Commerce City: Race report

Dollansky Wins Rocky Mountain

Commerce City, CO August 17, 2004 Craig Dollansky opened the World of Outlaws eleventh annual Wild Wild Northwest Tour with a flag to flag victory in the 35 lap A-feature Tuesday night at Rocky Mountain Speedway. Dollansky's fifth win of the season came in front of a standing-room-only crowd for the series' only stop in the mile-high city.

"This is my first time racing in Denver, and I'm pretty winded," Dollansky said. "It's definitely a little harder to breathe up here. I just want to thank everyone for coming out here tonight--I hope they saw a good show."

The evening began with 13 driver breaking Danny Lasoski's year old track record, with Lasoski re-claiming the mark late in qualifying, turning a 12.014 second, 112.367 mph lap around the 3/8 mile oval.

Dollansky, still sporting the Hawaiian Tropic paint scheme that earned the "best appearing" honors at the Knoxville Nationals last week, earned the pole position for the A-main by driving his VMAC, Karavan Motorsports Maxim to victory in the first dash.

"The Crowd Pleaser" raced outside front row starter Danny Wood (substituting for the injured Paul McMahan in the Selma Shell 11H) into turn one at the start of the main event, with Dollansky getting the edge as they exited turn two. A frontstretch tangle involving Bryan Jamison and Eric Miller brought out the caution flag with one lap complete, and second fastest qualifier Kraig Kinser got around Wood to claim second on the restart.

Dollansky was 10 carlengths in front of Kinser when he reached slower traffic on lap 5. Danny Lasoski moved by Jason Sides for fifth on lap 6, then took 4th from Jonathan Allard a lap later. Allard, making his first World of Outlaws start since Dodge City Raceway Park on June 22, brought out the caution flag with a turn two spin on lap 13, allowing Kinser to start directly behind leader Dollansky.

"There were a lot of lapped cars out there, and I saw the 11K (Kraig Kinser) on the line-up board behind me there under caution, and he's a helluva racer, so I knew I really had to get after it to stay out front," Dollansky said after the race.

Steve Kinser, whose Scott Gerkin-led Quaker State crew changed engines twice through the course of the evening, moved to seventh by passing Tim Kaeding on lap 21, then got sixth from Jason Sides on lap 24.

Heavy traffic allowed Kraig Kinser to close to within two carlengths of Dollansky with 5 laps remaining, but the inaugural Gumout series champion held on to win by a carlength, with Steve Kinser passing Joey Saldana for 5th in the final corner.

Dollansky, who missed most of the 2003 season after suffering serious injuries at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was thinking of another injured driver in victory lane:

"I just want to say that all of our thoughts and prayers are with Curtis Boyer who got hurt at Knoxville, and we're pulling for him."

"I knew Kraig (Kinser) would be coming, but I can't say enough about these Hoosier tires, Charlie Garrett racing engines, and Pro shocks--all of the guys that stick by this team. Scott Boyd has just been the best car owner a guy could hope for--he gives us everything we need to run up front, and I wish he could be here with us, but I know he and my family are back home listening (on SCN). DJ Lindsey my crew chief does a great job, and Chris (Bonilla), and everyone who makes this all possible: VMAC,Karavan Motorsports, and Hawaiian Tropic-- they came on board for Nationals, and we hope they stick with us."

-woo-