By: Ashley Iwanski
(West Salem, WI – May 22, 2010) The fans that packed the stands were on their feet as Steve Carlson and Brent Kirchner finished side-by-side in the Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Models feature. Carlson crossed the line first to win his second feature in a row.
A late race caution brought Carlson to the front of the field in order to challenge Kirchner for the lead. Carlson was running in fifth but was able to move up to second under the double-file restart. From there Carlson was able to pass Kirchner on the outside to take the win. Kirchner didn’t just hand it over though. He was on Carlson’s bumper in turns three of the last lap. Kirchner moved to the outside to try to get around Carlson, but ran out of time as they came to the finish line.
The double-file restart definitely worked to Carlson’s advantage tonight. “I took a fifth place car and won the race with it,” Carlson said. But he may not have won if Kirchner had a little more time to get around him; “The next lap I could have caught him,” Kirchner said.
Kirchner took over the lead early in the race and held onto it through the first caution that came out when Harley Jankowski and Kyle Peters wrecked in turn four. On the first restart the cars were going three-wide through turns one and two without any carnage. Two laps later Jankowski was involved in another wreck in turn four with Dean Cota. This was the end of Kirchner’s lead. Carlson took over after the restart and finished half a car-length ahead of Kirchner. Shawn Pfaff, Todd Korish and Brad Powell followed to round out the top five.
Jimmy Gilster took the lead with seven laps to go in the North Country Contractors Sportsmen feature. Gilster managed to work his way out of a group of congested cars at the start of the race. After an early caution that brought the field back together, Gilster restarted second. He made quick work of then leader Jerrod Loging to take the lead and the win. Loging finished second. It wasn’t over when the checkered flag came out though. Bill Martin and Mark Challet got together after crossing the finish line and slammed into the wall in turn one. Marin finished 16th and Challet 17th.
Josh Inglett and Chris Weber managed to hold onto their cars through 15 laps of chaos to finish first and second respectively in the United Auto Supply Thunderstox feature. Drivers were being black flagged left and right. Cars were being pushed and shoved all over the track. Charles Vian Jr. and Brad Warthan had come around to the checkered flag ahead of Inglett and Weber, but both Vian Jr. and Warthan were later disqualified, giving the race win to Inglett.
The Window World Hornets heats started the night and it wasn’t very long, only two laps, before a car ended up in the wall. When the features rolled around cars were all over the track, including the infield. Andy Moore walked away with a win in the first of two Hornet features. Cam Dezelske took the second feature win.
Saturday May 29th is another exciting night of racing, including a Boat Race. Local DJ’s will rig boats to the backs of their cars and try to get them around the track as best as possible without causing too much damage. There will be double the fun on Saturday, June 5th with two 20-lap Late Model features along with the Sportsmen and Thunderstox 15-lap features. Then on Friday, June 11th is another exciting Friday Night Street Drags sponsored by Unique Edge Customizing. A minimum of ten brackets will be available for entry.
Find the LaCrosse Speedway and become a fan on Facebook, or sign up for our weekly email newsletters at the speedway’s official website. For more information about LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway, call the Speedway office at (608) 786-1525 or visit www.lacrossespeedway.com.
This article was posted to the website on May 23rd, 2010
