Outlaw Lasoski Ready to Take Flight at Perris

Tony Stewart won’t be at Perris Auto Speedway Saturday night, he’ll be in Rockingham, N.C., for a Winston Cup race, but the Dude will be there with Stewart’s sprint car when the World of Outlaws make an appearance in their outrageous winged machines.

The Dude, Danny Lasoski, is the defending Outlaws champion in Stewart’s No. 20 Eagle. Lasoski, who lives in Dover, Mo., won only four main events to 16 for Mark Kinser last year, but his year-long consistency enabled him to edge two-time champion Kinser by 30 points in the closest championship race since the Outlaws were formed 24 years ago.

Lasoski’s nickname doesn’t come from his lifestyle, it comes from the time his grandfather saw him for the first time and said, “That is my little Dude.”

Last Friday, Lasoski drove to a sixth-place finish in the International Race of Champions at Daytona, a race won by Stewart. It was Lasoski’s first race on pavement, but he finished ahead of NASCAR drivers Bobby Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Kevin Harvick and Dale Jarrett and Indianapolis 500 winners Buddy Lazier and Helio Castroneves.

“Danny’s excited about driving the [Outlaws] car this year,” Stewart said. “Last year at this point we were playing catch-up. We were just trying to get everything ready and organized to contend, let alone defend a title like we are this year.

“We already have cars built, whereas last year at this time we were still building them. We didn’t even have a trailer. This year we have the same trailer and it’s stocked and ready to go.”

Lasoski, 43, won the last Outlaws main event at Perris in February 2000. Last year’s scheduled race was rained out.

Kinser, who won the title in 1996 and 1999, won the first five Pennzoil World of Outlaws races held at Perris beginning Nov. 1, 1996. He drives a Mopar for his father, famed crew chief and car builder Karl Kinser.

Also entered Saturday night are Steve Kinser, 46, Mark’s cousin and a 16-time Outlaws champion who was voted “Greatest Sprint Car Driver of All Time” two years ago; Sammy Swindell, 46, a three-time champion; and Joe Saldana, holder of the Perris track record of 14.070 seconds around the half-mile clay oval.

The Outlaws open their 66-event season tonight at Kings Speedway in Hanford.

Winston Cup

Who is this slow-talking Virginian with the syrupy accent who was the last one standing when they finished the Destruction Derby 500 last Sunday in Daytona Beach?

Ward Burton is 41 and finally escaped the shadow of younger brother Jeff when he won stock car racing’s biggest prize. In 1999, he finished second three times, all to brother Jeff.

Before the 500, he had been named honorary chairman of the NRA-Beeman Grand Prix for marksmen with physical disabilities.

He comes by the honor deservedly. While attending Hargrave Military Academy, he was ranked No. 1 on the school’s rifle team.

After attending Elon College in North Carolina, Burton spent two years in a log cabin, living off the land by hunting, trapping and fishing for his food. Today, he operates the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, which purchases parcels of land in an effort to conserve and protect wildlife habitats.

The only personal vehicle he owns is a V10 Dodge pickup.

“It takes me where I want to go on the farm, it takes my family wherever we want to go, it’s all I ever needed,” he said.

He’ll be racing Sunday at Rockingham, N.C., the track where he won his first Winston Cup race in 1995.

Burton’s philosophy for driving a race car: “Drive it like you stole it.”

Bill Davis, his car owner, is cut from a similar cloth. He is a self-proclaimed hillbilly from Batesville, Ark., who grew up dreaming along with neighbor Mark Martin about someday coming to Daytona.

“We were hillbillies coming down here the first time in 1987,” Davis said. “To come down and be able to do it and then be this successful is pretty special for a guy from Arkansas.”

Davis is the NASCAR owner who discovered Jeff Gordon and plucked him from the open-wheel ranks of the U.S. Auto Club in 1992 to drive a Ford in the Busch Grand National series. Gordon left for Rick Hendrick and Chevrolet when Hendrick discovered that Davis did not have a signed contract with Gordon and stole him away.

*

Kyle Petty was not pleased with the way the 500 played out.

“I thought Daytona was an exceptional race until the last 40 laps,” said the third-generation driver. “Then in a lot of ways it was an embarrassment to Winston Cup racing. In my opinion, to have the greatest drivers in the world just running into each other ... to bill ourselves as a sport that we are and to tear up more cars at Daytona than will be torn up at Martinsville and Bristol, either one of the short tracks that are known for beating and bashing, is a little bit of an embarrassment.

“To have that few cars running at the end of the biggest race of the year ... I didn’t notice any one driver or any one group doing it more than they’ve done in the past.

“I just don’t think the drivers respect the cars or respect each other they way they did 15 years ago.”

*

Tony Glover, team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing, says Sterling Marlin got a bad rap when he was criticized for getting out of his car during a red flag stop and pulling his fender off the tire.

“After Sterling and Jeff Gordon got together in turn 1, the right front fender on Sterling’s car was rubbing just bad enough that he was probably going to cut down the tire,” Glover said.

“We couldn’t take that chance and put him and everyone else in danger. We were going to have to come in one way or the other so we had Sterling jump out and check out the damage during the red flag.”

Marlin, leading at the time, was penalized and sent to the rear of the pack and finished eighth.

Stewart’s recipe for eliminating all the blocking that led to two multi-car accidents Sunday:

“Take away their rearview mirrors and ban spotters. It’s the spotters who tell drivers where and when to block.”

Fast Laps

John Force will be after his 100th national event victory Sunday at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix in his Castrol Mustang funny car. He got No. 99 two weeks ago at Pomona. Next best in the National Hot Rod Assn. list is pro stock driver Bob Glidden with 85. Force, 52, has won the last three races at Firebird and seven of the last eight.... Buzz Calkins, winner of the first Indy Racing League event in January 1996 at Orlando, Fla., has retired as a driver with hopes of becoming a team owner.

Vintage cars will be welcome to run Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the new quarter-mile paved track at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond. Information: (661) 269-2700.

Mike LaRocco, winner of the second EA Supercross at Anaheim Stadium, is expected to be out eight to 10 weeks after breaking his right wrist in an accident last Saturday night in Minneapolis when he and Travis Pastrana tangled. Ricky Carmichael won his third race and passed LaRocco for second place in points behind France’s David Vuillemin. Round 8 will be in Atlanta on Saturday night.

When the Rolex Sports Car Series comes to California Speedway on March 22-24, its program will include 30-minute Ferrari Challenge races on Friday and Saturday, the 400-mile Rolex series on Saturday and a 250-mile Grand-Am Cup race at 8 a.m. Sunday before the 400-mile IRL race.