NSL 4-wide Salute in Mason City
6/19/2016
Mason City Motor Speedway
Mason City, IA
NSL
17 cars
A stout 17-car field gathered in Mason City with the NSL Sunday night. The track is a full half-mile with plenty of width. A large crowd applauded when the first hot lap session checkered. Most weren’t sprint car experts, so they enjoyed the change of pace.
Danny Lasoski (3rd car out to time) set quick time at 16.423 seconds. Kerry Madsen (4th car out) was second quick, followed by Brian Brown (9th), Sammy Swindell (14th), Lynton Jeffrey (5th), Terry McCarl (1st), Ian Madsen (7th), Craig Dollansky (16th), Matt Juhl (2nd) and Austin McCarl (8th).
Heat one (started): 1. I. Madsen 18 (2) 2. Lasoski 2 (4) 3. A. McCarl 17A (1) 4. Swindell 1 (3) 5. Dakota Hendrickson 10 (5) 6. Austin Johnson 81 (6)
Eight-lap heats started after sunset. Combined points from qualifying and the heat races set the feature lineup. I. Madsen led the distance. Lasoski snatched second from A. McCarl on the second lap.
Heat two (started): 1. Dollansky 2KS (2) 2. K. Madsen 29 (4) 3. Davey Heskin 56N (1) 4. Tasker Phillips 7w (6) 5. Kaley Gharst 7 (5) 6. Jeffrey 12 (3)
Dollansky led flag to flag. K. Madsen moved by Heskin into second on the first lap. The best racing was between Phillips and Gharst as they went back and forth. They almost tangled with Jeffrey, who slowed and exited on the third lap.
Heat three (started): 1. Juhl 09 (2) 2. Brown 21 (4) 3. T. McCarl 24 (3) 4. Chris Martin 44 (1) 5. Brooke Tatnell 55 (5)
Juhl led the distance. Brown became the third driver to move from fourth to second, taking that spot from Martin on lap two. T. McCarl followed him into third a lap later.
A main (started): 1. Lasoski (4) 2. Swindell (7) 3. I. Madsen (1) 4. T. McCarl (8) 5. Dollansky (5) 6. Brown (2) 7. K. Madsen (3) 8. Juhl (6) 9. A. McCarl (9) 10. Tatnell (14) 11. Phillips (16) 12. Gharst (15) 13. Heskin (11) 14. Hendrickson (13) 15. Martin (12) 16. Johnson (17) 17. Jeffrey (10)
Ian Madsen led the 20-lapper early over K Madsen and Brown. Lasoski shot into the top three on lap two, while T. McCarl followed him on the low side of the track to grab fourth from Brown. K. Madsen nearly spun in turn one on lap 8, allowing Lasoski, a charging Swindell and T. McCarl by. On lap 11, Lasoski tracked down the lead from I. Madsen. Swindell was on the move as well, and a pass of I. Madsen for second was negated when Jeffrey spun in turn two. The restart saw Lasoski ahead of I. Madsen, Swindell, T. McCarl and K. Madsen. When the green flew, Swindell moved quickly into second, while K. Madsen shot by T. McCarl into fourth. In the early stages, drivers stuck to the low side of one and two and the high side of three and four, but both top and bottom seemed to open up as the race went on. Jeffrey spun a second time with four laps to go, setting up a final Dash to the checkers. Lasoski led Swindell, I. Madsen and K. Madsen, who were battling hard for third, and T. McCarl back to green. K. Madsen would bike up the track, allowing T. McCarl to get by. Lasoski would nail down the win ahead of hard-charger, Swindell. T. McCarl pressured I. Madsen late for third, falling just .007 of a second short. Dollansky rounded out the top five. Guy Forbrook recalled bringing Lasoski to Mason City last in 1988. Per his story, Danny didn’t have to pass a car all night to take that win, drawing the pole of the heat and the pole of the feature. Tonight, he definitely earned his win worth $5,000.