STEVE KINSER & DENNY SOLITS CELEBRATE MEMORIAL DAY IN VICTORY LANE
May 27, 2002
WEST LEBANON, NY - The Pennzoil World of Outlaws made their annual Memorial
Day visit to Lebanon Valley on Monday night. A sellout crowd saw "The King of
the Outlaws", Steve Kinser take the victory in the 25-lap Outlaw feature. It
was Kinser's seventh World of Outlaw A-main victory of the season. The DIRT
modifieds were also on hand Monday night and they ran a 30-lap feature.
Veteran campaigner, Denny Soltis took the victory in the modified main, his
last victory at the speedway came in 1990. The great folks at CARQUEST AUTO
PARTS provided us with the super holiday night of racing.
Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski led twenty-two sprinters to the green flag
in the 25-lap feature. The 2001 Outlaw champion, Lasoski, was able to grab
the lead and motored away quickly. The pace was lightning fast as Lasoski
encountered lapped traffic by lap five. The allowed Steve Kinser to gain some
ground on the leader. "Pennsylvania Posse" regular, Lance Dewease set fast
time during time trials Monday night, but started seventh. He moved into the
top five just before the halfway point of the feature. Brad Furr had a top
five performance going, but faded in the middle of the race and retired from
the event on lap 17. The first of only two caution flags came on lap 18 when
Danny Wood detonated a motor while running third.
The last caution of the race came on the very next lap as the leader;
Lasoski came to a stop on the backstretch. A blown motor ended Lasoski's
chance at his first career victory at Lebanon Valley. Kinser inherited the
lead as a result of Lasoski's misfortune. Dollansky and Dewease now sat
second and third. The only problem Kinser had in the final laps is when he
tagged the turn two wall on lap 22. Fortunately for Kinser his was able to
continue without losing the front spot. It was Steve Kinser's first victory
at Lebanon Valley since 1992 and his seventh career victory at Lebanon
Valley. He won the first World of Outlaw feature at Lebanon Valley back in
1980.
Denny Soltis took the lead from Paul Gilardi on the first lap of the
30-lap feature. Dave Leckonby followed closely in second. Mike King moved
into fifth on lap five. Disaster was narrowly avoided on lap five as Chris
Moore and King hooked bumpers going down the backstretch. They were able to
separate without causing any problems, but the caution flag came out as a
precautionary measure. The caution flag came out for the second time on lap
15 when Charlie Hume spun out in turn two. The top five at the halfway point
was Soltis, Leckonby, Hector Stratton, Rob Pitcher and Sparky Lowe.
Brett Hearn and Kenny Tremont were gradual coming up through the field
and were racing for seventh on lap 16. Stratton briefly made a bid for
second, but was thwarted by a caution as Rich Ricci Jr smacked the wall hard
in turn three. According to the pit road report Ricci said he felt a
vibration going down the backstretch and had no brakes going into turn three.
He spun the car to avoid a head on hit collision with the wall. The ambulance
was dispatched to the scene, fortunately Ricci only suffered a bump on his
knee. Hearn moved up to sixth on the restart with Tremont right behind in
seventh. Tremont made his way past Hearn in turn three on lap 25 and was able
to take fifth with five laps remaining.
Soltis was not to be denied the victory on this night, just two nights
after he blew a motor while leading the modified feature. Soltis was very
happy in victory lane, but could not believe that the motor he had in the car
was strong enough to win. Leckonby had his best finish of the season in
second. Stratton was third, Pitcher fourth and Tremont rounded out the top
five. Hearn is now just two points ahead of Tremont in the battle for the
2002 modified point championship.
PENNZOIL WORLD OF OUTLAWS PRESENTED BY CARQUEST AUTO PARTS A-main (25
laps)--1) Steve Kinser 2) Craig Dollansky 3) Lance Dewease 4) Donny Schatz
5) Daryn Pittman 6) Tim Shaffer 7) Stevie Smith 8) Joey Saldana 9) Mark
Kinser 10) Fred Rahmer 11) Randy Hannagan 12) Dick Spadaro 13) Danny
Lasoski 14) Danny Wood 15) Brad Furr 16) Mike Lauterborn 17) Billy Wolf
18) John Karklin 19) Doug Emery 20) Bob Bennett 21) Jeff Van Dusen 22)
Mike Miller
CARQUEST AUTO PARTS MODIFIED RESULTS (30 LAPS) - 1) Denny Soltis, 2) Dave
Leckonby, 3) Hector Stratton, 4) Rob Pitcher, 5) Kenny Tremont Jr, 6) Sparky
Lowe, 7) Brett Hearn, 8) Chris Moore, 9) Eddie Marshall, 10) J.R. Heffner,
11) Andy Bachetti, 12) John Hewitt, 13) Matt Quinn, 14) Jason Goff, 15)
Donnie Corellis, 16) Mike King, 17) Russ Reckner, 18) John Alberti, 19) Steve
Devine, 20) Stanley Wetmore, 21) Hawley Smith, 22) Dave Mosher, 23) Charlie
Humes, 24) Jeremy Markle, 25) David Sanchez, 26) Rich Ricci Jr, 27) Al McCoy,
28) Paul Gilardi, 29) John G. Wolfe, 30) Guy Sheldon