With most of the motorsports world on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve decided to highlight some of the sport’s legends on a daily basis. We begin each story within the pages of National Speed Sport News.
Danny Lasoski is one of the rare race car drivers who earned success and popularity on the local, regional and national level.
Starting his career at Saline County Speedway in his native Missouri in 1979, Lasoski went on to win the 2001 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series championship and topped the prestigious Knoxville Nationals four times.
Lasoski was a proven winner on the local level, claiming his first Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway track title with team owner Max Rogers in 1986.
But everything changed when he hooked up with Guy Forbrook in 1988. Over the next five years, the duo combined for 100 victories and won four track championships at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway and three at Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota.
Lasoski won a sixth Knoxville title with car owner Gil Sonner in 1994 and reunited with Forbrook to win a seventh crown at the historic half-mile track I 1996.
After joining Dennis Roth’s Beef Packer’s team in 1998, Lasoski drove to his first Knoxville Nationals triumph. He won 32 World of Outlaws races with the team through 2000.
But in 2001 he joined Tony Stewart Racing and the team won 96 races together, including the Knoxville Nationals in 2001, ’03 and ’04. The team won the WoO title in 2001.
Lasoski split with TSR after the 2005 season and went back to work for Roth Racing, where he continued to win races, including the 2006 National Sprint Tour title.
He reunited with Forbrook again and won an eighth Knoxville track title in 2008.
Lasoski also earned an International Race of Champions victory at Texas Motor Speedway in 2004.
Lasoski won 122 World of Outlaws features, which ranks sixth all time. He also won 37 features with the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions and 112 Knoxville Raceway main events.
He was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2001. Today, he works as team manager and driving coach for aspiring sprint car racer Mason Daniel.
