the top 4 would transfer to the feature.  It was a 22 lap race, and Lasoski managed to make it to 4th and get the last transfer spot.
He had to start LAST again in the feature (with the best cars of the week), and managed to get all the way to 4th AGAIN in the feature.
The winner started on the pole, and eventual 2nd place finisher started beside him.  Donnis Schatz had finished 2nd in the Knoxville Nationals three times,.. and this year he finallly managed to win.  Joey Saldana finished 2nd this year.

[AfterShock]

You forgot to mention the "incident" on track betwixt Danny Lasoski and his nephew.
Then, after the race, the near knock down -- drag out fight betwixt Danny's nephew and the nephew's father over the on track incident.

When Danny has done so much for his nephew's career, even loaning him his best engine, you gotta wonder if loyalty is still alive.

Nephew says, "I just did what I had to do."

Question is, what does Danny have to do now?

[Chris]

yeah...
that would have been enough for a WHOLE 'nother article... LOL

Here Danny Lasoski bends over backwards to help out his nephew,.. gets him sponsors so he can race,... gets him race cars,.. even gave him his VERY BEST motor this weekend to race with...
Danny asked for the motor back (announcer kinda acted like the nephew wasn't using it),.. and he got a flat "NOPE you gave it to me and I'm keeping it"  Talk about gratitude for ya.
Then when they get to racing side by side for the last transfer spot, his nephew cuts down on him and tries to wreck him.
If Danny hadn't been such a good driver he probably would have wrecked.

Then he pulled up next to him to let his nephew knew he wasn't happy with him and his nephew run into him again.

Then Lasoskis own Dad comes over there and gets in his face, and all you can here Danny saying is "if you wanna hit me dad then.. go ahead"... He said it like 3 times.
finally the sherriff made him leave since Danny had to get ready to run the feature.
I guess the nephew will have to go it on his own for a while.  If he was MY nephew he would.  Make him realize how good he had it,.. and let him struggle for a while.