Racing is an addiction and there is no cure.
Once the sport is in your blood, it is most often a life-long passion.
“I’ve never in my lifetime had a cigarette to my mouth,” Hall of Fame sprint car driver Danny Lasoski said. “I’ve never smoked dope. The worst pill I took was when I wrecked, I took Vicodin and that just made me sleep. I drink a little bit socially. I can tell you this. They have a thing for rehab for drug users and AA for alcoholics. They don’t have a thing for retired race car drivers. Driving these race cars is a drug.”
Lasoski, who refuses to say he is retired despite not racing competitively since 2017, is among a group of veteran racers who have struggled to adjust to life without a helmet.
“If I had an opportunity, I’d get back in it,” he said. “That wouldn’t go well with my family.”
Lasoski has continued to be at a race track weekly for the last five years. He was hired as the crew chief and driver coach for Mason Daniel — a California racer who relocated to Lasoski’s home state of Missouri to start the 2018 season. The team ran 360 and 410 sprint car races in the Midwest for two years before joining the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series in 2020. Unfortunately, concussions ended Daniel’s professional driving career midway through the 2021 season.
Lasoski joined Brian Brown Racing — an established team owned and driven by his nephew, Brian Brown.
“I’m the crew chief, run the team and also the coach,” Lasoski said. “Everything I’ve felt, I’ve run it by him. I’m probably better at running the bottom. I’m more of a two-footed racer. He’s getting better and better and I think the results have shown.
“A successful race team is nothing more than a big puzzle and in that big puzzle it all has to fit. You have to have partners who believe in you, a driver who wants to win, a crew chief and crew. If one piece doesn’t fit, it won’t be successful.”
Early this season one of the hottest topics in racing was who would take over the vacant Sides Motorsports No. 7s seat on the World of Outlaws circuit after veteran racer Jason Sides said he needed to step away from the driving side while awaiting hip surgery, which he hopes will occur by the end of this year.
Sides selected Robbie Price and the duo have been on the road together since May. While Sides hasn’t raced since the spring, he has been the one driving the truck and trailer to each race, going to the car wash each night and serving as the crew chief and driver coach for Price.
“For as much work as it involves and not getting to drive, it kind of sucks,” Sides quipped. “It’s a little different, quite a bit different. It’s kind of neat. I’ve been on all sides of it. It’s been nice to see Robbie go to different tracks, like myself back in the day, seeing someone get better and better and progress.
“I know that some nights he’s going to struggle. Some of the tracks I can coach him a little where he needs to be, concentrate on the bottom at this track or the top at this track. He’s raced a few years so he knows.”
Sides noted there are many possibilities for next season, but no matter what direction the team selects he isn’t done racing.
“If I can get the hip done and everything turns out all right, my plan is to get back in the car,” he said.
And after a year of dipping his toe into the driver coach and crew chief role, Sides said that could very well be the long-term plan for Sides Motorsports after he officially retires.
“I’ve built everything around racing, so I feel like I’ll always be involved,” he said.
Two-time World of Outlaws champion Jason Meyers is a rarity in the sport. He retired from full-time competition in 2012 on the heels of back-to-back World of Outlaws titles.
“As everybody knows it never leaves your blood,” he said. “I stepped away to pursue other things in my life, being my family and my kids and being able to be home. I remember saying I was going to go home for five years, build a business and then become a car owner. It took me 10 years but here we are.
“(Before retiring) I was a part owner in the team and operated the team and I also got to be the driver. All of those aspects I enjoyed equally from the marketing to the ingenuity of the cars and the engine to building the teams and driving. I enjoyed them all. Even though I don’t drive now, I still have the opportunity to be involved as an owner in the ingenuity of the cars. An aspect now is I get to coach some younger drivers.”
Meyers raced sporadically for various car owners for a few years before making his final start in 2018. He formed his own team and last year added up-and-coming racer Corey Day as the pilot.
“People always ask me, ‘Do you miss it?’” Meyers said. “I don’t necessarily miss being in the car. I loved driving. I’m so grateful I had that opportunity to drive at that level with the World of Outlaws. I’ve moved on, but you do miss the people. You miss the camaraderie you’ve made all over the country and the world.
“By putting this team on a small scale the last four or five years … we started messing with it in 2016-’17. We did some stuff with Jake Hagopian. It was fun to give him the opportunity. In the meantime, Corey was coming up. He’s the son of Ronnie Day, who is someone I looked up to coming up through the ranks. I think I finally decided to admit to my wife and myself that we were really going to do this again. What pushed me toward that was the people.”
The results have been staggering this season as Day captured back-to-back runner-up results with the World of Outlaws, becoming the youngest driver to earn a podium finish with the series less than four months after he turned 16 years old — the minimum age allowed to race with the Outlaws.
He has been victorious in his home state of California and even captured a victory during his debut at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D.
Meyers has enjoyed the role of driver coach, a way of giving back to the sport that he’s focused on for many years.
“I got to be involved with Carson Macedo for a little bit,” he said. “I drove for Tarlton and got to work with him and watch him cut his teeth and become the potential championship driver that he is. It’s more fulfilling than anything. I really feel one of the greatest, most enjoyable things to do in life is to pass on things that were passed on to you and you learned. I get to do that with my kids.
“In racing, I’m getting to do that too with some of the younger drivers, things that were shared with me by people like Andy Hillenburg and Brent Kaeding, Steve Kent, people who really spent time with me and taught me things. I’m grateful for that and to do that now is fulfilling and rewarding for me.
“The good thing for Corey is he has me in his corner and his dad, who is an accomplished racer,” Meyers continued. “We don’t run the car without one of his parents being at the track. The father-son relationship is always challenging. Ronnie has done a great job. My role is to step in as the coach who isn’t dad, guide him how to approach the race itself, the race evening, what’s important as far as the psychological and physical side of things as well as how to handle the stress. In today’s world it’s difficult.”
Racing is an adult sport that is intertwined with youth, which isn’t lost on Meyers.
“Ultimately, we want to take Corey to the ultimate level, which would be the Outlaws level,” he said. “He’s only a junior in high school. Our ideas of what we’re doing is based on his school schedule and life as a kid. I told him a couple of weeks ago you won’t race my car on the night of your senior prom. It’s important to remain a kid and live your life. I’m a big believer you’re not going to quit school to go racing. There are rules to being part of this race team.
“It’s a commitment. It’s ironic because in one breath it’s important to stay a kid, but when you put that helmet on, you’re racing with adults. You try to maintain your childhood, but when you get in that car you’re racing grown people and for adult money.”
Meyers added he is more involved in the sport than he anticipated, but that he is not going to suit up again.
“My helmet’s on the shelf,” he stated. “I do enjoy the sport. We didn’t think we’d be here a couple of years ago. Our intention is to build a plan over the next three years to be a full-time Outlaws team with Corey as our driver. We want to take Corey to the Outlaws level and win a championship.”
The next generation is now embarking upon the life-long passion, bolstered by the guidance from many of the sport’s renowned racers.